Translation II

[Otto Sell]

Maybe 'country' merely as an opposite to the city (London) where the action
mainly has taken place up to now. If I remember correctly they already had
cities in the area of today´s Iraq when our European forefathers still lived
in caves or on sandy islands on the marshlands. And the Battle of Britain
(http://allmovie.com/cg/x.dll?p=avg&sql=A4315) has been at Iraqi cinemas too
so that the images (city or countryside) and, concerning the temporal aspect
(which goes for all of us), even the WW2-atmosphere Pynchon recalls can be
understood. Btw is the Iraqi-example Michel mentioned a good one cause the
Iraqi cities have been terrorized by airwar very recently and the people
might understand the concept of supernatural terror better than any of us
ever will do.

Otto
-------------------------
o.sell at telda.net
http://www.itap.de/homes/otto/pynchon/episode.htm


----- Original Message -----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
To: <michel.ryckx at freebel.net>; <jedpolak at mac.com>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2000 5:09 PM
Subject: RE: Translation II


> When Rog & Jess drive "to the country" they are in England, so that is
what
> should be imagined by the reader.  That some readers may never have seen
> this setting is not a matter of translation, assuming there is a word in
> that language which approximates the intended locale.
>
> As you posted earlier: "The main difficulty in reading mr. Pynchon, me
being
> a foreigner, is not his language (grammar or vocabulary).  It is the
> background needed to understand what he is writing about."
>
> DM