Comments on: My book reviews achieve “international stature” http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-international-stature/ "At the age of thirty-four I am weary, tired, dispirited, and worn out. I was a decent-looking boy six years ago---now I am a bald, gross, heavy, weary-looking man." Thomas Wolfe Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:22:40 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: KV http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-international-stature/comment-page-1/#comment-80 KV Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:26:14 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-global-status/#comment-80 In fact it means "One step further"! In fact it means “One step further”!

]]> By: Elif http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-international-stature/comment-page-1/#comment-43 Elif Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:49:32 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-global-status/#comment-43 Dear Kári, Thank you for the kind words and for the interesting lexicographical suggestion, which I will certainly transmit to the German translators. I'm not joking when I say I don't know any German though, so I have no idea what it means. Maybe, something like "born again"? The <a href="http://www.dict.cc/?s=nachgeboren" rel="nofollow">online dictionary </a> says "posthumous" (further qualified as: "child, born after the death of the father"), which is interesting, although I'm fairly confident that Franco Moretti is alive and well, because when I wrote to him about the German translation a few days ago, he sent an elegant one-word reply: "Wunderbar." But, these online German dictionaries are incorrigibly witty. This is what I recently learned in an email from Mark Greif, who had just looked up <i>Schritt weiter</i> and established that one of the meanings of <a href="http://www.dict.cc/?s=schritt" rel="nofollow"><i>schritt</i></a> is "crotch": "As an English speaker," Greif wrote, "I would add that it rhymes with 'Shit.' Will you help me think of better titles? How about: <i>Many More Crotches! An </i>n+1 <i>Anthology</i>. Then I would like us to be edited by Robert Musil. Aarrrggh." Good luck to you with your studies! Elif Dear Kári,

Thank you for the kind words and for the interesting lexicographical suggestion, which I will certainly transmit to the German translators.

I’m not joking when I say I don’t know any German though, so I have no idea what it means. Maybe, something like “born again”? The online dictionary says “posthumous” (further qualified as: “child, born after the death of the father”), which is interesting, although I’m fairly confident that Franco Moretti is alive and well, because when I wrote to him about the German translation a few days ago, he sent an elegant one-word reply: “Wunderbar.”

But, these online German dictionaries are incorrigibly witty. This is what I recently learned in an email from Mark Greif, who had just looked up Schritt weiter and established that one of the meanings of schritt is “crotch”: “As an English speaker,” Greif wrote, “I would add that it rhymes with ‘Shit.’ Will you help me think of better titles? How about: Many More Crotches! An n+1 Anthology. Then I would like us to be edited by Robert Musil. Aarrrggh.”

Good luck to you with your studies!
Elif

]]> By: Kári http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-international-stature/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Kári Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:11:00 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/28/my-book-reviews-achieve-global-status/#comment-39 As a student of German literature who first encountered your work by means of that very review, I must say this is stupendous news. Congratulations. Assuming you are still in contact with Herr Vennemann, and unless you genuinely do want a Mormon Moretti on your hands, might I suggest "nachgeboren" as a translation for "latter-day"? Granted, that has its own set of connotations, but I think it might be closer than either the Mormon angle or the allegation of contemporaneousness (contemporaneity?). I'm enjoying your blog, by the way. Good luck with it! As a student of German literature who first encountered your work by means of that very review, I must say this is stupendous news. Congratulations.
Assuming you are still in contact with Herr Vennemann, and unless you genuinely do want a Mormon Moretti on your hands, might I suggest “nachgeboren” as a translation for “latter-day”? Granted, that has its own set of connotations, but I think it might be closer than either the Mormon angle or the allegation of contemporaneousness (contemporaneity?).

I’m enjoying your blog, by the way. Good luck with it!

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