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Forktoss posted:I'm in need of a bit of Real Literature advice. I'm a Finnish translator and I've been asked to provide a sample translation of a few pages from an English-language novel to send to publishers (not necessarily as an offer to translate that specific book as a whole for publication, but more as a sample of my writing so that they may assign some other translation work already in the pipeline for me) . I've already translated a passage from The Woman Warrior, but I was told it's too boring and heavy-going for busy publishing people to read on their lunchbreak (which, yeah, it probably is). Aquarium by David Vann
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Mar 15, 2017 08:57
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fridge corn posted:Aquarium by David Vann Beat me to it
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Mar 15, 2017 13:54
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More specifically - the this is what my childhood was like scat section.
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Mar 15, 2017 14:23
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Forktoss posted:I'm in need of a bit of Real Literature advice. I'm a Finnish translator and I've been asked to provide a sample translation of a few pages from an English-language novel to send to publishers (not necessarily as an offer to translate that specific book as a whole for publication, but more as a sample of my writing so that they may assign some other translation work already in the pipeline for me) . I've already translated a passage from The Woman Warrior, but I was told it's too boring and heavy-going for busy publishing people to read on their lunchbreak (which, yeah, it probably is). Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel, though I dunno how obscure you want...
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Mar 15, 2017 15:52
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fridge corn posted:Aquarium by David Vann
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Mar 16, 2017 02:22
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Franchescanado posted:Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel, though I dunno how obscure you want... Thanks! I'll check that out. Obscure probably isn't the right word, really, I just meant something that isn't necessarily a big, obvious classic and more like fridge corn posted:Aquarium by David Vann
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Mar 17, 2017 09:23
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Aquarium is definitely the better book, but it does not have action scenes and I wouldn't say it's written for entertainment, while both of those apply to Station Eleven.
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Mar 17, 2017 12:56
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David Vann also sells better in Europe than the US and has won awards on Spain and France so your publisher will probably try to translate eventually anyways
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Mar 17, 2017 15:25
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I'm about 3/4ths of the way through Obscene Bird of Night and it is blowing my mind. Highly recommend it. I am also going to pick up Underground Railroad from the library this afternoon since my hold finally came in. Pretty hyped about that.
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Mar 17, 2017 15:58
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Guy A. Person posted:I am also going to pick up Underground Railroad from the library this afternoon since my hold finally came in. Pretty hyped about that. Very interested in your thoughts on this. It's certainly good, but devoid of any joy. Reminded me of McCarthy.
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Mar 17, 2017 16:04
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Guy A. Person posted:I'm about 3/4ths of the way through Obscene Bird of Night and it is blowing my mind. Highly recommend it. Hey this was my favorite book last year, glad you're enjoying it. It's like a grotesque fever dream of a novel and puts other unreliable narrators to shame.
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Mar 18, 2017 04:57
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hope and vaseline posted:Hey this was my favorite book last year, glad you're enjoying it. It's like a grotesque fever dream of a novel and puts other unreliable narrators to shame. Yeah i almost want to reread it immediately because I think I took a lot of stuff in the first section for granted and that's informing a lot of what I think is "real" by the last section (my guess is there was a lot of BS). I love the way he disassociates himself and starts narrating from the perspective of other characters like he himself believes identities are basically transferable. It makes for some really fun passages and reading.
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Mar 18, 2017 05:13
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mentioning that book that keeps getting mentioned should be a bannable offense at this point
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Mar 18, 2017 05:31
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Zesty Mordant posted:mentioning that book that keeps getting mentioned should be a bannable offense at this point Surely you're referring to A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin?
