(urth) Ouen and Dorcas and ??

David Stockhoff dstockhoff at verizon.net
Mon Dec 6 17:33:51 PST 2010


Sorry---I wasn't clear. I'm just saying that's how it's done in 
translated editions of a work in another language. Wolfe would stick 
closely to the form he is aping (parodying? at least having fun with).

Same with Latro's scroll. If you see a translation of Egyptian or 
Tibetan or something that clearly doesn't follow Western 
traditions---even Greek or old Norse or what have you---you will see 
chapter headings and other breaks that were entirely introduced by the 
translator, functioning as an editor, who is taking control and 
ownership (almost) of the work. They are constructions imposed upon the 
text for the convenience of the modern reader.

Also, the epigraphs give it away---Severian has never heard of Kipling.

On 12/6/2010 8:22 PM, Ryan Dunn wrote:
>
> On Dec 6, 2010, at 8:15 PM, David Stockhoff wrote:
>
>> It had to be the translator---who usually functions as an 
>> editor---who introduced the titles and, obviously, the epigraphs.
>>
>> Not Severian. Some guy named G.W.
>>
>> On 12/6/2010 4:01 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>>>
>>> From: "Ryan Dunn" <ryan at liftingfaces.com <mailto:ryan at liftingfaces.com>>
>>>> Do we know whether Severian titled the chapters of his own tome? I 
>>>> had never thought of that.
>>>
>>> It's a tricky question IMO.  Logically you'd expect that Severian 
>>> titled the chapters, but somehow chapter titles don't feel like they 
>>> are so strongly in the narrator's voice.  Still, I'm prepared to 
>>> believe they are Severians. Perhaps it doesn't tell us much anyway, 
>>> as he wrote the book long afterwards and presumably figured out who 
>>> the boatman was talking about,
>>>
>>> Even more problematic for me are the character lists at the start of 
>>> the Long and Short Sun books.  Logically, again, these should have 
>>> been written by Horn, but I find it hard not to look for Gene 
>>> Wolfe's voice there.
>>
>
> David,
>
> Why couldn't the author (Severian) have written them in, and the 
> translator (G.W.) have translated the breaks?
>
> Not saying one is right and one is wrong, but what makes you think it 
> "had to be the translator"? I ask out of genuine curiosity.
>
> ...ryan
>
>
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