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> As to "translating" the book (I guess he meant localizing, huh?),
I had to read that "translating" passage several times to try and figure out
why he thought a book needed to be translated from English to English. (It
was midnight, so I was a little slow.) "Localizing" makes so much more
sense.
> I hardly
> think that's significant. Yes, there are differences in
> British and American
> English -- don't we all understand them by now? And in
> today's shrinking
> world where many of us write for global markets, the
> distinction between the
> two dialects becomes less and less important.
Menand seemed to be picking on Truss over dialect issues because of Menand's
view that Truss made inaccurate comments about American English. I guess
Menand wanted to feel like a revolutionary fighting against the British
woman that wanted to criticize American English. Plus, the book is a
best-seller and seems to be favored by conservatives for some reason. Maybe
those facts inspired Menand's fight.
It does seem odd that Menand would criticize one person's claims about
punctuation rules and subsequent violation of those rules and then lead into
a discussion about voice and how punctuation use can influence voice.
Presumably, breaking rules about punctuation can be a vehicle for the voice
of the document. But if this was Menand's position, then couldn't Truss be
abiding by Menand's 'rules' when she breaks the rules that she states? So
he seems to argue against her, but then he seems to support by giving
examples when rule-breaking is acceptable. Although, from Menand's review,
it seems that Truss was arguing against rule-breakers, while she herself was
a rule-breaker, so she sounds hypocritical.
Menand may take issue with Truss, but I think that his review of her work
will do more to help her than hurt her. I imagine that the original 1.5
million sale mark will rise a bit after this.
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