Why edit the Guardian title from the original? Isn't the fact that it's Philip Pullman being quoted that gives the quote depth and resonance and even more meaning than its unattributed version above?
>I also removed the author name from the title. For the most part, we keep author names out of HN titles. It's a trick I learned from pg for keeping the focus on content rather than personalities. Of course there are always exceptions.
—dang, April 2, 2014
>Generally we remove author names from titles.
—dang, June 12, 2021
In this case, the content of the title gains its power from the author.
>Of course there are always exceptions.
This should be one of those exceptions and Philip Pullman's name restored to the title as originally published.
I agree that it should have been included, as the article is much more about 'the books of his life' than this one particular book. I expected to read more about Middlemarch but it ended up just being a single paragraph about the quite common experience of Middlemarch being 'a book for adults'.
And I personally wouldn't have clicked through or opened the thread if Pullman's name had been in the title (I dislike him as an author and as a public opinion sharer). I found the rest of the article uninteresting and uninspiring (and the experience with MM so commonly expressed to now be mundane).
