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So much translation discourse just boils down to monolinguals not understanding that "coolness" doesn't translate across languages, and you need to re-add it manually on the other end.
No no, not literally the word "cool" I mean the [concept of coolness]. Things that sound cool, poetic, funny, dramatic, etc in one language will completely fail to land if you simply go 1-to-1 word equivalents.
In the Japanese version of Fullmetal Alchemist, the antagonists are named after the seven deadly sins, in English. As in, rather than the Japanese word, "Greed" is still Greed in the original.
Because loan words from English are often pretty "cool", as with your Spanish and French example.
But this presents a problem, because, to give them a bit of flair, the antagonists are sometimes given a proper Japanese adjective along with their name, to make a sort of title of sorts.
"Greedy Greed"
The italicized part would be a Japanese adjective, and the bolded part is an English loanword. This is fine in Japanese, but would be totally nonsense in an English translation.
After all, it's common sense to keep the names the same, duh, and obviously the whole point of what you're doing is to translate the Japanese.
Greedy Greed. You cannot call him that.
You can't go 1-to-1. To keep the [concept of coolness], you have to identify what made the original cool, and then recreate it in the new language.
And here, we have a foreign word, and a native word, both meaning the same thing, paired together to give an antagonist a cool sounding title. So how do we do that in English.
Well, the seven deadly sins, being Christian and Catholic and all, have fancy names in Latin. Or well, they just sound fancy in English, because Latin was the language of intellectuals for a long long time.
And in fact, while we also have the word "greed", English has a fancier sounding word that means the same thing, but whose etymology comes from the fancy Latin. That might give a similar cool-loanword feeling, right?
Let’s not forget that he was played on screen by a white man. And the fact that he was black is barely ever mentioned or the book he wrote inspired by his experiences.
chose to take on his slave grandmother’s last name, Dumas, like his father did before him.
grew up too poor for formal education, so was largely self-taught, including becoming a prolific reader, multilingual, well-travelled, and a foodie, resulting in his writing both a combination encyclopedia/cookbook (which just— is fucking outrageous to me) AND the adaptation of The Nutcracker on which Tchaikovsky based his ballet
he also wrote a LOOOOT of nonfiction and fiction about history, politics, and revolution, bc he was pro-monarchy, but a radical cuss, and that got him in a lot of hot water at home and abroad.
even beyond that, he generally put up with a lot of racist bullshit in France, so he went and wrote a novel about colonialism and a BLATANTLY self-insert anti-slavery vigilante hero (which he then cribbed from to write the Count of Monte Cristo, the main character of which, Edmond Dantés, Dumas also based on himself).
(…a novel which also features a LOAD of PoC beyond the Count, and at LEAST one queer character, btw, bc EVERY MOVIE ADAPTATION OF ANYTHING BY DUMAS IS A LIE; seriously, at LEAST one of the four Musketeers is Black, y'all.)
famously, when some fuckshit or other wanted to come at Dumas with some anti-Black foolishness, Dumas replied, “My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.”
for the bicentennial of his birthday, Pres. Jacques Cirac was like, “…sorry about the hella racism,” and had Dumas’s ashes reinterred at the Panthéon of Paris, bc if you’re gonna keep the corpses of the cream of the crop all together, Dumas’s more widely read and translated than literally everybody else.
and they are still finding stuff old dude wrote, seriously; like discovering “lost” works as recently as 2002, publishing stuff for the first time as recently as 2005.
when this post first went around (a year ago apparently) I was like BUT WHAT ABOUT DADDY DUMAS THOUGH because basically
daddy general dumas was an immense fierce french warrior who was a 6 foot plus, stunningly gorgeous and charismatic Black gentleman
he invaded egypt
the native egyptians said “is this napoleon? this must be napoleon. we for one welcome our majestic new overlord”
then napoleon showed up
napoleon has all the presence of yesterday’s plain Tesco hummus
the native egyptians were like “… no… no, we’ve thought very hard and we’ll have General Dumas actually”
this did not make napoleon happy
in fact it made him jealous
napoleon felt so emasculated that he launched a campaign of revenge against General Dumas, including taking away his pension, that probably inspired a lot of Alexandre’s rather satisfying scenes in which fathers are nobly avenged and the money-grubbing villains are rubbed in the mud
His stuff is in the public domain, you can find them on Project Gutenberg here:
Project Gutenberg offers 73,007 free eBooks for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Android, and iPhone.
