Barnes' article has little to do with authorial intent
Larry Send a noteboard - 21/11/2010 11:37:25 PM
Honestly, that's not my intention. I had actually typed out a long response to your first reply, before realizing that you seemed to be having your cake and eating it too. Or else your subject header was just flashy advertising. To me it felt like with that response and your "you must not have read..." you were leading and then following with an insult. Furthermore, you didn't even respond to my reply. Yes, I think the article has to do with authorial intent. Yes, I read the section on Nabokov's translation of the poem I've never heard of.
I'm not interested in the usual snarky back-and-forth replies, a narrative which this seems to be following. You'll excuse me (or not) for being confused when you said "to hell it has to do with authorial intent" and then said that it didn't have to do with just authorial intent. Those are two entirely opposite stances.
I'm not interested in the usual snarky back-and-forth replies, a narrative which this seems to be following. You'll excuse me (or not) for being confused when you said "to hell it has to do with authorial intent" and then said that it didn't have to do with just authorial intent. Those are two entirely opposite stances.
On the other hand, it has a lot to do with those moments of je ne sais quoi in which something that is embedded within one language cause all sorts of difficulties in rendering it in another language. That is what Barnes discusses in depth for the vast majority of his review. Authorial intent fades in the background when there are things in the Text that just cannot be rendered as precisely in a translation. That was pretty much the point of the section dealing with Nabokov's infamous "translation." His effort there was not as much of a translatio as it was a perversion of such.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
Julian Barnes on translation
- 18/11/2010 05:49:37 PM
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That's a very interesting article. Though it does sound like he'd never be happy.
- 18/11/2010 08:06:09 PM
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That was a long article.
- 19/11/2010 07:05:12 PM
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Re: That was a long article.
- 19/11/2010 09:59:24 PM
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Yeah, I think English translations on average are better than those in smaller languages.
- 19/11/2010 10:16:44 PM
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On balance, I'm glad I read the Steegmuller translation when I read the novel.
- 20/11/2010 05:14:42 PM
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Vas-tu faire s’enculée, Camille!
- 20/11/2010 05:26:08 PM
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If you don't mind a few grammatical corrections of your swearing... 
- 20/11/2010 05:42:57 PM
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- 20/11/2010 05:42:57 PM
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It was a quick and dirty rendering
- 20/11/2010 05:53:13 PM
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And I didn't order from France. It's a US-based company that I bought it from. *NM*
- 20/11/2010 05:54:55 PM
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I love Pleiade editions
- 21/11/2010 12:14:14 AM
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How tall are they, out of curiosity?
- 21/11/2010 12:50:57 AM
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Not tall
- 21/11/2010 09:59:55 AM
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I got my books today.
- 23/11/2010 05:38:20 AM
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Re: I got my books today.
- 23/11/2010 10:33:10 AM
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Regardless, if Pleiade is the best France has to offer, their book industry is awful.
- 23/11/2010 07:17:13 PM
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Re: Oh Authorial intent.
- 21/11/2010 02:07:27 AM
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Like hell it's about authorial intent.
- 21/11/2010 05:40:22 AM
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Re: I didn't even read it, I guessed based on the author's initials.
- 21/11/2010 01:37:40 PM
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So I take it you missed the whole part about Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin.
- 21/11/2010 03:28:14 PM
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Re: Yes, I missed all of that. Such a conclusion clearly follows from my previous response. *NM*
- 21/11/2010 03:57:16 PM
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Actually it does. Your responses are just cheap tricks, not discussions. *NM*
- 21/11/2010 04:44:21 PM
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Re: Cheap tricks?
- 21/11/2010 10:45:39 PM
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Barnes' article has little to do with authorial intent
- 21/11/2010 11:37:25 PM
544 Views
I think it is more about the "authentic experience" than about intent.
- 21/11/2010 10:01:57 AM
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