Re: I have the translation by H.M. Parshley and it's great.
Camilla Send a noteboard - 04/03/2010 12:36:11 PM
It's a great translation, with clear dialogue and it gets the idea across really well. It is so good, actually, that I never bothered to research alternate translations!
The problem is that it does not get the finer points across well, if at all; and indeed it turns some of the central points topsy-turvy by presenting de Beauvoir as an essentialist. So while it may be fun to read, it really does not work as a translation of a work of philosophy.
After reading this translation, I did not have an image of her as an essentialist at all. I thought most of the finer points were well communicated, but I am not a philosopher, and have studied aspects of evolutionary theory moreso than rhetorical discussions so to me, it made perfect sense and didn't confuse me at all.
Do you have an example of how this book fails to get a finer point across?
Did you read what I linked? Much of what Moi writes refers to the problems of the Parshley edition.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
/Review: Another bad English translation of The Second Sex
- 02/03/2010 01:41:11 PM
696 Views
Yikes. One does wonder why they couldn't afford a more experienced translator.
- 02/03/2010 03:42:57 PM
487 Views
Re: The Second Sex is such tedious language wrapped around some rather interesting ideas.
- 03/03/2010 12:07:43 PM
506 Views
Sounds like that might be the translator's fault. Read it in French? 
*NM*
- 03/03/2010 12:27:03 PM
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*NM*
- 03/03/2010 12:27:03 PM
204 Views
I have the translation by H.M. Parshley and it's great.
- 03/03/2010 02:56:24 PM
476 Views
Re: I have the translation by H.M. Parshley and it's great.
- 03/03/2010 03:43:34 PM
452 Views
Re: I have the translation by H.M. Parshley and it's great.
- 04/03/2010 11:12:09 AM
497 Views
Re: I have the translation by H.M. Parshley and it's great.
- 04/03/2010 12:36:11 PM
507 Views
I just read it - thanks for pointing it out. I don't think I can agree with the critique, though.
- 04/03/2010 03:30:36 PM
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