#because the novel has no professional english translation

[fragiledewdrop]

WHERE NOW THE HORSE AND THE RIDER-Aka how I just had a Tolkien related freak out on the train

I can't believe what just happened to me. As in, it's such a weird chain of events that it has left me a little dizzy.

I was reading "Les Nourritures Terrestres" by Gide, and I got to a point he cites parts of a poem which I liked very much. The notes informed me that it's a French translation of "an 8th century saxon elegy called 'The Wanderer' "

That intrigued me, and, being on a train with a lot of time to pass (plus being a little tired of reading in French), I took out my phone and searched for the poem.

I found it here. It's the lament of a warrior in exile who has lost his lord and mourns the joy and glory of a world that has now disappeared. I was enjoying it a lot.

And then I got to this point:

And my mouth actually dropped open, because what?

Are you telling me that the Lament for the Rohirrim, one of my favourite poems in LOTR, which I learnt by heart at 13 and later took care to learn in the original English, which I sing when I do the dishes and which routinely makes me cry, is Tolkien's translation of an 8th century Saxon elegy?

Well, the notes at the end of the page confirmed it:

"Tolkien's rendition is hard to resist" I bet it is. I love that professional philologists add notes to their work saying "yeah, by the way, this bit here? It's in your favourite fantasy novel, and I am kinda jealous of how well it was translated, but it's Tolkien, the man spoke Old English, what can you do? Carry on, xoxo"

I mean, I had gathered that the Tolkien poem played on themes used in medieval literature, but I had no idea it was based on an actual, specific text. That makes it a hundred times cooler!

Maybe it's common knowledge, but it was a delicious tidbit of good news to me. Especially since I wasn't expecting it in the least, so I was blindsided by it.

Cherry on top? I had ignored the Old English text, since I don't understand it, but at the end I gave it a cursory read , and the line "Alas for the splendor of the prince"? "Eala þeodnes þrym!"

Now, I have never studied Old English, but I know roughly how to pronounce it (what kind of Silmarillion fan would I be if I didn’t recognize the thorn?). þeodnes has to be where "Theoden" comes from, right?

Apparently yes. I googled the "Lament for the Rohirrim", and Tolkien Gathaway has a nice little parapraph in which they explain all this. I don't know why I had never read it before, but it was a lot more fun learning it as an unexpected detour from my French practice, not gonna lie.

Bottom line: Tolkien was a both a nerd and a genius and continues to make my life brighter, and this is one of those moments in which I am very happy I have spent years of my life learning languages.

Thanks for coming to my impromptu TedTalk.

[mxtxfanatic]

Where did the idea of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian being brothers come from? Is it some mistranslation from the novel? How'd it become so rampant in the mdzs community? I feel like most fandom treat them like brothers nowadays, I can't find a single post or fanart on my recommendation board that doesn't say they're brothers 😭

I think it mostly appeared from cql fandom bleedover, because the drama creates “yunmeng siblings” to fill in for the lack of wangxian. People who only read the book in order to understand cql’s jank plot structure then began to argue that the cql canon was the same as novel canon (or superior to, depending on the individual’s breed of arrogance). It only really became as popular as it did because a few big accounts got a hold of it, made cutesy art, fics, and memes about it, dogpiled anyone who said it wasn’t canon, and then when it stopped being fun for them, left mdzs to terrorize someone else’s fandom, so if you’re not finding an “origin point,” it might just be that the originator is long gone. Now people cling to it because of their own personal attachment to the idea rather than because there’s proof, and the situation has since escalated to the translator of the official English mdzs—who had already been called out for mistranslating certain parts of the text relating to Jiang characters and their relationships to Wei Wuxian—going on their professional-facing twitter to peddle the idea that Wei Wuxian was indeed actually, verifiably adopted into the Jiang Clan, blocking anyone who pointed out that this was factually untrue and a gross abuse of authority as a translator to spread.

[mask131]

The missing Arthurian knight - rediscovered in 2019

Well the title is a slight lie - the missing knight wasn't rediscovered in 2019, it was earlier than that, but he didn't became public until 2019.

