When we rode the train back from Rome, I sat next to these Italian University students and who I assumed to be their professor. The professor was reading an Italian translation of The Barbary Coast by Norman Mailer. I wanted to tell that there are better American authors out there, but he was already 200 pages into the thing, so he probably already knew.
A couple of stops later, the students gather their stuff and get off the train. One girl's bag opened and I saw a translation of a Nicholas Sparks novel. You can never escape them. I didn't see the name of the book, but does it really matter? Nights of the Lucky Notebook Song Letters. Just someone dies and the other person has to deal with it. The first thought that came to my head was that, translating is as hard as writing a novel, arguably harder. Why would a translator waste his time on that? I know, money. And then I thought, what if the translator is really good? What if Italians think that Nicholas Sparks is the next American God of writing and that the movie adaptations are just smudging his oeuvre?
Lucas, this is a wonderful image. It kind of shows that no matter wherever you go, bits of American culture pop up. I particularly love when you combine all the book names together-they all have the same plot. But I think the importance of this being a translation (its like The Vampire Diaries books that were translated and sold at the stand past Piazza Garibaldi) is the fact that no matter where you go, there is a need for a cheesy romance or the need for an escape. Whenever I read a book that never should be labeled as a classic, its always because that book offers something that this life cannot give. Why is this girl reading a Nicholas Sparks book? Usually that is some sort of fantasy for the reader. I think you should do something with that idea...you could create such a great story behind why this Italian schoolgirl is reading a cheesy Sparks book.
ReplyDeleteWhat I though of when I read his post for the first time was a girl who either has been wanting a boyfriend or has just been broken up with. That is too easy though...it needs to be something difficult or hard to imagine immediately: so maybe is trying to escape from her parents who are pushing her to go to Rome to study to be an Art history professor, when all she wants to do is go to America and study English. That way, she is reading this book as an opportunity to live American life.
ReplyDeleteI agree. This is a way into talking about how not only books but we ourselves change unavoidably in another language. There is a good bit of research devoted to language and identity (even personal identity). I often think that I'm probably much nicer in Italian than I am in English (at least the perception I give).
ReplyDeleteThink about continuing this vignette. Don't worry about where it takes you. Think small. Think how to get to the next sentence.