Audio recordings of some of the Lublin papers

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Thanks Clément, thanks János!

Good Ol' Dixie awaits us.


Heikki


On Thu, 24 Jun 2010, Clément Lévy wrote:

> A few corrections that were suggested by two of us:
>
> 1) The title of Janos Szekely's translation of /Gravity's Rainbow/, /
> Sulyszivarvany/ would read "Weightrainbow" in English. It is a
> compound word, because "gravity" is in Magyar a somewhat ugly and
> technical word without any moral connotation.
>
> 2) The second and final (not the last!) Transit of Venus for our
> generation will occur on June 6, 2012. After that, another 105 years
> will pass before this wonderful conjunction takes place another time.
>
> 3) I wrote fussball, and of course I meant soccer. But as you know,
> soccer is a game where every country sends 11 players to compete
> against each other's teams, but in the end, Germany wins. So let's
> write it in German: fussball. May I add that France today is in a
> total mess because politicians keep giving an overestimated value to
> the poor performance of the national team? Those kids are slaves of
> theirs sponsors, and they couldn't go to school long enough to be
> able to react politely to their coach's remarks. I feel sorry for
> them, but their team is far from being the best, with or without
> Anelka. But I don't think anybody should be blamed for their failure
> because they collectively lacked a group dynamic. What Raymond
> Domenech said ("quand ca veut pas, ca veut pas": more formally:
> without any desire, there is no desire) seems quite right to me. And
> without this qualification, French journalists may be able to talk a
> little about real problems in our democracy (massive demos today
> against the pensions' reform, after two humorists were fired from the
> public radio because they used cuss words and made fun of our
> ridiculous and fascistoid president and some of his ministers).
>
> Sorry for the garbled text (i'm using text format, though): in my
> last e-mail you should have read the names of Janos, Sascha
> Poehlmann, the references of the Polish and Magyar translations are /
> Mason i Dixon/, Warszawa, Proszynski i S-ka, 2005 and /
> Sulyszivarvany/, Budapest, Magveto, 2009, and Sascha Poehlmann PhD
> thesis, /Pynchon's Postnational Imagination/ is published by
> Universitaetsverlag Winter, in Heidelberg, andexpected next Fall.
>
> All the best,
> Clement
>
> Le 24 juin 10 à 10:13, Clément Lévy a écrit :
>
> > (to add a couple two more things that make this thread so happy)
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I don't intend to present to you my point on the whole conference,
> > nor on every paper that was given in Lublin, as Martin and János
> > already gave us a good rendering of its atmosphere, and some
> > opinions about most of the essays that were presented. I'll add a
> > few lines to what they already wrote, fully conscious that my
> > attempts in summarizing very rich and well-informed works of
> > research are limited by my irregular use of the notepad.
> >
> > As János and Mark made clear, Martin Eve made a very precise review
> > of quite a lot of the papers presented at the conference:
> > http://blog.martineve.com/
> > From there, scroll down to the notes on the conference, as the
> > complete URL cannot be accessed from outside the blog, so it seems.
> > A-and it was a great conference. Tore, János and I were so pleased
> > to meet each other in real life after some e-mails read or
> > exchanged on the List… you guys who live in the States also
> > experienced that kind of magic!
> >
> > Zofia Kolbuszewska and the whole organization made a great job in
> > making the venue so comfortable. We met lots of local students who
> > took us in a nice Biergarten to watch one of the fußball games in a
> > nice Biergarten, but a great deal of research was also presented
> > here. I agree with János's comments on the papers by Terry Reilly
> > (he is wonderful, and gets clear informations on the most paranoid
> > questions that Pynchon mentions in his works: Charles Richet in
> > Granada '06, and Hans Kammler now, after Nikola Tesla and Death-Ray
> > weapons in Munich '08) and Matthew Cissell on Pynchon's position on
> > the literary and social field (we also had a talk together about
> > the postmodern turn in contemporary critic, and that was wonderful
> > too). Sascha Pöhlmann on games in Pynchon's novels did also a
> > delightful research, and a very humorous presentation (wii remote
> > control in hand, to switch slides).
> >
> > Oh by the way, one of my most beloved French authors, Jean Echenoz,
> > will publish at Les Editions de Minuit next september a biographic