So what's this "missing knight" about? Well as the title says. There was a knight part of the Arthurian myth, and he had been missing ever since the Middle-Ages, and he was only recently rediscovered.

Or rather, to be exact - there was an Arthurian novel centered around a knight that existed and was a famous and well-known part of the Arthurian literature in the Middle-Ages, but that completely disappeared, and was forgotten by culture (as much popular culture as the scholarly one). Until very recently.

This rediscovered novel has been a hot topic of all Arthuriana fans in Europe for a few years now - and yet I do not see much talk about this onto this website, despite Tumblr being a big place for Arthurian fans?

So I will correct this by doing a series of posts about the subject. And this post will be the first one, the introduction post presenting to you "Ségurant, le chevalier au dragon" ; "Segurant, the knight of the dragon". A French medieval novel part of the Arthurian literature (hence the "chevalier au X" title structure - like Lancelot, the knight of the cart or Yvain the knight of the lion from Chrétien de Troyes), the reason this story was forgotten by all medievalist and literary scholars is - long story short - because it never existed in any full manuscript (at least none that survived to this day). It was a complete story yes, with even variations apparently, but that was cut into pieces and fragments inserted into various other manuscripts and texts (most notably various "Merlin's Prophecies").

The novel and the Knight of the Dragon were rediscovered through the work of Emanuele Arioli, who rediscovered a fragment of the story while looking at an old manuscript of a Merlin Prophecies, and then went on the hunt for the other fragments and pieces scattered around Europe, until he finally could compile the full story, that he then published in 2019, at the Belles Lettres publishing house, in 2019.

Arioli reconstructed the text, and translated it in both modern French and Italian for scholarly and professional editions (aka Honoré Champion in France, a reference for universities)...

... But also for a more "all public, found in all libraries" edition - the famous 2019 edition at Les Belles Lettres.

And not only that, but he also participated to both a comic book adaptation with Emiliano Tanzillo...

... and an adaptation as an illustrated children novel!

Finally, just a few weeks, the Franco-German channel Arte released a documentary about the reconstitution and content of this missing novel called "Le Chevalier au dragon: Le roman disparu de la Table Ronde". (The Knight of the Dragon - The missing novel of the Round Table). The full documentary is on Youtube in French for those that speak the language, here. And in German here for those who speak German.

Unfortunately there is no English version of the documentary that I know of, nor any English publications of the actual text - just French and Italian. But hey, I'll try to palliate to that by doing some English-speaking posts about this whole business!

[seashellisinmyheart]

I Never Watch Television: A 31 Minutes Novel

English Translation

Chapter Two: Part One

Happy holidays guys!

“Tulio, have your nerves calmed down?”

Returning from the commercial break for the popular Ratol mouse food. Juanin revives Tulio with the help of a huge fan. Little by little, Tulio comes back to his senses.

“Of course, inept, I'm a professional!” 

“Oh, thank goodness, because we're back on the air!”

“Aaaay!” Tulio panics again. He takes a bottle of Calmatolin painkillers out of the pocket of his blue jacket and swallow as many as he can before the program continues.

The studio lights suddenly come back on and the musical curtain of 31 Minutes opens. Tulio finishes swallowing painkillers and straightens his tie, while Juanin helps him get back on the chair. Once he has him settled, the producer runs off the set to get behind the cameras.

The magic of television works perfectly: once on air, Tulio seems calm and in control. Ready to reveal the famous news extra!

“Friends, what I am going to present to you next is the GGGHHH…” Tulio clears his throat, a pill is stuck and he has to tap his chest with his fist. Cough, cough, cough…

Quick as lightning, Juanin arrives with a glass of cold water and, gulp! Tulio drinks it in one swallow. 

“Sorry, guys. Forgive me if I get emotional. But even I am human, and this is truly the most important news I have ever had to announce in my twenty year successful profession… only comparable to when I announced the discovery of the flushing potty!”

“Ooooh!” everyone in the studio exclaims in disbelief. 

“That's right, friends, not even that shocking technological innovation compares to what I will let you know now. Where's the music, Juanin? We need a news beat!” 

