Reading GR in Brazilian Portugues

[ish mailian]

Pynchon, and GR especially, has been baffling native speakers of American
English for decades. An Industry, not quite I.G. Farben (He! He!), has
manufactured meshes, more often than not, if that's possible,  more
mesmerizing metaphorically than some of the passages in the novel.
Irony...well, didn't Eco say something about the impossibility of
destroying history that necessitates treating it with irony. We might say
that it's impossible to turn the Earth into the Moon, a death kingdom
dream/nightmare of a satellite's film run in reverse, because the living
planet, magically, mysteriously, escapes all our projections.

Well, anyway, it's a fun book for sure, one that I recommend in whatever
language you can get it in.

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 9:21 PM, Natália Portinari <
natalia.portinari at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm Brazilian too. The first time I read GR I had the PT translation and
> it obviously helped me a lot (I gave mine away, unfortunately).
>
> As good as your English may be, the original text is just too dense for a
> non-native speaker... Well, anyway, the PT translation by Cia. Das Letras
> is sold out, only used copies can be found in shops and it takes some time
> to find one.
>
> My tip for other Brazilians is to use a Kindle. If you have a handy
> definition for the trickier words, like in a Kindle that you can just touch
> the words and a def. will pop out, it's not that big of a difference. Of
> course, one should bear in mind that the references and neologisms are
> purposely cyphered, they aren't made to be understood clearly. It's not
> classical literature, it's confusing and that's what's fun about it.
>
> For a non-native speaker though, it's harder to grasp some of the ironies,
> like what's confusing on purpose or what's just very intricate... if
> anything, the language barrier can make the challenge even more fun, if you
> have the right attitude. But if you have a translation available, it's best
> to keep it around and compare it to the original eventually.
> Hi, I'm brazilian (sorry for my English) and yes, exist a translation of
> GR in Portuguese, but it sold out years ago. It is very difficult to find.
> It took me over two years to find for under R $ 300 (300 reais, or
> approximately US$ 80), at the time I found by R$ 40. The translation is
> great, but these indications to enrich much more.
>
> Moreover, in Brazil only Slow Learner and Bleeding Edge remain
> untranslated - the second is scheduled for next year.
>
> 2015-12-03 21:29 GMT-02:00 David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:
>
>> No one "understands" GR, as a whole, on their first read, but that's OK,
>> because it is so enjoyable on many levels.  Its prose is often extremely
>> beautiful.  It's stories (there are many) are sometime haunting, hilarious,
>> mesmerizing... poetic at the highest level.  It is best read slowly, and
>> without a study guide for the first read.  Just let go if something is
>> unclear.  You will want to read it again someday, and those passages will
>> make more sense each time you read it again.
>>
>> MD would be my second suggestion if GR is too daunting.  But if you read
>> GR in English your English will be much better by the time you finish it.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 5:14 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I don't know if there is a translation from American English to
>>> Brazilian Portuguese, but from what has been discussed so far, I'm assuming
>>> that readers, in Brasil, want to read GR, and, if this is the case, I
>>> strongly recommend, if possible,  reading the book in American English and
>>> posting questions to the P-List. I can help, as I am fluent in Brazilain
>>> Portuguese, but so much is going to be next to impossible to translate.
>>> Think about it this way, a common expression in Brazilian Portuguese, cala
>>> a boca, or cala a boca  Magda!, is quite difficult to translate, though a
>>> simple translation might be, shut up! or shush up!, dropping Magda, a
>>> television character, the origin, or etymology of the phrase, while not so
>>> idiomatic as to render translation impossible, is still, important, and,
>>> when we appraoch such phrases in Pynchon, say in VL, where television
>>> phrases are uses frequently and with subtle complexities that are often
>>> derived from the TV-etymology, say in how Homer Simpson says Doh!, or how
>>> the Skipper says "Little Buddy" or how, in Brazil, "Jesus's blood has
>>> power", a church phrase that made its way to television, in a famous soap
>>> opera, and then became a common phrase in ordinary conversation, of the
>>> spiritual and Christian masses, that Jesus will protect us, nothing bad
>>> will come to us...etc...a phrase that, for poor people working people,
>>> especially, in the neighborhood, where trafficking and police are a
>>> constant threat, is like a spell, like the fuck you spell that Slothrop
>>> uses in GR.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I'm no translater, clearly, but I suggest reading it in American
>>> English and going to school on the P-listers.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Filipe Siqueira
> Jornalista
>
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