> > novel, Des Eclairs (Some Lightnings) whose hero is an engineer whom
> > he calls Gregor (as in "One morning Gregor Samsa, etc.") but who is
> > inspired from the life of Nikola Tesla. I'll check that novel as
> > soon as I can put my hands on it (and I'll let you know). For those
> > among you who can read French, here are the first pages: http://
> > leseditionsdeminuit.com/images/3/extrait_2647.pdf
> >
> > I must add that János made a brilliant presentation of the amount
> > of work that his own translation into hungarian needed. Many
> > linguists would have agreed with his comments on his mother-tongue,
> > and his translation was welcomed in Hungary with much favor from
> > the public, as it already sold pretty well (Súlyszivárvány,
> > Budapest: Magvetö, 2009). Have a look here for the cover art (a
> > shiny black surface on which the title, author's name and a penis-
> > shaped oozing banana are displayed so that the banana's curved skin
> > takes the place of the final y of the title Súlyszivárvány):
> > http://www.kikotoonline.hu/userfiles/image/konyv/kikoto-konyv-
> > sulyszivarvany-borito.jpg
> >
> > Another translator made a wonderful summary of her work on Mason &
> > Dixon: Joanna Urban, who wrote the Polish version of this novel in
> > about 8 months, and made a very thorough research on many points
> > that were also studied on the List, adding a wonderful footnotes
> > apparatus to her translation (Mason i Dixon,  Warszawa: Prószyński
> > i S-ka, 2005).
> >
> > It's a pity that the French translator Christophe Claro couldn't
> > make it to Lublin. The translators' panel would have been really
> > wonderful. I must confess that Piotr Siemion's talk on "The
> > Obsolescence of Lot 49" was of course funny and provocative, but he
> > had much more to tell about himself than about his text.
> >
> > Douglas Lannark didn't lecture on translation, but his paper, "From
> > V. to IV: Adjusted Addition(s)," began with a wonderful set of
> > additions of the numbers that can be read in Pynchon's novels'
> > titles. Was this a translation of Pynchon's text into numbers?
> > Douglas spoke of Pynchonian experiences in real life, and of
> > astrological allusions and correspondances: it was awesome!
> >
> > The panel called "Pynchon and Politics: Power, Spectacle and
> > Transcendance" with papers by Robert J. Lacey, Seán Molloy, and
> > Dara Waldron allowed us to enjoy the fruit of their research on
> > power and preterition, the two layers of the political discourse in
> > Pynchon's œuvre, and on the influence of the spectacular on the
> > political aspects of Pynchon's narratives, respectively. These
> > works were dense and very stimulating.
> >
> > The papers that focused on Against the Day, by Jola Feix, Nina
> > Engelhardt and Simon de Bourcier were very precise and added a lot
> > to what has already been published on the Chums (their progressive
> > independance allows a multiplicity of other-dimensional worlds to
> > appear in the narrative), on mathematics and their impact on the
> > real as well as on the fictional world represented in the novel,
> > and on aether and its mythology.
> >
> > Joanna Freer compared the fantasy induced by drugs in The Crying of
> > Lot 49 and Against the Day, and their relation to anarchism.
> > Georgios Maragos presented a complete essay on moving pictures in
> > Pynchon's novels. Pawel Frelik made an extensive review of cover-
> > arts for Pynchon's works and their translations. Tore Rye
> > Andersen's paper on Pynchon's works conceived as two trilogies
> > (California novels and global novels–V. seems to fall apart from
> > this ensemble) was convincing, notably because he based his
> > demonstration on what "world literature" means today. Jeff Severs,
> > about women and capitalism in Against the Day, let us have a
> > glimpse of his book to be published soon. So we'll hear about it
> > more accurately and very soon.
> >
> > Announcements:
> > - 3 books:
> > Jeffrey Severs and Christopher Leise (Eds.). Pynchon's Agains the
> > Day: A Corrupted Pilgrim's Guide. Newark: University of Delaware
> > Press, forthcoming (2011).
> > Sascha Pöhlmann. Pynchon's Postnational Imagination. Heidelberg:
> > Universitätsverlag Winter, forthcoming (Fall 2010).
> > Sascha Pöhlmann (Ed.). Against the Grain: Reading Pynchon's
> > Counternarratives. Amsterdam: Rodopi, forthcoming (Fall 2010).
> >
> > -1 International Pynchon Week: June 2012, (Durham University).
> > Organization: Matthias Mosch and Richard J. Moss. Note that this
> > will be the moment of the second and only Transit of Venus for our
> > generation: Many fellow Pynchonites among us in Lublin hope we can
> > organize an observation of this great event. Wait for more news to
> > come next year.
> >
> > Clément
> >>
> >
>
>