Pynchon interviewed in Playboy Japan re 9-11

Paul Mackin paul.mackin at verizon.net
Wed Dec 19 09:36:31 CST 2001


----- Original Message -----
From: <MalignD at aol.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: Pynchon interviewed in Playboy Japan re 9-11


> <<The discussion is about a paraphrase of a reader's translation (by a
> translator of unknown skill) of remarks compiled/redacted to an unknown
> extent by a Japanese magazine editor working over the product of a
stringer,
> who has presumably translated Pynchon's remarks from English into Japanese
in
> the course of writing his article.>>
>
> Yes, the translation makes him sound like Jerry Lewis in Geisha Boy.  But
> there's still the content, which is utterly banal.


One thing that occurs to me is that Pynch may may said something terribly
ironic to the Japanese interviewer that didn't have the chance of a
snowflake in hell of surviving translation from English into Japanese much
less back in the other direction. The quip about bin Laden being only a
front man is rich in possibility. This is only one instance. When I reread
the translation presented I began to feel the Pynchonean presence anew.

        P.




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