GRGR (17): german samples

[rj]

kfl

Thanks for the translations. "Der Meistersinger" is definitely wrong,
and was corrected as Weisenberger noted. As to the other apparent
errors:

>   "'was ist los, meinen sumpfmenschen?'" (362) - "what's up, my swamp-people?"
>   (in standard german it would have been "...meine...").

Is there a play on "meinen" (think), though, or would the grammar be too
screwy. ("What's the matter, think you/the Swampfellows?" -- objective
case/tense) The fact that they laugh and throw mud at him shows that he
has teased them, but it is a good-natured, comradely joke rather than a
condescending one I think. Though something of a Messiah Enzian very
much sees himself as one of the boys, and they relate to him as such
(i.e. by throwing mud in response). He doesn't elevate himself and I
can't see him lording it over the other Schwarzkommando, particularly
when speaking *to* them. In which case I would say "meiner
Sumpfmenschen" (Swampies like me) would work just as well, or better,
than "meine", if indeed "meinen" is an error, which I doubt.

>   "'raketemensch!' [screams säure]" (366) - don't want to cook up this one
>   again, but as a native speaker emil would probably use the correct form
>   "raketenmensch".

Could it be slang, though, or an idiomatic neologism? Like "sez". Or is
it *Slothrop's* faulty German (seeing as it was the "same idea", and
Slothrop seems to have had it *first* at 366.8-9 --> and so, is Saure a
telepath? Is sharing mull one way of achieving ESP adeptness?) Or is it
a refusal of the masculinisation implicit in moving from "Rakete" to
"Raketen". Rocketman, on the model of Plasticman: beyond gender? (I'd
say all of the above.)

Saure's speech at 366.4 sounds pretty much colloquial U.S.-speak to me,
not the type of English your typical native German speaker would be
using either:

"Haven't you ever noticed, when you're this Blitzed and you want
somebody to show up, they always do?"

"Blitzed" has to be a pun on the slangy American English meaning of "out
of it" (or indeed, this is the *primary* meaning), but its
capitalisation brings up a whole heap of other associations as well, all
relevant to Slothrop's journey: the London Blitz, blitzkreig, lightning
flash/sudden and serendipitous enlightenment. But the clincher here in
what I will call the Incorrect German Fallacy is "show up". It is very
unlikely that a native German speaker would use this idiomatic
expression in this context at this time.

The dialogue of non-English speaking characters is anglicised or
Americanised throughout the novel (cf. Dzaqyp and Tchitchy in the
previous section). This is often wrought to comic effect, deliberate
anachorism (NB *not* anachronism*), often exaggeratedly so. It brings to
mind the way Western, and particularly American, popular culture (the
cinema, primarily) has appropriated foreign cultural experience as its
own. Saure's "error" is perhaps a deliberate wry comment on this type of
linguistic imperialism, as well as evidence of his telepathic adeptness
(my model). This would certainly fit with the omniscient pose he adopts
throughout the sequence, and which endlessly confounds and frustrates
poor Tyrone. Whatever, the name sticks.

I think if Mr Pynchon was made aware of errors in translation, enough so
to correct one (Der --> Die Meistersinger), then he would have corrected
them all. Why should we assume that the type of anachorism outlined
above can occur only in one language, the apparently dominant language?
By saying this aren't we falling into the whole cultural imperialism
trip ourselves, or implying that Mr Pynchon has, when it is patently
clear that he hasn't and that this is one of the most important themes
of his text? For me, there is *always* meaning in the minutiae, the
devil in the details, so to speak.

best