3 replies to this topic

[Trident]

SILHOUETTE MAN's clever and informative work about edited versions of Fleming's books made me wonder. Sometime ago I've read on CBn about Bond in 'Licence Renewed' wearing Nike sport shoes. My own copy of LR states Bond wearing Adidas sport shoes (Charter Novel paperback 1987; p.112). Back then I chalked that down as a normal error. Now I'm not so sure about that. Could it have been that there were different versions for different markets i.e. a 'European/Adidas' and a 'US/Nike' version???

Another concern is Bond's watch: The Charter Novel paperback states an 'old and valued gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual' (p. 7). My German copy omits the gold making the Rolex Oyster Perpetual simply old and valued.

Edited by Trident, 24 May 2007 - 07:52 PM.

[spynovelfan]

I have the Berkley paperback (the one with the Brosnan-lookalike silhouette on the cover): gold watch and Adidas shoes, same page references as you so I guess it's the same edition?

I was about to ask you in the other thread how the German translations dealt with all the neo-Nazi stuff. Is that all intact? Presumably it was less sensitive by then.

[Trident]

Seems like the same edition then.

The Nazi stuff was much less sensitive during the 80's and I don't think Garner's preferences were regarded as calling for editing/censoring any more. 'Icebraker'/'Operation Eisbrecher' was translated with no omissions that I'm aware of. Ironically, Neonazis became a much more severe security risk in Germany after Gardner's tenure was over. As far as I can tell, Nazis are still far from taking over the country. On the other hand they never entirely disappeared from the radar of political extremism during the last 50 years, at times even staging bomb attacks such as the one at the Oktoberfest in Munich.

No, at least since the early 80's publishers in Germany haven't any problems with books that concern themselves with nazism/antisemitism/German war-crimes during WWII and afterwards. The cuttings in Fleming's books seem almost ridiculous nowadays.

[Trident]

Somewhere in another thread I stated wrongly that Gardner's books have been translated only up to 'No Deals, Mr. Bond'. CBn member Trempo kindly informed me that 'Scorpius', 'Win, Lose Or Die' and 'Brokenclaw' (along with the novelizations) have also been translated but slipped my perception. Well, to tell the truth, I wasn't looking very hard in the first place after having read the originals. Still, it's remarkable that these books actually have seen a German edition as the competition in the paperback market in Germany generally is very fierce and Gardner's name wasn't a safe bet for the publishers in Germany.