James Wood + Reading Response (Gisele Sanchez)

   I enjoyed James Wood's talk a lot considering the beginning was, admittedly, a bit slow. However, by the time we began reading the excerpts of "Madame Bovary" together, he seemed to open up a bit more and that is when his genius really came through. I have a terrible habit of comparing myself to people who have decades of experience—James Wood was no exception. I really admired the way he not only felt the words and the way they interacted with each other but spoke about them easily and with the kind of confidence I only dream of at the current moment. Basically, I thought he was so cool. The analogy about a painting vs. a camera was really helpful for me in visualizing the way that Faubert wrote prose. Additionally, I really liked the way James emphasized the way Faubert used detail in his writing—it was interesting to see how what could be interpreted as excessive detail, such as the man outside of Emma's piano room and the paper dangling from his hand, actually revealed a lot about the characters and plot. 

The reading made me realize, although it may be ironic, that I can't confidently say that I have read much translated literature outside of Korean. Reading these two articles really made me reflect on my reading habits and question myself as to why I do not read outside of what is familiar to me. I, even as someone who is within a community of people who enjoy and study translations, do not have any experience with languages and cultures that I am not familiar with. Why? I think a lot of it has to do with why the average person doesn't pick up a translation—unacknowledged biases and prejudices. Interestingly, my favorite book, The Blind Owl, is written by an Iranian author named Sadegh Hedayat, and I would have never found it had I not taken a class on Middle Eastern literature. Most of all, reading about how so few people are interested in global literature made me want to do something about it, and I have now the seed of a new interest in the world of publishing and reviewing translations planted in my brain.