Juanin gestures to the stagehands at the control, who improvise an orchestra that immediately plays music with the necessary urgency.

The camera zooms in on Tulio until it is in extreme close-up, the tension on the set is at its highest! 

“The Titrilquen space agency, AET, will launch into space in a few minutes… THE LARGEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD!”

¡¡¡¡Ooooh!!!!” exclaims every soul of the studio workers in shock.

“Just like you've heard” Tulio continues “The largest pizza in the world will be launched into space today from our own town. Given the international significance of this event, 31 Minutes has been granted exclusive access to the launching pad for the pizza. From there, my niece, Patana Tufillo, will inform us…”

On one of the news screens appears Patana, who has moved extremely quickly to the AET headquarters to cover the news. Behind her, you can see an impressive launch catapult.

“That's right, Uncle Tulio. More then eight hundred hectares of native forest was cut down to create the mega catapult that is behind me. The device will shoot the delicious projectile into space, which has been in the oven for three weeks. Six thousand hectareters of melted cheese, four hundred and fifty tons of juicy tomato; sixty five tons of blue whale pepperoni and six anchovies make this pizza the largest junk food ever to be launched into space. A real pride for humanity!”

“Shocking, Patana!” Tulio exclaims, back at the studio. At his side, he has a special guest.

“And now, our international expert, Dr. Helga Szwazzsenberg, will explain this launch in such a simple way that even I can understand, right, doctor?”

“I'll try, Tulio,” says the engineer, with her marked European accent. Helga is a very Germanic lady with a very bad temper. She wears a white apron and has long blonde hair arranged in two prominent buns, one on each side of her head.

Behind the engineer, stagehands push a smaller replica of the catapult, which they set up on the news desk. A full sized pizza sits on the device. 

Helga begins to explain, pointing at the catapult:

“A pizza like this…”

“Sorry, but weren't we talking about a ‘giant pizza’?” Tulio interrupts, surprised by the humble size of the pizza.

“This is a model, you idiot.” The doctor replies, exasperated. 

“Oh, I knew that.” Tulio lies, trying not to make a fool of himself.

[serinemisc]

@youzicha trimming a bunch of reblogs from Pointlessly Nonliteral Translation.

But I still don't like the two examples in my post above. It's admirable when somebody solves a difficult problem in a creative way, but producing "could mankind really be on the verge" is not difficult, you just look at the words in front of you. What made Woolsey so sure that what he writes is better than what the original author wrote? I guess what bugs me about this is that it is disrespectful, in the sense that he only does this because he doesn't respect the source text. If he was given a highbrow novel to translate he surely would not rewrite it, but he thinks this is schlock that doesn't matter. And yet, the game sold millions of copies, and we are still talking about it 30 years later—maybe it was not so insignificant after all.

I think the thing is the thing where you gotta unfocus your eyes and look at the big picture and not the sentences and words, you know?

I just got to a point in Honkai Star Rail where a guy is like "as a senior in the field, I'll give you some free advice" where something like "as the more experienced one" would have worked a lot better. This is the sort of thing that happens when you get too fixated on how to translate sempai (technically the Chinese xianbei but same thing).

I do understand that your point is "you can do a translation without adding in your own interpretation" but my point is that it's actually really hard to do that without making it sound awkward.

Speaking of Honkai Star Rail, it just translated " 'Kindness' is my pronoun" to " 'Kindness' is my middle name". I actually really like that one (Chinese doesn't have middle names). Uh, that wasn't relevant, I'm just playing Honkai Star Rail right now.

To be clear this was just an exercise for learning Japanese, it's not advice about how to do professional translation. But if you try, for most prose text I think it's quite possible to follow these rules and produce something that still sounds like natural English. I think that's a realistic standard to compare other translations against.

I presume you've read a translated light novel? Those read noticeably more awkwardly because they're usually closer or more literal translations. I would assume that avoiding that is the main reason most other translations take more liberties.

I think translated light novels are probably somewhere around the amount of literalism you prefer, so I just want to point out that I at least find them annoying to read in English, and that probably says something about general preferences.

