Marina Gonzalez 01/30 Response

I enjoyed reading Ted Goossen's translation of Murakami and Kawakami, especially his interview effects. Having studied publishing and now being able to peak into the translation world, I understand how frustrating it can be to box literature into very limited categories. I think this problem has mainly been caused by publishers, bookshops, and the public. I think it's time to rethink these categories and their negative impact on authors and the source text's source culture. Ted Goossen expressed in his interview with Lindsay Sebel that he hated categories such as "magical realism" or "women's literature" because these categories meant something different in all cultures, and I would venture even further and say that they also mean entirely different things in other moments in time. I do think that categories such as those can cause more harm than good by creating or reinforcing stereotypes and also by forcing authors to fit into categories that might not even speak to their work.