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Mar 18, 2017 05:45
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Heath posted:Surely you're referring to A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin? drat dude, nice post
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Mar 18, 2017 07:55
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Btw did I brag about buying Kierkegaard's collected works in here yet???  Read 'em an weep, suckers! (I will give reading it an honest try though, in freaking blackletter)
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Mar 18, 2017 08:08
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I read James Baldwin's Another Country, and it was v good. I went from that, which was all kinds of interesting, to the driest possible translation of Apuleius' The Golden rear end, which I'm giving up. Why are classicists so hosed. If your boring-rear end introduction stresses how funny and cool the book is, why would you make the prose come across like a cheat sheet for your boring class  What is a good translation of The Golden rear end? Powaqoatse posted:Btw did I brag about buying Kierkegaard's collected works in here yet??? Noice, when was it published? Also your tablecloth is very hygge
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Mar 18, 2017 12:57
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Powaqoatse posted:Btw did I brag about buying Kierkegaard's collected works in here yet??? Very nice.
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Mar 18, 2017 12:57
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It's the 2nd Drachmann/Heiberg/Lange edition from 1920–36. Also thx re tablecloth, it is superhygge 
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Mar 18, 2017 13:05
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also i forgot to mention that i paid 75 dkk for it and apparently its like ~1000 dkk if i had tried to buy it at an actual used book store instead of a second hand shop 
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Mar 18, 2017 13:10
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Fear and trembling is the 3rd or 4th best philosophy book of all timeJ_RBG posted:I read James Baldwin's Another Country, and it was v good. I went from that, which was all kinds of interesting, to the driest possible translation of Apuleius' The Golden rear end, which I'm giving up. Why are classicists so hosed. If your boring-rear end introduction stresses how funny and cool the book is, why would you make the prose come across like a cheat sheet for your boring class I just read Gawain and the Green Knight and had this exact problem tho the intro was great and was just the translator calling all critical work on Gawain poo poo, which based on my zero knowledge of anything I strongly agree with
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Mar 19, 2017 04:41
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CestMoi posted:Fear and trembling is the 3rd or 4th best philosophy book of all time If it's 4th, what would come after Atlas Shrugged and Aquarium by David Vann?
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Mar 19, 2017 04:44
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Cowboy Bebop
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Mar 19, 2017 04:48
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J_RBG posted:I read James Baldwin's Another Country, and it was v good. I went from that, which was all kinds of interesting, to the driest possible translation of Apuleius' The Golden rear end, which I'm giving up. Why are classicists so hosed. If your boring-rear end introduction stresses how funny and cool the book is, why would you make the prose come across like a cheat sheet for your boring class Try seeing what Steven Moore says, he's full of himself but knows a lively translation when he sees it. Have a glance at The Novel, An Alternative History.
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Mar 19, 2017 07:11
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CestMoi posted:Fear and trembling is the 3rd or 4th best philosophy book of all time What would you say are the 1st and 2nd best
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Mar 19, 2017 12:32
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CestMoi posted:Fear and trembling is the 3rd or 4th best philosophy book of all time Which translation was it? SGGK is stone-cold the best narrative poem in English, it doesn't deserve a boring translation
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Mar 19, 2017 12:52
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ulvir posted:What would you say are the 1st and 2nd best I'm also interested in the 4th or 3rd, and hell, throw in the 5th as well.
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Mar 19, 2017 12:54
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Safety Biscuits posted:Try seeing what Steven Moore says, he's full of himself but knows a lively translation when he sees it. Have a glance at The Novel, An Alternative History. Ha, a quick search in Google Books says apparently he had the same problem as me. Fwiw, he recommends Joel Relihan's translation.
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Mar 19, 2017 12:57
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J_RBG posted:Which translation was it? SGGK is stone-cold the best narrative poem in English, it doesn't deserve a boring translation Burton Raffels. At times it was great and at other times it was weird and clunky. General feeling of the poem being amazing and funny and cool did shine through tho, one of the only times I've finished a book and immediately wanted to read it again in a different translation
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Mar 19, 2017 13:01
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ulvir posted:What would you say are the 1st and 2nd best Tractatus and philosophical investigations but I have no idea which order they go in
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Mar 19, 2017 13:02
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CestMoi posted:Tractatus and philosophical investigations but I have no idea which order they go in PI is a hundred times better than the Tractatus. I see the Tractatus as Wittgenstein's quixotic effort to atomize everything then organize it, and the Investigations as stemming from the honest, rigorous, non-dogmatic critique of his own earlier work—something so rare in philosophy I really can't think of another instance. Then again I haven't read a ton of philosophy. In any case the Investigations is brilliant on its own and very readable (I've heard people call it "poetic" and they're right).