(Why is a translated light novel more literal? My guess is because in a game, the thing you want to preserve is the plot, while in a book, )

To be clear, I definitely don't think that translating literally is obligatory or is an end in itself. I post about the virtues of literalism, but that's because I think the overall discourse is too one-sided and everyone takes it for granted that "literal is bad".

When I watch anime with friends, I like to infodump about the differences between the Japanese and the English subtitles, but usually, if I dislike something, it's usually an attempt to translate a word that could have better been done with a rephrase ("sempai" to "senior", very commonly). So while I agree that both extremes are bad, that informs which side I'm generally pushing for.

I think you sometimes overestimate how much impact the lack of a common ancestor language has, when something is maybe explained by a particular grammatical feature in isolation.

I mean, this is just my experience, finding sentence-for-sentence translations flow a lot better between Spanish and English, than between Japanese and English.

But yeah I dunno, it's not out of the question that my highest fluencies being in English/Japanese/Chinese makes me assume that something like English/German are more similar than they actually are. But I still feel like I'm right. Like, what PIE language would have a chart like this?

[poomphuripan]

rosyspell doesn’t have the special chapters of pbd. would you be able to summarize them? 💞💞

hi nonnie! of course i'd be happy to (o゜▽゜)o☆

full disclaimer: my knowledge of 188 novels is still limited so i might not cover all of the special chapters, these are just the ones i've been able to read/know due to the handful of vietnamese/english translations i've been accessible to.

so there are generally a lot of official extras: the written word extra chapters, additional material like interview with the characters, official chibi/cartoon au... which is why for this post i'll just focus on summarizing the post-canon extra chapters. i'll also be linking a few translations i found.

Post-canon extra chapters of Professional Body Double

(i read all of these post-canon extra chapters through a vietnamese translation here, you can google translate and get the gist of them)

Daily life a couple: Ming is sulky at Joe for always being so busy with work because he's busy himself but he can always spend time with Joe while Joe has a lot of projects to film. Joe coaxes Ming by agreeing to go on a short trip with him to the beach. They have kinky sex on the beach.

Period of Happiness: Joe surprises Ming by returning home early from his work trip. Joe hears the sounds coming from the bedroom while Ming quickly turns off what he was watching. Joe got curious so he secretly looks at what Ming had been watching, turns out Ming was watching old films which Joe 1.0 starred in. Joe feels conflicted, a bit envy of his old face, is kinda forlorn and down mood. Next morning, Ming notices something's wrong with Joe and apologizes profusely to Joe for watching films of Joe 1.0 while Joe is like it's fine (he was in fact, not fine). In the evening, Joe tells Ming he's gonna take a walk outside but Ming got all paranoid that Joe is still mad at him and starts crying and begging him to stay, promising he'll never watch films of Joe 1.0 again if Joe stays (all this kid knows is how to beg and cry lawd). Joe is like no he's just worried that Ming cannot fully accept his new look compared to his old one. Ming was like no he should be the one worrying here, worrying that one day Joe can get upset and leave him without saying goodbye like Joe once did. Ming does regret that he's never had a picture taken with Joe 1.0 but promises that he only loves the current Joe in front of him. They had hot emotional sex after resolving their conflict.

Injured Xiang-Ge: Joe gets injured on set and broke his rib a little bit. Ming immediately flies home to see Joe and take care of him. Ming expresses his fears and worries about what if one day Joe hits his head and lose all conciousness of Joe 1.0 or if Joe 2.0's soul return to this body. Joe reassures Ming that he will be more careful later on when filming.

New Year Vacation: A snowstorm hit the set where Joe is filming, causing a delay in production. Joe messages Ming to coax him about not being able to come back home in time to celebrate Lunar New Year with him. Ming surprises Joe at the hotel where he was staying to celebrate new year with him.

Jealous Little Gong: Ming is jealous over the news reporting about Joe's new film and dating rumors with his actress co-star. Joe is being sickenly sweet trying to coax Ming.

Summer Limited (adapted audiodrama here): famous actor Joe is invited to Italy for Milan Fashion Week, Ming is somewhere in Europe working around the same time so he received an invitation to the FW by the organizers to walk with Joe. Ming surprises Joe with his appearance and they're all lovey dovey with their public appearance at Joe's hesitance because it's implied that Ming's father still disapproves of his gay son.

