Books I'm Reading

I hate writing reviews, so I've been avoiding mentioning what I'm reading here. But then, it occurred to me, why do I have to write reviews? I don't even have to write comments if I don't want to. I can do whatever I want! Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Books I've read so far this year that I've remembered:

Air - Geoff Ryman
His Majesty's Dragon (and subsequent) - Naomi Novik
Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion - Jane Austen (re-reads, obviously)
Specials - Scott Westerfeld
Magic Lessons - Justine Larbalestier
The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
A Rabbit's Eyes - Haitani Kenjiro
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo - Peter Orner
From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim and Inflame - Mark Monmonnier

Books I'm reading now for enjoyment:

Imaginary Maps - Mahasweta Devi
Trash Sex Magic - Jennifer Stevenson
High Aztech - Ernest Hogan

Next in line:

The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
How We Got Insipid - Jonathan Lethem
The New World Border - Guillermo Gomez-Peña
The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs (partial re-read)

Books I'm reading now for nobble research:

Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890 - 1940 - George Chauncey
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century - Graham Robb
Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush - Susan Lee Johnson

A few comments:

1. Everyone's been raving about "A Rabbit's Eyes" but it is one of the worst translations I've ever seen. I went looking for reviews to see if anyone agreed with me and the insanely stupid reviewers just called it "poorly written"! As if the author is responsible for the translator's poor grasp of English grammar and style! This translator, Paul Sminkey, doesn't even know the difference between past tense and past participle (although I'm more shocked that his copyeditor didn't seem to know either.) Some sentences were so badly wrought that I had to rewrite them before I could even go on. Clearly, translation needs to be government regulated, because this was a crime against humanity.

2. I really, really want to write essays on "Air" and "Mavala Shikongo", but I'm waiting until I've read a number of other books so I can compare and contrast. For example, I really have to read "The Quiet American" to compare with "Mavala Shikongo"; and I'm thinking of drawing in "The Last of the Mohicans" as well, but I'd have to re-read it. And I'm probably going to include "Air" in something I write about hybridity, that includes "New World Border" and "High Aztech" as well as "Atomic Aztex" by Sesshu Foster. I might post some of that energy here.

3. I posted stuff (inspirations, enjoyments) from "Squaw Tit" over on atlast(t) blog. I much prefer that to reviews, although I was thinking of writing a review anyway. I'll just do it now: the book was fun and gave a lot of great examples and procedural details on toponymy or place naming. It didn't include enough theory and abstraction for my taste, though. I wanted all this fun information grounded in ideas. That's all.

4. My recent hybridity post/manifesto came less out of my usual thinking about race, and more out of reading Chauncey's "Gay New York". Chauncey makes the point (over and over again; this was his dissertation) that the binary homo/hetero conception of sexuality that prevails today didn't exist before the beginnning of the 20th Century, and that previous to that the binary was entirely a gender one (if you act like a man, you're normal, even if you fuck men. If you act like woman, you're an invert.) Trying to wrap my head around this paradigm shift has made me temporarily loosey-goosey about categories, so I'm taking advantage of this to propose hybridity.

Comments

[Paul Sminkey]

"Crime against humanity"? Rather harsh, don't you think? I have no delusions about my writing ability, and have no doubt that the novel might have been better translated. Even still, I was quite upset by your comments, which I feel are unkind and unfair. I do not deserve to be so maligned.

In my defense, I doubt that such an obscure novel would ever have been translated if I hadn't translated it. To use a trite phrase, translating the book was a "labor of love," and I spent several years in that effort. I'm thrilled that Mr. Haitani's unpretentious yet powerful book is now available in English.

Over the past fifteen years, I've worked hard to learn Japanese, and I'm afraid my English has suffered. I'm working hard to correct that, but I'm afraid I still have a long way to go. Even so, I don't feel that I've earned your ire or insults, and would appreciate if, at the very least, you would delete my name. (Googling my name brings your comments close to the top of the list, which is quite embarrassing.)

I didn't translate "Usagi no Me" to prove myself as a writer. Rather, I was moved and challenged by the novel and wanted to share that experience with others--especially teachers. Haitani's message--that teachers should suffer with their students in order to grow as human beings--seems desperately needed nowadays. Part of the appeal of the novel is its simplistic style and endearing naivety. Even in Japanese, the novel does not pretend to be serious literature written for adults; rather, the book is written in simple language for young adults. This does not excuse my inadequate translation, I suppose, but I do hope that the book will be read not for the quality of the writing but for its challenging and universal insights into education and society.

As I allude to above, nothing in English has been written about any of Mr. Haitani's work, and I am pleased that one of his books is now finally available to English readers. I'm sorry that you take such offense to my translation, but I'm pleased that you took the time to read the book.

Sincerely,
Paul Sminkey