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Mar 19, 2017 16:17
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Read Gravity's Rainbow during a week of working graveyard and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've kinda been putting it off because of it being built up as this intimidating tome needing goodwill towards or familiarity with Pynchon to even get through, which I didn't find to be the case. Obviously not a breezy read but it kept me going without much in the way of hiccups. Definitely going to read more of his, I'm eyeing Against the Day. Also, on the recommendation of someone here, I started Om Våren. It's alright so far but I expected more from the guy and books insane hype (4.5 on goodreads?? Must be the best book ever written). Then again I'm not even halfway through so what do I know.
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Mar 19, 2017 16:51
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WHo's been doing that building, GR's the one you tell people to start with as it's the best one, and if they balk at it then you throw in Lot 49 for at least being short.
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Mar 19, 2017 17:36
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CestMoi posted:Burton Raffels. At times it was great and at other times it was weird and clunky. General feeling of the poem being amazing and funny and cool did shine through tho, one of the only times I've finished a book and immediately wanted to read it again in a different translation Simon Armitage at least does a good job with making it sound gnarly, Northern, and old as balls. Added benefit of being a bona fide poet, so the alliteration never really grates like it can do in certain modern takes. But it's no Heaney Beowulf
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Mar 19, 2017 17:51
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I finished reading Gravity's Rainbow not too long ago and found the experience analogous to an actual rocket. It took me multiple attempts to get going, and even then a solid amount of effort to power through once I got into it. Then I hit some sort of personal brennschluss, stopped attempting to make sense of it, and let the surrealism take me where it pleased. I should probably read it again and do a better job actually following the latter parts of it though, I enjoyed it but feel I missed a lot.
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Mar 19, 2017 17:52
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at the date posted:PI is a hundred times better than the Tractatus. I see the Tractatus as Wittgenstein's quixotic effort to atomize everything then organize it, and the Investigations as stemming from the honest, rigorous, non-dogmatic critique of his own earlier work—something so rare in philosophy I really can't think of another instance. Then again I haven't read a ton of philosophy. In any case the Investigations is brilliant on its own and very readable (I've heard people call it "poetic" and they're right). They're so different, and the one I prefer probably just depends on which I've read most recently. The Tractatus is just so well constructed, the structure of it is absolutely perfect, even if I probably agree with the changes to his thought Wittgenstein made in PI. They're both amazingly poetic, and while you can dip into and out of PI and find something beautiful to rave about, the way the Tractatus coheres make it a more satisfying complete read IMO
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Mar 19, 2017 18:16
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J_RBG posted:Simon Armitage at least does a good job with making it sound gnarly, Northern, and old as balls. Added benefit of being a bona fide poet, so the alliteration never really grates like it can do in certain modern takes. But it's no Heaney Beowulf Very naice  I'll pick it up at some point but I've got the good translation of the Golden rear end lined up and a bunch of essays on experimental lit
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Mar 19, 2017 18:18
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SGGK is sincerely worth the effort required to read it in the original ME. it's difficult, absolutely, but extraordinarily rewarding. its also not like beowulf in that you dont actually have to learn a new language to read it, you just need an edition with a good glossary e: armitage's translation is probably the best on the market and the US edition (though not the UK one) was printed with the original text in facing page. tolkien's edition of the text (not his translation, which oddly is not very good, but his edition of the actual middle english) is probably the standard and has a perfect glossary chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Mar 19, 2017 |
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Mar 19, 2017 18:39
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ATTN: Vann Clann https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Air-Black-David-Vann/dp/0802125808 man battle stations
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Mar 19, 2017 20:17
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even if you don't like philosophy, everybody should still read fear and trembling philosophical investigations myth of sisyphus because they are just really beautifully put together works and often genuinely moving i am not going to read david vann out of, at this point, mostly a misplaced sense of spite, but thanks all the same
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Mar 19, 2017 21:12
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