Vacation in Munich in 2018 (english tl here): Joe takes some time off acting when he's at the height of his career to travelled with Ming to Germany where Ming is supposed to be working there for some time. They take a walk around the city one day and run into a female acquaintance of Ming. Basically Ming teases Joe about whether he's jealous, they're just being lovey and dovey bantering.

English translations of official AUs

ABO AU - read here Sentinel & Guide AU - read here

[wintergrew]

It's wild that The Thief is turning seven this year and the sp fandom is dead as hell and yet I still see people talk about it. Anyway i want to address some FAQs i guess which also means SPOILERS

Will you ever traditionally publish The Thief Trilogy?

Very unlikely because rewriting it all over again only to then be rejected by every literary agent ever would be such an annoying colossal waste of time.

Will you finish The Princess?

I want to, but it's a big pain to write for a lot of reasons. Most of them being figuring out the timeline. But I do want to.

Insert some iteration of "will you publish professionally?" or comment expressing that sentiment

It's a very sweet sentiment that used to mean the world to me but basically: I've tried. I've spent years writing original novel manuscripts and then spent tons of money I don't have trying to perfect them (which is unfortunately all but required nowadays) but the publishing industry has zero interest in anything I write. So while it is a very kind sentiment to comment this on my stuff, seeing it after getting hundreds of form rejections from literary agents/publishers kind of just feels like salt on the wound these day. 😔✊

(also I'm too poor for self publishing)

Can I translate/draw fanart/etc?

OF COURSE IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME.

Translations are always fine, but please link me! If you want to repost it in English somewhere, you must ask though. If it's a region blocked website in China or something it's probably fine, but Wattpad is not.

Can I publish something inspired by your work?

If you mean fanfiction of my fanfiction then technically idc as long as you credit and aren't rude. But i mean i don't own SOT so nothing stops you from doing your own thing.

Plagiarism is an obvious no.

Trying to rewrite and profit off of my idea is never allowed. I never thought I'd have to say this but since it has in fact happened no, you cannot change my story into an original version and try to publish it for a profit. That would be very, very illegal (even if you do change minor details!)

What is The Thief inspired by?

Star Wars, a lot of nonfiction books on the middle ages i read in 2017-18 for some reason, and getting a degree in political science. And some Dragon Age Origins in terms of high fantasy because (as someone who could never get into LOTR or GOT) that's my biggest point of reference.

The twist is very KOTOR (an older Star Wars game) inspired and the magic system blatantly streals a lot from The Force. I'm a huge Star Wars fan.

I often get asked if I'm inspired by things I've never heard of and tbh if it's not the above then probably not. I also get SNK but i only watched the first season forever ago and the similarities in city set up are there, but largely because both are based on historical Europe's walled cities of that era.

(i love middle ages European history, but do not actually think of my South Park fanfiction as historically accurate because it's not)

Will you write a sequel/epilogue?

The last chapter of the assassin was originally titled "epilogue" because i view it as that.

I do picture what happened after however, to me it's more visual still pictures than narrative writing. But I'm not good at drawing and I'm too poor to commission someone to draw it. But it looks cool in my head, so there's that.

I do have an idea set in the same universe literally centuries or millennia later that i have quite a few chapters written for, but it would be original characters. Craig's role would be mentioned and important for obvious reasons but mainly just mentioned or as that religious figure. But I would go for traditional publishing for that, so i couldn't call him Craig or anything and legally speaking "what do you mean, of course it's not a sequel to my fanfiction" but iykyk

That said, it will probably never be published and therefore unlikely to see the light of day so //shrug emoji.

Why is Thomas like that?

Idgaf anymore so I'll just say that it was because i was really annoyed by very specific circa 2020 fanon Thomas portrayals and a bunch of *draws Creek* *calls it Cromas* and then turning around and acting superior because they don't ship Creek, they ship Creek with slightly darker blond hair.

I feel like that's not even really a thing in fandom anymore, I was just really annoyed at the time and I'm very easily fueled by spite.

