read any good books lately...

Practically nearly all classic Sci-Fi from Asimov to Lem to Stapledon to Strugatsky bros to Wells when I was a youngster. Also Huxley and Orwell. Then I got interested in Prog and forget Sci-Fi, sadly I have no time for reading anymore. Sometimes, well quite seldom I "read" Playboy 

I'm in between novels right now...just finished the Nine Princes In Amber series by Zelazny.

I finally finished reading Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" the other day. I found it very stagnant for an adventure novel and the characters are really dull. And then there are those paragraphs when the narrator starts categorizing every fish they found in the sea I already had too many boring Biology classes, no thanks

I started reading Stephen King's "Salem's Lot", recommended by Micky last year. Good thing the original title was written inside, I wasn't sure it was the right book since the title in Portuguese is completely different

part of my research project for the game I've been designing. Fabulous book. Highly prized. Worth an arm and leg on the 2nd hand market as it has been out of print for years.  Love the cover.. I'd like to have a print of that.

micky wrote:   Are you reading a Portuguese version I assume. Hopefully it is a good translation. One would think SKing and his publishers could afford a good qualified, experienced one. Heard many a horror story from Raff about shoddy translations. Just knowing both languages in question does not make one a translator. Enjoy it Sam... and if you aren't hiding under the bed .. you definitely are missing something in the translation. Jesus that book scared the sh*t out of me...granted I was a kid.. but still have sweaty hands as an adult when I reread it ..as I tend to do every couple of years.

Yes, it's called "The Hour of the Vampire" in Portuguese His only books in English the bookstore had were recent ones. I should try to find books in the original language, maybe the Verne one is much better in French. I hope it's a good translation since I read "The Shining" in English, it might be especially strange if it's not

micky wrote: part of my research project for the game I've been designing. Fabulous book. Highly prized. Worth an arm and leg on the 2nd hand market as it has been out of print for years.  Love the cover.. I'd like to have a print of that.

Cool! Is it a boardgame?


Edited by Meltdowner - April 24 2016 at 15:19

Unfortunately, "genre" literature (i.e. fantasy, horror, sci-fi and such) is almost never translated with the care and attention given to "real" literature. A lot of people with sketchy knowledge of the source language (in this case English) set themselves up as translators, thinking it is an easy task. In fact, translating fiction is much harder than translating non-fiction, because the range of vocabulary is generally much wider, and often involves the use of puns and other hard-to-translate linguistic items.

Fantasy and sci-fi present the added challenge of lots of made-up proper names (for people, places, objects, and what not), which leads to some hilarious mistranslations - such as Albus Dumbledore's surname being translated in Italian as "Silente" by someone who thought the 'dumb' part of the name meant "unable to speak". The Italian translation of Tolkien's The Silmarillion has become notorious for its many bloopers, while The Lord of the Rings has fared much better in Italian than in other languages.

As to the title of King's novel, the Italian version at least has kept the reference to Salem (Le notti di Salem, i.e. "Salem's Nights"). Being a proper noun (short for Jerusalem's Lot), it might have been better to keep the title as it was, but that would have been asking too much. I could write a book about "imaginative" Italian titles of famous movies.

micky wrote: do let me know what you think of it.  Perhaps Raff will chime in..sending out a smoke signal for her.  A 'made up' title like that would not (to me) be a good sign that the translation was done with TLC and attention to detail.  Hour of the Vampire? really oh yes. Boardgames. Never got into computer games.  I had two great passions as a child. One was RPG and still mess around with that but not playing it as much anymore but doing creative writing for D&D websites in fleshing out the various setttings. As far as my current project. One of many I have but the one taking the most time.  My father introduced me to military history and classic 70's board game (Avalon Hill).  40 odd years later I still love them but have taken more a behind the scenes role. I have done some research for some designers and do a few of my own designs.

Indeed, what have I done?

Yeah, if you're that much into RPG and boardgames, computer games are not as fun.

That's fantastic Oh, I finally tried D&D a few weeks ago, I was terrible at it

Raff wrote: Unfortunately, "genre" literature (i.e. fantasy, horror, sci-fi and such) is almost never translated with the care and attention given to "real" literature. A lot of people with sketchy knowledge of the source language (in this case English) set themselves up as translators, thinking it is an easy task. In fact, translating fiction is much harder than translating non-fiction, because the range of vocabulary is generally much wider, and often involves the use of puns and other hard-to-translate linguistic items. Fantasy and sci-fi present the added challenge of lots of made-up proper names (for people, places, objects, and what not), which leads to some hilarious mistranslations - such as Albus Dumbledore's surname being translated in Italian as "Silente" by someone who thought the 'dumb' part of the name meant "unable to speak". The Italian translation of Tolkien's The Silmarillion has become notorious for its many bloopers, while The Lord of the Rings has fared much better in Italian than in other languages. As to the title of King's novel, the Italian version at least has kept the reference to Salem (Le notti di Salem, i.e. "Salem's Nights"). Being a proper noun (short for Jerusalem's Lot), it might have been better to keep the title as it was, but that would have been asking too much. I could write a book about "imaginative" Italian titles of famous movies.

That's what I read the most, I should really look into reading the originals then (if I understand the language, of course). It doesn't seem like an easy task at all, it sure requires a lot of knowledge of both languages. Speaking of puns, I wouldn't dare translate Banda do Casaco's lyrics to English: almost every verse has a pun or a popular expression.

That's literally a dumb translation

It's still a much better title. I could write one with Portuguese titles... and then another with Brazilian titles.

Been on a Vonnegut kick, close to finishing Cat's Cradle. Different from Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse, but I like it so far.

Edited by bankstatement - April 25 2016 at 00:36

Currently reading Stan Freberg's autobiography IT ONLY HURTS WHEN I LAUGH.  If the word "progressive" is applied to comedy in records, radio and television advertising, Freberg is the man to get it.  Sadly missed.

I need a break from the First World War (can't imagine why) so I'm reading Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, one of the few books that makes me laugh out loud when reading.  Also, I can relate to his obsessive behavior, as I still can't avoid inserting the First World War into every conversation (see the first sentence of this post, for example).