found drama

Thinking thoughts (from a self-inflicted homework assignment):

We have come all the way from attempts at great literal fidelity to the author’s style, to high-level translations of flavor. Now if this happens already in the first sentence, can you imagine how it must go on in the rest of the book? What about the point where a German landlady begins shouting in her German-style Russian? How do you translate broken Russian spoken with a German accent, into English?

–Hofstader, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (p. 380)

Not necessarily new. But he really captures something that seems to sneak into my thoughts early and often and across contexts.

currently playing: Moustik “Disclosure”

About Rob Friesel