And for those of you who would like to try audio versions, this is what is on LibriVox, the free, volunteer run audiobook version of Project Gutenberg:
If I was in a fanfiction and started coughing up flowers while working at a flower shop (because this is a flower shop au) I would NOT connect my crush on the tattoo artist next door to the flower cough situation. I would freak the fuck out and think the pollen at work was doing some Last of Us shit to me, quit my job and move FAR away. inadvertently my flame for the tattoo artist would fade with distance, solving my hanahaki situation and proving my 'the flowers were trying to turn me into a plant zombie' theory
Character who acts how “horror characters are so stupid, if they made good decisions this wouldn’t happen” people want characters to act, but it’s not a horror movie and it’s abundantly clear that this person is paranoid beyond the point of being able to function
"I love you but you're doing wrong in a way I cannot condone" and "I hate you but you're being wronged in a way I cannot stomach" are top tier and I need more of them.
Marinette stared at her tablet like the words on it would change if she waited long enough. But even after ten solid minutes the email remained the same. It didn’t matter that Bruce Wayne had commissioned her for an expensive suit, that she was going to be so well known people were going to be breaking down doors for her contact information. Because she was going to either commit a murder or a suicide before she finished the suit he was asking for.
“Girl, what are you doing? I thought you were working on a fancy suit for some American but you’ve been sitting there for half an hour without blinking,” Alya said, sliding into a seat opposite her at the cafe they’d agreed to meet at.
“You don't understand,” Marinette said with a groan, throwing her head down onto the table. “He's the stupidest man I have ever worked with and it's going to send me insane.”
“Totally, this could be your villain origin story,” Alya said as she quite clearly suppressed a laugh. Marinette lifted her head and glared at her again before sighing and rubbing her eyes tiredly.
“I'd like to see how you handle a billionaire so dumb he mixes up basic fashion terminology with something about taxidermy-”
Marinette’s rant was cut short when a communicator buzzed in the depths of her bag. She paused and glanced down to see Tikki’s wide eyes picking up a communicator she’d gotten from Wonder Girl back when she’d helped her out with a new costume design. It had been a fun thing to do for the superheroine and she’d offered to be on call if she needed anything.
For it to be ringing now…she checked the message and stood up immediately, Alya following suit as she raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“How do you feel about suiting up to go and take down some guy in Zandia?”
_ _ _
Landing at Young Justice headquarters, Marinette smiled and greeted Wonder Girl with a kiss on each cheek. Rather than give away all of her powers without knowing who would be there for the fight, she and Alya had portalled to nearby before making the rest of the way on foot. They didn’t speak directly with Wonder Girl but were ushered onto the plane to get them to Zandia as they were a couple of the last to arrive.
Neither of them knew the people around them but they were more than happy to build a quick camaraderie before they went to battle - being on the same wave length as those around them could be the difference between life and death in a lot of cases. Alya melded seamlessly with some of the nearby boisterous groups and Marinette gravitated towards the more serious, quiet ones.
It was a relief when they finally landed in Zandia, the groups segmented into three troupes, under Wonder Girl, Robin, and Superboy. Alya wished her luck half-jokingly, and Marinette returned the favour more seriously before they went their separate ways. They had no idea if Marinette’s blessings really did anything, but why take the chance?
When the fight started, Marinette lost all track of everything except what was going on in front of her. The number of times she used her yoyo to disrupt an attack or pull someone out of the way was higher than she could count and she focused hard enough not to know how long the fight had been going on.
But, the battle raged on and Marinette wondered if there was any more she could be doing. Her powers weren’t great for straight up brawls to apprehend a villain, though her willingness to throw hands was. It was probably why Wonder Girl had put her with Superboy’s unit, whereas Alya had been put with Robin’s, the sneakier YJ member.
“Look out!” Superboy shouted, grabbing hold of her and pulling her out of the way of a blast. She gave a soft squeak before refocusing on the task at hand. Immediately she saw a course of action that would probably lead to at least four of their opponents being put out of commission.
“Hey, put me down over there,” she shouted over the general din around them, and Superboy gave her a nod and launched her in the direction she suggested. It wasn’t what she had expected but it was definitely quick and something she was capable of handling, so she couldn’t complain.
It was strange seeing Superboy so serious but it was very attractive on him. She definitely loved his brash and flirty nature normally but she really liked it when his more focused side came out. It was obvious he was trying to lead his team as best he could and she could appreciate that it wasn’t as easy as a lot of people tended to think.
