In class, I think I pointed out many more negative things about Julia's translation than positive ones. However, Julia had explanations for practically everything I had doubts about while reading her translations. My greatest criticism was that she had an inconsistent habit of slipping into a country accent in her translation of "Dogs of Summer," because I felt that it was jarring and out of place. However, during her presentation, she explained that she actually never replaces one Spanish dialect with another English one, which was a sentiment I really appreciated because I had similar thoughts while doing my midterm project for this class. While speaking to her after the talk, she explained that she wasn't attempting to give the character's a "country twang," instead, she pulled from the way people around her spoke to create a collaborative dialect. This made sense, considering something else she talked about was her keen ability to pick up on speaking habits as a result of living in many different places. She even mentioned the infamous "minky," which was a made-up word, as an example of her creative approach to recreating the characters' dialogue. I really liked hearing this from her, since it was another thing I attempted to do with my midterm project. Another thing I really enjoyed about her talk was our discussion regarding Anton Hur's "myth of the English reader." It seems so obvious now that the "English reader" wouldn't be monolingual, and I almost can't believe I hadn't realized that earlier—in a moment she made me realize how implausible that is. It was a very eye-opening and engaging talk, and I am really grateful I had the opportunity to meet and speak with her!
The reading, on the other hand, was less fascinating and more terrifying than I had been expecting. I felt gross reading "The Bird is a Raven." I often found myself thinking, Do men really think about women this way? in response to Henry and Paul's perspectives. The ending was pretty predictable, with how nonchalantly Paul listened to Henry's story I figured there must be something equally as wrong with him. I honestly found the final line, "I guess I'm just not just a storyteller like you" underwhelming and borderline cringe-worthy. Both because I can't understand what that was supposed to imply—was Henry's story a lie the whole time?—and because it just read awkwardly. The latter is most likely due to the translation, so I really want to know what others think about it. The "secondary-story-told-through-dialogue" structure actually reminded me a lot of the way some Murakami novels read, in which entire chapters can be one character speaking with little to no interruption from another. Overall, I thought the dialogue in "The Bird is a Raven" read naturally, it even had a few "like"s scattered throughout Henry's story which emphasized how young the two speakers were. The cursing was also an important part of the dialogue, especially considering some of the scenes were really intense. I'm curious as to how the English dialogue compares to the German dialogue, especially because I don't have the faintest idea what the original would sound like in German. One thing that kept coming up for me was Paul's frequent use of the word "guy." It is kind of a random observation, but I noticed he said it a lot.
The reading, on the other hand, was less fascinating and more terrifying than I had been expecting. I felt gross reading "The Bird is a Raven." I often found myself thinking, Do men really think about women this way? in response to Henry and Paul's perspectives. The ending was pretty predictable, with how nonchalantly Paul listened to Henry's story I figured there must be something equally as wrong with him. I honestly found the final line, "I guess I'm just not just a storyteller like you" underwhelming and borderline cringe-worthy. Both because I can't understand what that was supposed to imply—was Henry's story a lie the whole time?—and because it just read awkwardly. The latter is most likely due to the translation, so I really want to know what others think about it. The "secondary-story-told-through-dialogue" structure actually reminded me a lot of the way some Murakami novels read, in which entire chapters can be one character speaking with little to no interruption from another. Overall, I thought the dialogue in "The Bird is a Raven" read naturally, it even had a few "like"s scattered throughout Henry's story which emphasized how young the two speakers were. The cursing was also an important part of the dialogue, especially considering some of the scenes were really intense. I'm curious as to how the English dialogue compares to the German dialogue, especially because I don't have the faintest idea what the original would sound like in German. One thing that kept coming up for me was Paul's frequent use of the word "guy." It is kind of a random observation, but I noticed he said it a lot.
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