I am currently reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, a science fiction novel that has been translated from Chinese. While reading, it made me think of my previous post about what may get lost in translations. Was I missing some important things?
I found this article (really a review) about the book's translation and found it very interesting. By keeping the book translated as close to the original writing, did the translator actually make it less accessible to English readers? Would US readers enjoy it more if it had been Americanized? I have a feeling there would not be agreement from readers on that point.
I for one don't feel books should be "dumbed down" or "Americanized" to make it more palatable for readers. However, I do understand that publishers would do that to sell more books.
What are your thoughts?
Happy Reading!
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I think if you "Americanize" a book, you're losing a lot of what makes the book great. For one thing, don't we read books written by authors from another country precisely because we want to learn about that culture?
I think if you "Americanize" a book, you're losing a lot of what makes the book great. For one thing, don't we read books written by authors from another country precisely because we want to learn about that culture?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. What's the point of reading books from other countries if they all sound like the books we have here.
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