DEATH of capital letters

[Txam]

I was reading in an American Harper Fiction edition and found a quote by Death on page 12 that was partly in lower case and missing the quotation marks.
Then Death said, YOU SURELY ARE NOT ASKING ME to grant a wish?
I would assume that to be a typo. Has anyone else run across this type of error in one of the Discworld books?

 

[AgProv]

This isn't a book like Reaper Man" where Death is oscillating between being Death and being merely human? I remember his dialogue goes from capitals to lowercase, sometimes in the same sentence, to mark this.

 

[Txam]

This was in my copy of Witches Abroad. Have not read Reaper Man yet.

 

[Tonyblack]

Welcome to the site Txam!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was a type setting error. Some of the books have errors that are quite glaring.

 

[Dotsie]

By coincidence, I read that line only a couple of days ago. Mine was set fine, all caps.

Welcome to the site!

 

[KingCarrot]

By coincidence, I read that line only a couple of days ago. Mine was set fine, all caps.

Welcome to the site!

Yeah, we all believe that you read that by chance. (we both know you sought it out when the overwhelming urge to prove him wrong arose)

 

[Dotsie]

Now I'm suppressing an overwhelming urge to prove you wrong, by pointing to my post on the "What are you reading?" thread. But I won't. Aargh!

 

[KingCarrot]

 

[Txam]

Dotsie, is your copy a British or American edition?

 

[Dotsie]

It's British, the Corgi paperback.

 

[AgProv]

the American edition of "Good Omens". ... it's obviously been Americanised, as some of the detail, esp in the footnotes, has been completely changed, presumably to make more sense to the USA readership.

Whoever did the rewrite into American also thought they were correcting a (non-existant) error on page 32, concerning the Arrangement between Crowley and Aziraphale...
If one was going to Hull for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip across the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstacy....

In the American paperback, somebody unaware of the existence of a fishing port city on the Humber estuary, on the Yorkshire-Lincolnshire border, has altered this to read
If one was going to Hell for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip across the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstacy....

 

[Dotsie]

I had a friend lived in Hull, and she used to say "It's not hell, but you can see it from here".

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I've heard it's quite grim there, a lot of unemployed people and not must hope of getting a job.

 

[raptornx01]

the American edition of "Good Omens". ... it's obviously been Americanised, as some of the detail, esp in the footnotes, has been completely changed, presumably to make more sense to the USA readership.

Whoever did the rewrite into American also thought they were correcting a (non-existant) error on page 32, concerning the Arrangement between Crowley and Aziraphale...
If one was going to Hull for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip across the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstacy....

In the American paperback, somebody unaware of the existence of a fishing port city on the Humber estuary, on the Yorkshire-Lincolnshire border, has altered this to read
If one was going to Hell for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip across the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstacy....

...

...

...Why?

I mean, i'm as american as they come, but I had no problems understanding what was going on in any of the books. I mean, ok, I didn't know what a Privy was, but I figured it out after a fashion.

 

[simmonds91]

It also doesn't make much sense either. Crowley and certainly not Aziraphale simply "visits" hell, especially not for a "quick temptation" and even then, why would one go to hell and another merely "across the city" for the "Devine ecstacy"? It would make more sense if "across the city" was changed to Heaven if they put it that way.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

simmonds - there's a gritty, 'economically depressed' city in the NE of England called Hull. There's lots of witty banter along the lines of 'I've just been to Hull and back' hence the elaboration and nothing to do with heaven in any sense

 

[Dotsie]

I would guess that simmonds knows that, and the "doesn't make sense" refers to the American translation As in, you can go to Hull then to another city, or you could go to heaven and hell, but why would you go to Hull then heaven?

 

[simmonds91]

I didn't know about the "witty banter" Jan van quirm referred to, if the Americans changed the wording in a way that made use of the witty banter so everyone knew about it then it could work, as it is it makes no sense to someone like me who didn't/doesn't know about this joke about hull.

 

[Dotsie]

Nah, in the UK southerners think that all the northern cities are depressed. They're afraid of us :twisted:

 

[Square12]

I've only ever been through Hull and even then only once on the way back from Scarborough on the day of Diana's funeral. Top tip if you ever need to drive half way across the country do it on the day of a national treasures funeral. Easiest run we ever had, thanks Parisian tunnel!