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Red Sea Sharks: What does "Coke en Stock" mean?

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ClaroQuerido
Member
#21 · Posted: 18 Aug 2005 16:36
In the Brazilian Portuguese version the title is Perdidos no Mar (Lost at Sea) which is really vague and lame (and not particulalry relevant).
Curiously, in the European Portuguese it is Carvão no Porão which is roughly "Coke in the Hold", like the original.
Karaboudjan
Member
#22 · Posted: 20 Aug 2005 10:42
Maybe one of the reasons why the English title was changed was the British/American need (greater than anywhere else, it seems) to be politically correct. Rereading the comics, I was actually quite surprised that Archie, who I love dearly, can be very racist at times- as well as his famous "Arrest that Negro!" line in The Crab with the Golden Claws and calling him a 'black bird' (amongst other things), in The Red Sea Sharks he actually calls the pilgrims "Addle-pated lumps of anthracite" (or something similar) to their faces. I know this is more a reflection of his tendency to use colourful language than racism on his or Hergé's part, but it does seem questionable.

Anyway... sorry for wandering off topic. Maybe the title change was an attempt on the translators' part to distance themselves from the implied racism in the use of the word 'coke'?
It's not surprising that Alan and Co., being bad guys, should be racists and categorize people in terms of their colour and view them as cargo, but this would not be a desirable message to promote to readers - not least young children reading the story for the first time.
So by changing it to the seemingly less relevant but also less problematic Red Sea Sharks, they averted this dilemma...

And yes, The Calculus Affair does seem strange if you're not used to the word being used in that context (and one of my fan fictions is called The Calculus Wedding in deliberate homage to that), but reading around political intrigues, it is often used e.g. the Dreyfus Affair. And besides, would young kids know what the adulterous meaning of the word was?
Darren
Member
#23 · Posted: 22 Aug 2005 16:52
Titles in different languages:

English - Red Sea Sharks
French - Coke en stock
Afrikaans - Die Haaie van die Rooi See
Asturian - Stock de Cok
Basque - Ikatz stocka
Bengali - Lohit Sagarer Hangar
Brazilian Portugese - Perdidos do mar
Breton - Rinkined ar mor ruz
Catalan - Stoc de coc
Chinese (Mandarin) - Hong hai sha yü
Danish - Koks i lasten
Dutch - Cokes in voorraad
Farsi - Kusih, ha-yi darya-yi surkh
Finnish - Seikkailu punaisella merell'a'
Galician - Stock de coque
German - Kohle an Bord
Greek - Karvouna sto Ampari
Hebrew - Krishey Ha'yam Ha 'daom
Icelandic - Kolafarmurinn
Indonesian - Hiu-hiu laut merah
Italian - Coke in stock
Japanese - Koukai no same
Norwegian - Koks i lasten
Portuguese - Carvão no porão
Spanish - stock de coque
Swedish - Koks i lasten
Turkish - Ambardaki kömür
Vietnamese - Ca map vung hong hai

Mostly, these seem be derived from the French title. The German one certainly is (I speak It), as are presumably the Basque, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Galician, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. The only one that appears to derive from the English is the Afrikaans version.
snafu
Member
#24 · Posted: 22 Aug 2005 18:53
It looks like English is the language that is really different from the others. At the same time, however, since political correctness is uniquely American, we'd expect only American books to have the title "The Red Sea Sharks" while those in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, etc. using "Coke in Stock". Sensitivities probably only explain part of the story in the deviation of English. Any other possible suggestions? Could there be something with Coca Cola?
jock123
Moderator
#25 · Posted: 27 Aug 2005 00:17
Karaboudjan:
he British/American need (greater than anywhere else, it seems) to be politically correct.

Sorry, no, it wasn't a consideration. The title change to Red Sea Sharks was purely and simply a matter of marketing - it was judged to be more exciting.

Michael Turner wanted the books to have the best chance of being successful, and his opinion (as an authority in UK publishing) was that Coke on Board or somesuch just didn't have the all-important appeal which a book needs to have to be a winner. The same applies to Prisoners of the Sun rather than Temple - it's to make the title more gripping.

He talked about it at Greenwich.
gorfdota
Member
#26 · Posted: 6 Nov 2013 16:59
just for the record, the original Greek title, way back in 1968, was "The Black Cargo" ("To Mauro Fortio"). Later it was translated as "The Red Sea Sharks" ("Oi Karcharies tes Maures Thalassas") but the most recent translation is "Coal in the Hold" ("Karvouno sto Ambari"). Sorry for the slightly irrelevant information, but couldn't resist sharing

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