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Pedants' corner

Hijacking PC for my own ends

6 replies

jessia · 28/02/2008 09:29

I need to devise a title for a popular history book I'm translating. I want it to be a touch retro (tongue in cheek) because the cover design is a bit Python-esque.
So I came up with:
An everyman's history of [town].
But now I have several doubts:
Is it too un-PC? (thought maybe not in view of all the back to 1950's Girls' World/Boys' World stuff I saw on the net at Christmas)
How do you use "everyman's" as an adj. (with or without the indef. art.?)? Maybe it should be "Everyman's history of"

I tried it out on a fellow translator but he didn't get it and said: "What about 'A history of [town] for everyone'?". My point (apart from the fact that it isn't catchy) was that it isn't for everyone - there are far more people that won't want to read it than will.
Please help, all you wonderful pedants after my own heart...

OP posts:
littlelapin · 28/02/2008 09:36

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scaryteacher · 28/02/2008 10:18

Howabout '[Town] - a History'?

jessia · 28/02/2008 10:31

Scary - what a good thought. Nice and simple. Thank you! The "for everyone" bit is in the orig but I don't think it's too much of a departure to leave it out.
Lapin - don't think that was quite what I was getting at but thanks anyway.

OP posts:
littlelapin · 28/02/2008 10:35

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jessia · 28/02/2008 11:42

There there, lapin, don't take on so. The next time I translate a populist history of my city your suggestion will be perfect . It's just that I'm in a highly politically charged, ex-communist country and labels like that tend to get taken a leetle seriously, especially since the last govt. got kicked out for being mega-populist.

OP posts:
littlelapin · 28/02/2008 12:52

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