Books Meme

[tomoe_daeva]

I think that it's time for a good ol' meme :3
I grabbed this from queenseptienna over LJ, it was a meme about books, and since I'm kinda sensitive to the subject at the moment I thought of giving it a try.
Sorry in advance if I'll give you boring answers ;_;

Comments

[tomoe_daeva]

Well, details must not be seen as a flaw by default.
I think of some literature that use the obsessive listing of details as a mean to suggest some "dreamlike" imagery-- Se chapter 9 of "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" were Dorian starts ranting about all the stuff that he collects, and it creates some really cool mental images-- Then you have Hemingway, with his paragraphs about how to lace your shoes and have the impression that you're wasting your life XD

Yes, translating stuff is always a trouble!
It's not just because of the mere translation in another language, as you say it's all about the "arrangement" of the words, the way they sound in another language.
I can say that I'm not so skilled in English to pretend to write stuff that sounds the same as my Italian things do ._.
As for the specific cultural refs, it wouldn't be such a trouble :3 You could use notes to explain certain things, if you need to do so, enriching the culture of the reader :3
There was a story of mine back in the days, where every chapter ended in a huge note; that was quite cool an idea, I must say, and the readers loved that XD It was fun playing with notes and using them as part of the story!

Ahah, I'm glad that you're happy with my description XD

[m3n747]

It all depends on how it's done - you can work numerous details into your story and make them interesting, or you can just list everything in a scene and have readers falling asleep. In that book I mentioned earlier there's a scene when the main character collects weapons and ammunition; it would suffice to write that the guy took a couple of high-calibre handguns, a submachine gun, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and all the ammo he could carry - but instead a reader's treated to a complete list of the specific models he chose and how many clips and shells per each gun he took. That's needless detail that doesn't add anything to the story and only makes the readers scratch their heads. Contrast this with The Guns of Avalon from the Amber cycle - the guns are in the title, but all you ever learn about them is that they're automatic rifles that use custom-made ammunition, and that's all you need to know. Details are good when they add to the story or the atmosphere, but they can easily grow too numerous and grind the story to a halt. That other book I mentioned had pages upon pages of descriptions of nature, and I don't think I know anyone who wasn't bored by them - my Polish literature teacher included. XD On the other hand, the descriptions of nature in Pan Tadeusz were quite engaging - but then again that was an epic poem written by the greatest poet we ever had, so it's hardly surprising. XD

That's true as well, I have used certain combinations of words whose meaning can be easily translated, but which have a very specific sound that cannot be replicated.

Well, that might be an option - still, I think it would only work with some of them. And it's one thing when a character uses a quote from a song in their dialogue, for example. I've written a fanfiction (again, Evangelion) that was based upon a verse from this song - some of the lyrics are in the text, but some are only implied and unless you know the song, you won't get the reference.

I most certainly am! XD

[tomoe_daeva]

Yes, exactly XD

Yeah-- Much of another language's "poetry", as in sound and rhythm gets lost in translation, the most of time...

In the end it's all a matter of making your writing rich, inspiring, stylish yet comprehensible ^_^; !

[m3n747]

Most of the time, but there are rare exceptions. The Raven (easily my favourite poem, by the way) has a pretty unique structure and rhythm, and yet some translations manage to convey them very well. In fact, I enjoy the Polish translation (well, one of four translations) just as much as the English original, and I even like the sound of a German translation, even if I don't understand it all that well.

Indeed! ^^

[tomoe_daeva]

In fact I said "the most of time", not "always ;D
It all comes down to "adaptation", more than "translation", in such cases ;D
--The most memorable episode of this, in my experience, was the Evangelion anime XD The Italian version is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL, but they changed the most of the original feel of the dialogues, making them sound all pretty and formal... EVERYTHING SOUNDED SO TRIPPY AND SMART. When I happened to watch an English subbed version, I lolled at American's poor vocabulary-- In the end it was the original Japanese version that was like that XD Everyone in my Eva-Circle was shocked-- To think that an "adapted" version could sound better than the original x'DDD

Also, envy my t-shirt ;D

[m3n747]

That's pretty interesting, but I think something like Evangelion should be simply translated and not adapted. That should be left for a more appropriate material - for example, Shrek and Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra were dubbed into Polish with tons of cultural references, and it worked great. Still, I tend to prefer the original versions because, well, they're original. XD But there are rare exceptions; for instance, I prefer Armitage III dubbed - mostly due to nostalgia, but also because I think René D'anclaude sounds more menacing in the English than in the Japanese original. Oh yeah, and the Metal Gear Solid series - nobody can beat David Hayter as Snake. :D (BTW, I still have that sample of the Italian dub of Evangelion you sent me back in 2005. :D)

*envies Dae's T-shirt* XD

[tomoe_daeva]

Well, back in days I had no way of putting my hands on the original version of Evangelion: it was a time where internet was slow, and there wasn't much circulation of subbed stuff, and when it was, it was heavy stuff not worth downloading.
But I believe that if I heard the Japanese version before the Italian one I wouldn't have liked Evangelion as much as I do now, I would have find the dialogues poor XD
--Or maybe it's just a matter of "imprinting" instead of adaptation!

[m3n747]

At least you had an internet - I had to visit a friend, go to a nearby café or hope to find a free machine in my high school's computer lab - those were truly dark days. XD I remember seeing a bunch of pirate VHS tapes of Evangelion at a market one day as I was coming back from school. I considered buying them for a while, but eventually decided not to - I didn't have a VCR and those were still the times when I though copyrights are worth a damn. XD

I saw Evangelion for the first time in the original Japanese with German subtitles, recorded from German TV by a friend, with the first four episodes (and a bit of a later one) missing and sex phone commercials here and there - and I watched it at my father's place, with him and my then-9 years old brother hanging around. XD And yet, I liked it immediately - perhaps, I had had read a lot about it in a local manga & anime magazine or two. In fact, I liked it so much that I started writing fanfiction for it (one of which was even printed in another magazine), which in turn led me to meeting new people - yourself included. ^^ So yeah, thank you, Evangelion! XD