tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post5257076088709358519..comments2024-02-26T13:12:10.143-05:00Comments on Lizok's Bookshelf: Notable New Translations: What Happened in 2010 and What's Coming in 2011Lisa C. Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-24251832097600572772011-10-19T04:10:34.051-04:002011-10-19T04:10:34.051-04:00Nice your comment.it helps all the men which make ...Nice your comment.it helps all the men which make translation.Russian Translationhttp://www.russiantranslationnow.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-43139515477341712232011-01-29T17:00:31.061-05:002011-01-29T17:00:31.061-05:00Thank you, Languagehat. The mention of electricity...Thank you, Languagehat. The mention of electricity is particularly interesting!Lisa C. Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-80794021511570742862011-01-28T19:59:44.282-05:002011-01-28T19:59:44.282-05:00Not very. Jeffrey Brooks, the expert on 19th-cent...Not very. Jeffrey Brooks, the expert on 19th-century popular Russian reading, says (<i>When Russia Learned to Read: Literacy and Popular Literature, 1861-1917</i>, pp. 264-65): "Despite the interest in technology shown in the stories, there is an absence of the literature of science fiction and tinkering that was so well developed at that time for popular American audiences... Nor was there a Russian Jules Verne or an H. G. Wells. The works of these writers circulated in Russia in translation but were not adapted for the lowest level of the reading public, perhaps because of a more limited experience with new technology by both writers and readers. There was also little evidence of popular interest in electricity in the Russian fiction, probably for the same reason."<br /><br />This may well have to do with the nature of the readership; as he says in his Epilogue, "What was extraordinary about Russian popular commercial literature in contrast to Western European and American was its peasant character. Written for peasants and former peasants by people who were close to their world and concerns, it served these often first-generation readers with information and ideas they could readily absorb as they sought to make sense of the changing world around them."Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-64678766578499177662011-01-28T11:11:28.205-05:002011-01-28T11:11:28.205-05:00Thank you for your comment about the history of Ru...Thank you for your comment about the history of Russian science fiction, Languagehat... I know this is a favorite topic for you. A question for you: How popular was science fiction in the 19th century? My knowledge of Russian sf and fantasy writing is pretty anecdotal and/or tied to classics -- <i>We</i>, A. Tolstoy, Bulgakov, etc. -- until the post-Soviet period.Lisa C. Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-59613133272883427242011-01-28T09:46:29.679-05:002011-01-28T09:46:29.679-05:00These are almost exclusively Anglo-centric genres....<i>These are almost exclusively Anglo-centric genres... great to see some other countries breaking in.</i><br /><br />If you mean that other countries are only now starting to write and publish sf, that's simply not true. There's a huge quantity of sf in other languages going back well over a century, which <i>The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction</i> does a decent job of covering. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Veltman" rel="nofollow">Alexander Veltman</a>, for example, was writing sf in the 1830s, including what is perhaps the first novel to use time travel, <i>Predki Kalimerosa: Aleksandr Filippovich Makedonskii</i> (The forebears of Kalimeros: Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon) (1836).Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-62761322751512152522011-01-27T20:22:18.068-05:002011-01-27T20:22:18.068-05:00Thanks for the tip on Kurkov, Biblibio! I've l...Thanks for the tip on Kurkov, Biblibio! I've looked for his books on and off but haven't, so far, had any success finding the first of the penguin books. Maybe next time!<br /><br />A tremendous amount of contemporary Russian fiction has elements of fantasy, sci fi, or mysticism so it's definitely fitting that so many of the translations fall within those categories, if only loosely. I hope you find something to enjoy in this year's bunch. <br /><br />Thank you, by the way, for <a href="http://biblibio.blogspot.com/2011/01/svieeperrr.html" rel="nofollow">writing about Meir Shalev</a> on your blog. I first saw his name on a Russian book site and have wondered about him... but not done any research!Lisa C. Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-80302700475716740872011-01-27T09:41:42.691-05:002011-01-27T09:41:42.691-05:00I really liked Kurkov's Death and the Penguin ...I really liked Kurkov's <i>Death and the Penguin</i> and am looking forward to reading his other works. It's <i>weird</i> stuff, but pretty fantastic.<br /><br />Speaking of fantastic, it's really cool that some sci-fi and fantasy books are getting translated. These are almost exclusively Anglo-centric genres... great to see some other countries breaking in.<br /><br />Looks like there's a lot to look forward to in 2011!Meytal Radzinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-87416190614715465692011-01-24T14:40:37.756-05:002011-01-24T14:40:37.756-05:00I hope so, too, Nana!I hope so, too, Nana!Lisa C. Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-40906486002121877122011-01-24T12:57:08.668-05:002011-01-24T12:57:08.668-05:00I hope I get to read some of these translations.I hope I get to read some of these translations.ImageNationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06021414643103601330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-40484791309360395852011-01-24T09:18:21.411-05:002011-01-24T09:18:21.411-05:00Thank you for the addition, Russian Dinosaur. This...Thank you for the addition, Russian Dinosaur. This sounds like an interesting book -- I'll watch for those additional details!Lisa C. Haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10139281544357167953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7932429135630556215.post-48207950861295232812011-01-24T02:17:07.337-05:002011-01-24T02:17:07.337-05:00Thanks for this list, Lisa - we are fellow contrib...Thanks for this list, Lisa - we are fellow contributors to <i> Squaring the Circle </i>, it seems. May I add to your list my own collection of Russian twentieth-century supernatural fiction in translation, <i> Red Spectres </i>, which is forthcoming with Angel Classics in 2011? (American publication details tbc). Not just for lovers of a good ghost story, my collection includes nine previously untranslated stories by the likes of Aleksandr Grin, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, and Mikhail Bulgakov - besides some less well-known authors like Aleksandr Chayanov and Georgy Peskov. I'll pass on more details when they're confirmed...Russian Dinosaurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708798725927250672noreply@blogger.com