Expand Quote
Expand Quote
good is relative. i'm not trying to be a dick, but the truth is you don't know.
this is something that frustrates me because there are a bunch of authors i like that i feel i've never really read, because i can't read the language they wrote in. voices are incredibly specific.
It's a complicated question. I think you're right... to a point. If you read an author in translation, you're not only judging the author's writing, but also the translation. There's good translations and there's horrible translations and they can totally change your perception of a book. However, while the language of a book is totally affected by the quality of a translation, the plot and the characters aren't as much. And no matter how good or bad a translation is, it still went through enough editing to make sure it hits kinda close to home. It's not like you're reading a totally different book.
At the end of the day, I think it's really important to be aware of the fact that we're reading translations of Murakami's original writing. It's funny though: Murakami is way more popular outside of Japan than he is inside the country. This might also be due to his "Western" style, but it also means that the translations can't be all that bad, can they?
As for Murakami, even though he's considered a "magical realist", his magical realism is very different from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I would even say that he's more surrealist than they are "magical realist". Murakami creates dream-like worlds, in which the boundaries between reality, dreams and imagination aren't all that clear. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on the other hand, writes modern fairytales where, for example, a baby with a tail is born like it's no big deal.
I definitely get what you and matta are saying, it is a nitpicky point I'm making and ultimately not all that helpful unless you plan on spending your life learning the native language of every author you come across that interests you. and I guess I should be honest and say that I was mainly thinking of poets when I wrote that.
Pic is rad twinskates, cool to see someone else on here read that. I have the double book that has Satori in Paris with Pic and I was worried because Satori in Paris was terrible. all I could hope reading Satori was that Pic wouldnt suck and was pleasantly surprised!
No, I think you're definitely onto something. At a certain point, one's gotta be a little pragmatic though... As mentioned before, I think it's really important to be aware of the fact that some works are translations. It's interesting... I feel like in the States, readers are more conscious of that. That's why people sometimes say "I'm reading a translation of
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" instead of just "I'm reading
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." I feel like over here in Germany nobody gives a shit. It's common for people, even literary critics, to criticize authors for their language, even though they were reading a translation.
Point in case: I'm about to read
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and it turns out the German translation is a translation from English; hence, the translation of a translation. I mean, how ignorant is that? I'm definitely gonna read the English translation now.