Comment by rahimnathwani
7 days ago
I'm not sure we always want 'works'. Sometimes different 'expressions' of the same work are different enough that they don't have the same value.
For example, compare the most recent edition of 'Straight and crooked thinking' with the one published in 1930.
I don't know that work, but I agree with you in general because of forewords etc. Or even appendices. And translations by different translators.
I "grew up with" a specific translation of Lord of the Rings into Norwegian, for example. There are two. They are very different. But the editions also differ in whether they include the appendices, whose illustrations are used, and more.
>They are very different.
Are we talking material plot or characterisation changes?
No, but many of the names are different, and stylistically they are very different. Depending on whether a translation tries to be fairly literal, or sound as if it is written for the language it is translated to the way the result feels will be very different.
An example is the name Bilbo Baggins. In the "canonical" Norwegian translation, he's become Bilbo Lommelun. "Lomme" means pocket, and "lun" means snug, warm, or comfortable. It's not literal, but it fits the nature of hobbits well while referencing the "bag" in Baggins", and the connotations comes immediately in Norwegian without having try to deconstruct the name.
In this case, I think the newer "canonical" translation is generally considered unambiguously the best, but people often have favourite translations. E.g. my favourite Scandinavian translation of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass isn't even Norwegian, but an old Danish translation which sounds much "softer" (it's hard to explain)
I know Norwegian also has two different written standards, found an example that demonstrates it:
>English: I will not tell anyone the secret.
>Bokmål: Jeg skal ikke fortelle hemmeligheten til noen.
>Nynorsk: Eg skal ikkje fortelja løyndomen til nokon.
Source: https://www.visitnorway.com/typically-norwegian/norwegian-la...
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The most obvious example of this is the innumerable[0] versions of the Christian bible.
[0] Before anyone says it, I'm sure some bible nerd has numbered them, it's hyperbole.
I think the point is, you want a single work when searching.
Then click on the item and drill down into editions sorted by year, or whatever.
But when you're doing search, it's terrible UX to be flooding it with tens of editions mixed in with other things with similar titles.