Is Style canon?

Whatever you want.

I have a vague idea of what their whole thing is but since I never wrote it there's DOTA.

Though i do think if I'm ever rich and can commission artists to draw the not-epilogue thing it would somewhat answer this question maybe

Can I fic bind?

As of now: Yes! Please let me know ahead of time and show me after! (I love seeing it!!!)

That is with the caveat that it is 1) just for you or a friend 2) not done professionally through a third party 3) not for a profit

Will you ever release physical copies?

No for various reasons, both legal and professional

That's all I can think of off of the top of my head.

[reiynm]

Hi there!

I just wanted to throw some positivity your way because, while I haven't played the French (I believe?) version of your VN, I played the English one and genuinely thought it was well written and engrossing. For what it's worth, I'm a voracious reader and I write fiction as a hobby, so I read stories all day long, everyday. I don't give you that compliment lightly. I mean it. You have a talent for telling stories, and I loved yours.

I respect your need for space from your project(s), especially after someone has been hurtful about the hard work you'd already poured into it. That said, if you're ever ready to pick it back up, I'm happy to help edit the English script to make you more comfortable with the English version.

I am NOT fluent in French, but I did study it for 6 years, so I have some understanding that could help towards that end.

English is my native language and I have a Bachelor's degree in it with a focus in professional writing. I was a few credits short of a minor in French, but I haven't had a chance to use my French in the 10 years since I graduated, so it's rusty to put it lightly.

If you don't want to take me up on this offer, that's fine. I just wanted to extend it just in case.

Have a wonderful day!

Hello!

Oh my god, thank you so much for your message. You warmed my heart with your compliments and your kindness 🤗 And thank you for taking the time to write me your opinion, it means a lot to me.

Currently, the French version is not yet online, but unlike the demo, it will be the French version which will be prioritized when my game is (finally) finished.

I think I'll still try to make the English version by myself. After all, this visual novel project helped me a lot to learn English (but maybe I'll post the script for those who are curious or want to translate the game into other languages ​​tho🤔), that said, thank you very much for wanting to help me. Again, this means a lot!!

Have a beautiful day💕

[sunriseverse]

[rattles tin cup with loose change] spare translation project discussion? spare translation project discussion?

hewwo bewuvvestie.......i'm going to admit i am rather nervous about actually talking about this because i haven't so far actually linked any of my translation work to this blog Officially (they're all technically linked on my sideblog but that's currently shadowbanned so :/) but i am going to be brave and purposeful and talk about my work.

i actually started translating in a slightly Official capacity (ie posting it publicly rather than just doing short snippets of translations of posts and videos for my friends) in august 2023, and i'll admit upfront that the first couple chapters of my first project ever are a little................rough. i'm planning on going back and editing the first ~20-30 chapters as soon as i've finished said project, but i still have a dozen or so chapters left (eight main novel chapters plus six extras) before i'm done, so that's going to have to wait.

what i'm excited about today is having hit the 100 chapter mark on the first novel i started translating. i've come a long way while working on it, and my reading comprehension has improved a lot (part of the reason i got into reading cnovels in the original is that, while chinese is one of my native languages, i didn't have the chance to take any more advanced classes to improve my reading (and writing) until 2022, so i wanted to improve my reading skills, and luckily baihe novels are a passion of mine), and i think that, despite my lack of professional translation training (though i'm working on that very slowly. one day i will be a licensed translator), at this point my translations are pretty good, actually.

honestly doing this is what really ignited my passion for translation—i've been passionate about languages for a long time, but i hadn't realised how rewarding the process of translation was, because it was never something that came up in any of my classes (not even the first language i tried to learn, german—probably because the teacher wasn't very good, to be fair). since that time i've grown to love translating—i love the way you can tease out implied layers in one language and figure out a way to layer them into another, the research involved in more historical/mythological-bent projects (i've learnt a lot about daoism while working on my first project, for example), finding a way to give each character a unique voice in translation, the genuine joy of the occasional feedback i get thanking me for making a novel accessible to non-speakers............