By the time the fight ended, Marinette was hoarse from shouting in defiance and calling out to teammates. It didn’t matter that she could hardly be heard over everyone else present, it made her feel better to vocalise when she was in a straightforward battle. It also had a tendency to make opponents think that she couldn’t be quiet which helped when she did have to do stealth missions.
Superboy was flying around and checking for any injuries as they tried to get everyone onto the plane again. She was maybe the last person he approached, probably because she was quite obviously absolutely fine, but when he did she felt the usual flutter in her stomach when she was faced with the Super.
“It was great to have you out there with us,” Superboy said, his usual flirty grin back in place now they didn’t have anyone to fight. Fighting back the blush that was spreading up her neck she nodded sharply to him. She didn’t dare say anything in case she stumbled over her words like she usually did when faced with a hot person. Thankfully, Wonder Girl came over to greet them both and she could focus on her instead.
“LB, thank you so much for joining the fight today. I’ll do a big thanks to everyone soon but…I really appreciate you throwing in since we haven’t really fought together before.”
“Of course! What are friends for? Besides, even though I’ve never met Empress before, one of our original team had a hard time of things because of a villainous family member so I feel for her. If she ever wants a sympathetic ear feel free to give her my contact and I’ll come over with some sympathy macarons.”
“You bake?” Superboy asked, sounding surprised. She’d almost managed to forget he was there but the blush she had tried to keep at bay started to creep up on her again. She nodded again and looked anywhere but at him to settle herself.
Luckily, Alya came leaping over to them, following along behind Robin who was probably coming to talk to the rest of his team. She knew Impulse was busy running around the troops to flag anyone who needed medical attention, same with Secret, but she wondered where Empress and Arrowette were. Then again, maybe Arrowette was comforting Empress after what was probably a very emotional battle against the latter’s grandfather.
“Girl, when you said we were going to brawl today you were not kidding. Cara’s not going to believe what we got up to when I catch up with him later,” she said with a grin. “Speaking of, I should probably head on home now that things are finished with here. Think you could take a minute to get me back?”
“Sure, let’s go,” Marinette said, smiling at both Superboy and Wonder Girl before following Alya to a quiet clearing. They raised eyebrows back at her but didn’t stop either of them as they found some privacy. “I’ll probably hang around to see if they need any more help before I head back. It’s not like I have Cara waiting for me.”
“Yeah, and if the eyes you’re making at Superboy are any indication, you’d rather hang around and flirt,” Alya laughed, making Marinette squawk indignantly before combining Tikki and Kaalki to open the portal for Alya to step through into her apartment.
Hanging around turned out to be an excellent plan because the other heroes were planning on an all-out party to celebrate, inviting the non-members of Young Justice to join them. Marinette agreed, hopping onto the plane and chatting animatedly with a couple of other heroes as they flew back towards headquarters.
The party was thriving within a very short amount of time, the music blazing and there was pizza ordered for roughly a hundred people. The pizza guy that showed up looked exhausted and Marinette made sure he got a hefty tip from Robin before he left again.
“So, did you have fun with the team today?” Superboy said, floating over to her and grinning widely when she jumped slightly.
“I mean, we were fighting for our lives which I don’t generally count as fun,” she shot back, raising an eyebrow that he couldn’t see, though he seemed to understand the sentiment if the way his grin broadened was any indication. “But this? This is pretty cool. Certainly better than the work I have waiting for me back home.”
“You work?” He asked, eyebrows knitting together. “How old are you?”
“Sixteen,” she said easily, flexing her hands and grimacing as she thought about trying to talk to Bruce Wayne again. “I run my own business, but the guy I’m working with at the minute is a total idiot. It makes me regret choosing to offer commissions to anyone other than my uncle.”
“Wish I could say I relate but…”
“Oh yeah, no, you don’t. I’m sure you’ve never had to deal with people with more money than sense in your civilian life.”
“Yeah, I don’t even have a civilian life,” he shrugged, grabbing a set of string lights and making them dance around her. She gave a giggle when they started to shape themselves like love hearts, batting them away when they got too close. “Sounds like a lot of work, juggling the two, and I don’t even like trying to manage the hero side of things.”
“You’re not wrong,” she sighed, slumping against the wall a little. “If I could be either a hero or a civilian the whole time it would be simpler. But my only choice would be to give up the hero-work and I can’t imagine that.”
“Since you’re one of the best heroes around? Hell no,” he said, leaning over her a little. “You know, I could be convinced to recruit you if you wanted to join a team that would understand needing to juggle two lives.”
