Category: words

“‘In the West, people demonize Putin,’ Ms. Alexievich, who turns 68 later this month, said in a recent interview here, speaking Russian through a translator after a conference on her work at the University of Gothenburg. ‘They do not understand that there is a collective Putin, consisting of some millions of people who do not want to be humiliated by the West, ‘ she added. ‘There is a little piece of Putin in everyone.'”

“The industry in general is waking up belatedly and slowly to the real benefits of having diversity in staffing. … I mean, it’s a plus to have a Spanish speaker and reader on your staff. Not to have one but to have multiple. It’s a plus to have people reading more diversely and understanding different cultural experiences.
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“Something skewed does occur during the translation process, at least when you are translating a good book: as a translator, while you pick away at the prose and twist the kaleidoscope of possible meanings to create the most subjective and vital translation you can, you become closer to the book than the author, who is often usually already onto the next project. You become the book’s guardian.”

“It’s possible that you’ve never had to read 80,000 words of bad writing. The friend of a friend’s novel. I have. On numerous occasions. If you ask around, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a really bad novel easily enough. I mean a novel by someone who has spent isolated years writing a book they are convinced is a great work of literature. And when you’re reading it you’ll know it’s bad, and you’ll know what bad truly is.”

Christian Lorentzen: “Let’s begin with the big problem. The adverb is an incoherent lexical category, a catchall. How are ‘there,’ ‘yesterday,’ ‘quite,’ ‘assiduously,’ and ‘indeed’ all members of the same family?”

“The idea that every ‘I’ is largely made up of others and by the others wasn’t theoretical [in Naples]; it was a reality. To be alive meant to collide continually with the existence of others and to be collided with … The dead were brought into quarrels; people weren’t content to attack and insult the living – they naturally abused aunts, cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents who were no longer in the world.”

“Right now, Ottink is focused on the article for the word res, which roughly translates to ‘thing.’ Just like ‘thing’ in English, it is a very common word in Latin. And here’s the thing — its meaning hard to pin down, because it appears in all kind of idioms. Ottink did not volunteer for this word. ‘No one volunteers for res,’ she says, a little ruefully. Still, she’s been plugging away at it, on and off, since 2009.”

“Going home for holidays I noticed that buzzwords had come and perhaps already gone—nerd, dink—without my ever using them. Editors were forever picking up Italianisms in my writing. Setting a new story in England I began to feel vulnerable. Often Italian expressions came to mind when what I needed was English. Even Italian situations. Often English expressions came to mind that quite likely no one was using any more.”

“The presence of the author behind titles such as Helicopter Man Pounds Dinosaur Billionaire Ass and My Ass Is Haunted By the Gay Unicorn Colonel does somewhat detract from the grand stature of the Hugos.”

Said the magistrate, “This is one of the clearest cases for [an acquittal] that I’ve seen in my 26 years being here.”