probably my only flaw is that i don't like most of the popular novels in the genre (i don't like contemporary settings much) so aside from the one singular short story i worked on that was contemporary the likelihood of me working on any contemporary novels that don't feature some element i like (transmigration, scifi, magic, folklore, etc) are incredibly low (also you will not find me reading, let alone translating, showbiz novels because i really really don't like that genre). that said i think that reading "less popular" (this is relative, most "less popular" novels published on the main platforms are still pretty popular just because of the size of the audience) is fun and gives me the chance to find some more unusual premises and share those :) english-language spheres tend to be very very focused on like. a single author. whose work isn't bad but i think they could use some variety, you know?

i just love doing translation, honestly. having projects i can work on with real, measurable progress has been so good for my mental health and happiness, as trite as that sounds ^u^

(if you want to read any of my translations, there's a short short story time travel novel (complete novel and complete translation, 17 chapters), an age-gap folklore/daoism novel (complete novel at 115 chapters, ongoing translation at 100 chapters), and an almost all-female political drama with a female emperor (ongoing novel at 106 chapters, ongoing translation at 18 chapters).)

[littledeadpotato]

Dracula rant:)

1st post! This'll be a book review (not very professional, cuz im not a book critic, I'll probably just write down what I liked) of the 1897's novel Dracula by Bram Stoker which I finished last night (running on 3 hours of sleep). I had a Czech translation from the library (because money) and that was Omega version from 2017 (it has a nice cover, Go check it out). This one took me a while to read, mainly because last few months im really tired and go to bed at like 23.00(??), so I read like 15 pages a day. Now to the review ;D

Started: 25/11

Finished: 30/12

Rating: 4.25/5⭐

Fun-ness: 7/10

Lovable characters: 6.5/10

Amount-of-times-I-spaces-out-because-Van Helsing-was-talking-pages-and-pages-and pages: 100000/10

When I started this I had no idea what I was getting myself into (plot wise, I knew there'd be Vampires), but I really enjoyed this book. For a 19th century novel, the characters were really fun (most of them, I couldn't bring myself to be genuinely interested in Van Helsing), I really liked Dr. Seward, Reinfield and Lucy (I liked the rest too but these just stood out to me).

I wasn't a huge fan of the way the Czechs (and other similiar groups) were depicted, it was very "us, english men, Are educated and know science! Those guys, stupid, they believe in Vampires and are crude", very not cool. The way this book describes women is also very funny, Im not saying Bram had some hate towards woman (the opposite, I think he also wrote strong female characters in his other books), but it really shows when this was written, on one page, both the men and the women are like: ,,Oh men are so strong and brave, women are so soft and delicate, they can never be as brave as men", and on the next one, everyone is worshipping Mina (which - fair).

(Spoilers ahead)

I would divide the book in few parts:

Jonathan's stay with Dracula

Lucy

Vampire hunting

Jonathan's stay with Dracula

This part I really liked, I'm part of the problem, because im aware Jonathan was going thru his worst, but cmon, it was a little funny to see Dracula climb down a wall like a lizard and Jonathan describing it in sheer horror. There were few very fun moments, but sometimes when Dracula was talking for too long, I sort of spaced out (-> my fault). I also enjoyed that one time the 3 ladies tried to drink Jonathan's blood and Dracula was just like: ,Get tf out👊'.But it was fun.

2. Lucy

This is the part where Lucy becomes the first vampire our friends have to deal with! This was my favourite part. I just really liked Mina's and Lucy's friendship (or more, I wouldn't mind lesbian vampire rep ;P). The whole events around it were at some point very frustrating, because you know whats happening and what they should do, but Van Helsing is just waiting and then is like "source: trust me bro💪", (speaking of Van Helsing, since my head is still full of Arcane, I kept imagining his voice sounding like Heimerdinger's, im sorry lol) which I understand but it results in things like one of the maids opening the window when Lucy was dead (or removing the wreath, I don't remember). Also all the stuff around the ship and the dog!!! Oh those are my fave parts of the book!!! I'm also pretty sure there were some chapters with John and Reinfield, which I also really liked. I was really dissapointed when Reinfield died cuz I enjoyed him as a character so much and was excited where his character gets (spoiler: to grave) and how his research continues (spoiler: it doesn't), that was my main moment of being pissed at Dracula and also when he started fucking with Mina which was a dick move honestly.

