Comments | bookfails: Lysistrata by Aristophanes, ( A "Modern Translation" by Douglass Parker)

christineorwell in bookfails

Lysistrata by Aristophanes, ( A "Modern Translation" by Douglass Parker)

Sep 23, 2011 04:03

Oh dear god. THIS WAS AWFUL. Couldn't even finish it.

Basic premise: Athenian women are sick of war, so they decide to not have sex with the men until they stop fighting.

The play sounds really interesting and I would love to read it in decent, appropriate language. The problem isn't the play, the problem is that this so-called "modern translation" ( Read more... )

i couldn't even finish this awful book, kill it with fire, classics, author last names a-f, feminism just got set back 50 years

Comments 50

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christineorwell September 25 2011, 07:50:31 UTC

I know right? :O was pretty much how I looked by page 4 lol.

l_o_lostshadows September 23 2011, 11:30:17 UTC

"Shuckins, whut fer you tweedlin' me up so? I feel like a heifer come fair-time"

O.O

What did Lysistrata ever do to deserve that?

christineorwell September 25 2011, 07:51:19 UTC

Hahaha! I'm not sure. I'm 1/2 convinced this author had a personal vendetta against this book and this was his revenge.

kat_nic September 23 2011, 11:38:31 UTC

As someone from the South, with a Southern accent, I'm a little offended. I know there's this stereotype of us all being dumb hicks, but seriously, not everyone with an accent is an uneducated idiot.

Plus, it's always irritating to me to see people try to write accents. Almost no one ever does it convincingly or well, and I have to take five minutes to figure out what the crap people are even saying.

kater_kat September 23 2011, 12:34:00 UTC

This.

beetle_breath September 23 2011, 14:12:23 UTC

this, all of it.

bebemochi September 23 2011, 14:18:26 UTC

Yes. Yes yes yesyesyesyes.

Thread 17

kniferomance September 23 2011, 12:00:58 UTC

Ew. I don't remember that being in my translation. Now I feel like I should go reread it, just in case.

christineorwell September 25 2011, 08:07:41 UTC

Lol, I'm sure you would've known if you had read this.

elettaria September 23 2011, 12:05:59 UTC

The Penguin edition has the Spartans as Scots instead (think it might be Glaswegians, but it's been a while since I've read it), and the songs are firmly English in origin. One is an adaptation of "The grand old duke of York", and I think there's Gilbert and Sullivan floating around in there too. A later song by the Spartans is sung to "Scots wha hae". Here's a sample ( ... )

christineorwell September 25 2011, 08:18:14 UTC

I don't know. If they're are going to use dialects and references that did not exist while performing the play, then they should just change the setting and the names of the characters and do a true modern version of the play. It would just make no sense to see "yo kleonike, where those Spartans bitches at? we need to roll." It's distracting as hell. If this person had decided to reset the play in like the Civil War and do a whole new modern interpretation, then a Southern accent would be alright (still rude, but not completely and absurdly out of place with the setting/characters).