“Become a YJ member?” she asked a little incredulously. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be part of a team, it was just that it was so far from home. “The commute might be just a little too far to be workable, Superboy.”
“Call me Kon,” he said, placing his hand on the wall next to her head. “Superboy is such a mouthful.”
“Was that an innuendo?” she asked, biting back a smile and looking at him disapprovingly. The blush on her cheeks probably gave her away because his smile turned roguish as he leaned closer.
“Depends, is it working at all?” he shot back, chucking her under the chin to tilt her head back.
She was saved from answering by Impulse running in and crashing into Kon, babbling about the music and setting up some video games. Kon shot the speedster a look of pure frustration but Marinette gracefully took the breathing space to remind herself that she had work to do.
“Well, enjoy the rest of your party, boys,” she said, smiling apologetically at Kon, who looked disappointed but accepting of it. “I’d better get home and back to work.”
“The offer stands, Ladybug,” Kon called after her, and she raised a hand in acknowledgement that she’d heard him before heading to a private room so that she could teleport home.
Fanfiction is great because you can see so clearly how people learn to write.
Some people, it's clear, learned almost entirely through absorbing the world around them. Grammar and punctuation will be all over the place, spellings are approximate, but the voice of the narration will come through so clearly. You can hear the dialect of the people around them as of they're telling the story. It's not a written story, it's a transcription of how they talk in their day to day life.
Some people learned through reading a gazillion books as a kid. Grammer and spelling will be rock solid, formatting occasionally based on the single tab of physical books rather than the double tab of online scrolling, but dialogue is often stilted and overly formal. You might notice a lack of contractions and very rigid rules they made for consistency that actually have a lot more flexibility than they think. They tend to have a fantastic grasp of sentence flow, though.
And other people formally learned how to write. This could be anywhere from taking school classes seriously because they enjoyed writing stories as a kid to literal certifications and jobs in the field. Grammer is flawless. Punctuation is triple checked. Foreign words are in italics. Characters have distinct voices. But their self indulgence is tempered by perfectionism. They know precisely what they want from a fic. Authors notes often feature mutterings about their happiness with the chapter. Kaomojis often appear! They seek a style to their writing, and it makes for some wonderfully clever plots! These are the ones most likely to get fun with formatting!
And some people.... Some people examined it all. They dissect dialogue, people watch, cross reference behaviours and compare characters to people irl. You can tell almost immediately who had formative experiences with Terry pratchett and/or ghibli, because it's these people. While others see writing as fun, expression, craft, they see it as art. Plain and simple. Sure, the grammar is occasionally sacrificed on the altar of creative freedom, and the occasional sentence might miss a full stop, but these people seem to self reflect on themselves as part of the art making process. On occasion, these people have the most masterful grasp of dialogue and invocation and hand sewn characterisations. Formatting is pretty standard because all the focus is on the actual words. These fics can be edited to the moon and back!
All of these can vary wildly in forethought and quality, and betas can often catch individual problems before they hit post, but just. Isn't it so cool? What's that one Oscar Wilde quote about every mask just being another fragment of yourself?
Guys someone please recommend me angsty Naruto fics that will absolutely destroy me emotionally and make me sob and throw up and kill myself I want to cry
I only hve one thats killed me for years because it ended in a cliffhanger and ITS BEENS YEARS AND THEY SAID THEY WERE MAKING PART 2!!!!
Its a Shikamaru x Sakura Post War arc but it diverges to Sakura actually being caught in the infinite tsukuyomi and when she got out her dream which is supposed to be her greatest wish truned to being married to shika and she woke up and now THERE IS TENSION AND SECRETS AND CONSPIRACY AND THE ENDING KILLED MEEEEEE
A cherry Blossoms Dream by Jeanne1900
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fanfic: A Cherry Blossom's Dream Ch 1, Naruto | FanFiction
Maid cleaning a massive chateau surely belonging to the richest people you’ve ever seen, and as she’s walking from room to room you notice that every single portrait is of her
wishing I could freeze time so fanfic writers could write all of their slow-burn enemies to lovers and gay porn and fix-it fics and all of their WIPs and prompts without having to worry about life and other responsibilities
fanfic writing culture isn’t “oh dang! I wanted to write about this prompt with this character but someone else already wrote it, so now I can’t”.
fanfic writing culture is always “two cakes is better than one. the more the merrier. there can ever be enough fics of this character with this prompt!”
Fanfiction for all @readersmood - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
