more than what i fear

essbie, she/her extremely multifandom and extremely feelsy pull up a chair and stay awhile! icon by @daisyskyewalker

[smallblueandloud]

my ao3 | writing tag | original posts tag

[hypokeimena]

every single time people are like "you can read this ancient or classical piece of lit for free on project gutenberg!" and then link to the worlds most dogshit and sexist translation it makes me insane. don't do that.

[hypokeimena]

feel free to reblog this without the addition but i feel bad being catty without offering a solution so here is how to operationalize how to find a good translation of classic/al lit:

check gutenberg for list of "free" out of copyright translations so you know what to avoid (if it is from 1970 or earlier it's probably just a non-starter)

check wikipedia or an online bookstore shopfront or equivalent to find or make a list of (your language) translations

pick one that was done: (a) (mandatory) in the last 30 years (as recent as possible) (b) (optional, if you have multiple modern editions) by a woman

find it in the usual way you find cheap or free books (libraries, institutional access, thriftbooks, other options, etc)

from a classical studies perspective: unless you are specifically studying the translation and reception of these works across time there simply is no reason you should be reading translations from the 1890s (thru really the 1950s and even later in some cases), that call women whores and bitches simply for existing on the page🧍‍♀️. unrelatedly, emily wilson's excellent recent odyssey translation is currently on sale on audible for $8 even if you don't have audible i have heard tell.

obligatory statement here that some authors whose translation style is much more accessible to a broad audience are not especially beloved by academics who work in the same field for persnickety reasons (see: the way classicists get about anne carson being the trending translator on tumblr dot edu) so don't necessarily pay too much attention to THAT sort of persnicketing, but do be sure that whoever is translating the work actually knows the original language well enough to work with it (i.e. for academic translators maybe check their wikipedia page for a controversy section to make sure that, for example, the translator of rumi can actually read rumi). this is probably harder for modern publishing where translator info isn't as widely publicized and i don't have great advice for you other than finding and googling the translators' name in the hopes that they've done recent interviews or have a website etc etc etc.

however, all works of literature require the reader to come into being - they are a conversation between you and the historical/ancient author. the translator is just adding another voice to the conversation and there is nothing wrong or Dangerous or traitorous etc about reading thru a translator! ideally they're just helping the ancient author get close enough to you to be comprehensible, so a more recent translation is always going to do a better job of that bc it's closer to where YOU are in the first place.

[lavenderprose]

Crucially #myshane plays to his twentieth season which is just long enough to have the experience of meeting Ottawa's new draft prospect, also named Shane, and to smile and jokingly say, "Hey nice name," and for the rookie to gulp and say, "Thank you sir I am named after you" and that makes Shane sit in his stall and stare at the floor between his skates for. Significantly too long to be healthy.

[jewelcoatfish]

additionally after retirement he watches hockey as usual and there’s a match that has like 3 shanes on both teams and one of the commentators remarked at how many shanes there are and his colleague just stares at him like “why the fuck do you think?” and ilya cackles next to him because there are at least 5 shanes that had cycled through the ottawa roster since their 20th season and a few other in montreal and the atlantic division overall

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

Leverage S05E13 The Corkscrew Job.

[ceilingfan5]

Do you like Spirk? Long fics (93k) completed and publishing every other day? Do you like nudity and outfits worse than being naked, Rube Goldberg machines of sexual frustration, fake dating at a fetish club island, ludicrous situations that continue to escalate, Spock losing it over how much he wants Jim, Jim winning conversational combat with swift and fatal efficiency, restraint and aching against it, body shimmer, public baths, temptation, entrancing dreams, and canon-typical antics multiplied by repression?

Read Between the Wanting and the Having here (and join me on what I've been fondly referring to as Vulcan Freak Island)!

[briarplant]

Fun fact: by just using imaginary numbers, some Evil Math, and 101 rotating vectors You Can Create a shitty approximation of a fish.

[kirby97]

two points of view on math fish

[kyraneko]

it isn't good art unless it's itself enough to get haters, so

win

[the-haiku-bot]

it isn’t good art

unless it’s itself enough

to get haters, so

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[smallblueandloud]

how to kill a language finally came in on libby and i immediately wrangled my phone hotspot so that my kobo could download it immediately. now i have read the intro & the first chapter (about language loss due to immigration) and i already feel like someone's carved me out with a melon baller so. pausing for now. i might have to take this book slower than i usually read. but it's really good so far. i love sociolinguistics

[smallblueandloud]

day 2 of road trip in the great unknown has gone. okay. two good meals and one shitty meal where i didn't like anything on the menu. slipped and fell on a trail but my knee bent the way it's supposed to (thank you knee PT i miss you) so all i got were some scrapes 💪 once again wishing [redacted] was here (this craving has gotten worse since she started getting along so well with my parents) but wtf can you do, huh

[smallblueandloud]

how to kill a language finally came in on libby and i immediately wrangled my phone hotspot so that my kobo could download it immediately. now i have read the intro & the first chapter (about language loss due to immigration) and i already feel like someone's carved me out with a melon baller so. pausing for now. i might have to take this book slower than i usually read. but it's really good so far. i love sociolinguistics

[littledeviantsworld-deactivated]

Did you ever just feel so lucky for knowing someone you met online? Like.. I was one click away from not following you. I was one second away from never even knowing of your existence.I would never have been this happy!!!...

[darlingofdots]

let's think of some Bits in the Hollander-Rozanov household because every good relationship needs incomprehensible and insufferable Bits:

the random Russian nouns as pet names, obviously

turning to Anya to arbitrate who won the race/loads the dishwasher correctly/scored a sexier goal etc

Ilya. Ilyusha. Ilyushenka. Ilyushenkechka.

and who won Rookie of the Year????

"I have never said this in my life"

threatening to tell Yuna

"pass me the remote?" — "come and get it" — [wrestling]

butt slapping. at every opportunity.

"we will have to shoot you like lame horse" when one of them gets so much as a papercut

idioms translated literally into the wrong language

"this is not hall of fame behaviour"

"who should I bring as my plus one" and listing random people while the other pouts

[runraerun]

This but make it domestic Spirk:

[eldar-of-zemlya]

Maaan, this Ernest Chiriacka illustration has been in my K/S inspiration folder for over a year now!! Thank you for making this post—this was the push I needed to finally make it happen xD

✨ Full size on AO3 ✨

[ashubii]

This is why I have TikTok

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[itisi-asimplegay]

falling in love with her art all over again...

Starfall by Anastasia Trusova, Acrylic on canvas

[donnajosh]

THE WEST WING 4.19 – “Angel Maintenance”

[zdr-77]

Another one of these except this time I used a reference. This is so freaking fun. My goat Kira Nerys

[cloysterbell]

You ID’d the weapon from the gunshot sound?