I am a woman of a certain age, I might as well admit it. I have now reached the moment where I could consider Botox with a clear conscience.
Each time I look at a picture of myself I am surprised I am no longer 20. ( I am sure anybody over 40 understands what I am talking about, anybody under 40 doesn’t –yet! – have a clue.)
Luckily I have Peirene who keeps me young at heart. Moreover, she compels me to keep in synch with the modern world. So, thanks to my nymph I write my little weekly blog, I am on facebook and I twitter – an achievement since these delights weren’t programmed into the DNA of my generation.
Initially it felt like a duty - an obligation I had to do for the sake of the books. But now I am just so grateful that these social media forms exist. Thanks to them I have discovered the lit blogger scene. Even a year ago, I didn’t know these impressively ferocious readers existed. They’ve given Beside the Sea and Stone in a Landslide some stunning reviews.
But that’s not all. Because of their comments I am also learning to understand why foreign fiction has such a difficult time here in the UK. People are concerned that the author’s intention and voice has been lost in translation, that the publisher and translator might have taken liberties with the text. Valuable concerns indeed. I am just pleased that Peirene has embarked on a journey to dispel them.
And since we’re talking about journeys I should announce that my nymph has been backpacking in foreign places. Let me explain. A few days ago, I was asked by the London correspondent of the German newsmagazine focus, Imke Henkel, which nationalities visit my website. I shrugged. Never thought about it, as I assumed UK only. For the first time I checked the stats in my control panel. And what a surprise – most visitors come from the US, followed closely by the UK. And then – in third place – Russia! I’m intrigued. So please if you are a visitor from Russia and you’re interested in Contemporary European literature in English translation then drop me an email.
If however you are interested in selling me beauty aids or anti-aging pills ( I am not joking, I had a substantial increase in emails offers recently) then please wait for a few years. I want to retain the illusion of looking as beautiful as Peirene.
Tags: Beside the Sea, Focus, Stone in a Landslide
I actually *refuse* to believe you are over 32, max.
Simon, you made my day!
It’s the classic British approach where the glass is never half full, but always half empty. To worry about what is lost in translation is such a negative approach to translated literature that people need to stomp it out and, instead, think about what it gained in translation. The first thing that springs to mind is, of course, access to a text that would otherwise be unobtainable. Secondly, a chance to experience the voice of a culture different to one’s own. Thirdly: more literature, simply because ideas and movements can transcend linguistic borders and enrich another culture’s literature.
This is likely explained by a) the US based ‘bots’ of Google, Yahoo!, Bing, et al spending the most time on your site, indexing your pages, so as to determine where your site ranks in their search results; b) UK visitors aware of Peirene; and c) Russian spammers visiting the site, looking for a way to farm unwanted links to their nasty sites.
Stewart, your thoughts about lit in translation are music in my ear. And thank you for the explanation re the stats. I have to admit, for a few days I truly believed that Peirene had a vast amount of potential US and Russian customers :-)
Each time I look at a picture of myself I am surprised I am no longer 20. ( I am sure anybody over 40 understands what I am talking about, anybody under 40 doesn’t –yet! – have a clue.)
I know *exactly* what you mean, but I do think there’s a certain dignity in growing old gracefully and letting nature take its course. For instance, I was looking at pictures of Kylie Minogue in Hello (or was it OK) today (I was at the hairdressers, the only time I ever get to flick through glossy magazines) and I couldn’t help thinking that something didn’t look right. I don’t know if she has been botoxed within an inch of her life or whether the magazine picture editor is a dab hand at the old Photoshop retouching, but she looked so odd without one single wrinkle / smile line on her face. It makes her eyes look out of place in her face, as if they are too small and catlike.
Women need to reclaim their wrinkles! Although if anyone wants mine they can have them! ;-)
I agree, Kim, let’s reclaim our wrinkles, still a much better look than any of the other options available - sad it may be, but I’m sure good for the character!