Translation II

[jbor]

>> The funny thing is that as time goes by, more and more of those
>> cross-cultural references are becoming globalized and obvious, even in the
>> most remote parts of the world.
>>
>> If I were to translate "The Crying..." now, the most obvious Polish
>> equivalent of a Tupperware party would be  a Zepter Party, but in a year
>> from now perhaps I'd leave Tupperware intact, as the other day I saw their
>> logo on one of the streets of my hometown.
>>
>> The side effect of globalization is that I don't have to use footnotes
>> anymore.

I heard a sociology professor speaking about globalization (and its newest,
derivative notion, "glocalization", an ugly word) in the context of
immigration policies and multiculturalism the other day and I couldn't help
wondering whether these phenomena are simply the glamorous tip of an old and
dread iceberg. It's only a very elite minority who can afford to "become"
globalized -- whether by international tourism, global telecommunications,
migration, higher education, cultural dilettantism -- and it's limited to a
select group of cultures. If you take a rhizomatic view the bulk of the
world's population is still very insulated and remains monocultural,
blithely ignorant and parochially so. I'm reminded of that student in the
Phillippines who developed and unleashed the ILOVEYOU virus on the internet
and was actually heroised in the Filipino press for it, there being
apparently only 200,000 or so computers in the country it seems. It was seen
as proof of the nation's technological prowess and potential, a proud and
patriotic achievement. Otoh the global ubiquity of television and McDonalds
and Microsoft and Nike is a species of cultural and economic imperialism,
the Coca-colonization of the planet rather than any real hybridization of
ethno-cultural experience. Even the underclasses in the Western nations have
limited access to real cross-cultural manifestations: most of it is served
up luke-warm and bland, tokenistic pap in the suburban malls and mail order
catalogues and plastic takeaway Thai food containers and facetious airline
and phone company ads of that Middle American blight which stretches far
across the planet nowadays. Polish people might have forgotten the schlemiel
but I'll bet they can say "D'Oh".

So, I guess it depends who you are writing, or translating, for. And, it's
that same old question of elitism which crops up from time to time with
critics of Pynchon. I think that, from his subject matter and approaches to
it at least, he is aware of these issues and dilemmas; and I don't think his
work is meant to be either easy-going or particularly comfortable for those
members of the "globalized" elite who, admittedly, are the only ones to
possess the available leisure time and breadth of cultural outlook to engage
with the texts in the first place. A conundrum. I'm not sure what the
answers are, or whether there are answers, but I think this is a tension
which lies at the heart of Pynchon's work. And it's this unvoiced tension
that must be the most difficult thing to translate I guess. But I also think
that it's worth the effort.

best


----------
>From: Jedrzej Polak <jedpolak at mac.com>
>To: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>, <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Translation II
>Date: Wed, May 31, 2000, 5:59 PM
>