3. Vampire hunting

I'm pretty sure this was the longest part, which makes sense. I found it a bit funny, since Dracula keeps escaping and making his mischevious plans and spending money on shit and then Van Helsing, Arthur, John, Jonathan, Quincey and in certain parts Mina trying to catch him. It was a bit silly when I actually realised those babes are playing mouse and cat and also that Arthur spends shit ton money on this stuff. I dont even wanna know how it would go if neither of them was rich. How I said, wasn't a fan of Dracula being a bitch and making it Mina's problem, that sweet sweet woman didn't deserve it (I'm so glad Mina gets the recognision she should get in the book). ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT JONATHAN??? My poor man has been through the worst stuff possible through the book, he's in his late 20's and got grey hair and wrinkles just from Dracula. Also PTSD and some illness he had after getting out of the castle. Shout out to Jonathan for being the first wife guy and also LIVING THROUGH LITERAL HELL???? We dont talk about this enough T_T. Also here's my favourite fanart (idk if im just bad at looking for fanart, but this book doesn't have that much of it, like Dracula does but the side guys and Mina - Mina has few but most are with Dracula which is ickyyy - and Lucy.)

Credits to @hauntingyourself (I think)

The ending wasn't any revolutionary, it was good tho, also Quincey's death was so out my pocket, but im not complaining.

I'd also say why I liked and enjoyed this book was partially because I didn't take it as seriously, I mean I'll watch some analyses about it and all, but while reading, I was just having fun, and memes and silly fanart also helped with that.

It was a fun book, shout out to Mrs. Librarian who borrowed this book for me from another library 💋

Edit: also if you plan on reading/are reading Dracula I recommend listening to the album Empire of the vampire by Paralysed age :3

30/12/2024

[ultramarine-spirit]

Hello Mari, how are you?

I would like to ask you something about the novel because one of your posts confused me a little. From what I understand Hari and Athy meet in the novel, at least in the version that I read, when Athy goes to Ijekiel's school, after Claude lose his memories, they meet and get along. But in one of your posts you said that this was in the first version of the novel, so now I don't understand if what you meant was that only in the first version of the novel was the interaction between them and not in the final version Or that in the first version they had more interactions and that those were eliminated?

I feel like there are so many different versions of the same novel that it's quite confusing to know if what one read is the right one or not.

Hello!

Ah, yes, I can see how this topic would be very confusing.

Before WMMAP's novel was published in a more "professional" manner, so to speak, on Ridibooks and Kakaopage (so, before it was picked up by an editorial house and all that), it was published by Plutus on a different website (I don't recall the exact name right now, I can try to dig it up later. This happened all the way back in 2016). This first version was slightly different than the one we can buy and read today, and because there are so many unofficial, partial translations of the novel, this created different English versions (some translations have the chapters about Hari, and some others don't). The changes were pretty minor when it comes to the plot of the novel (according to Plutus' Naver blog posts, the edits were made around 2017), with the important exception of Athy going to Arlanta's Academy and meeting Hari and Cabel. In the new (current) version of the novel, this has been edited out and only a very small cameo remains (Athy hearing the -implied- voices of Hari and Cabel arguing) (but Athy still meets Cabel later when the Arlanta delegation comes to Obelia).

That's about it. If you ask me, I believe Plutus changed this because it created an inconsistency with BOTB's novel (written after WMMAP): Hari couldn't have studied at Arlanta's Academy, because that school doesn't accept girls. So it didn't make sense for Hari to have met Athy there as a student. In BOTB's novel, there's only a small reference to lucathy's wedding, with Hari thinking that Obelia's princess must have a great life.

That last part is just my educated guess though.

[don-dake]

一些含糊字義 a few ambiguous characters & meanings

A few characters that has perplexed me and had always been at the back of my mind, which I finally looked more into recently thanks to the Chinese novel I was reading. This has more to do with Traditional (繁體) than Simplified (簡體) but there is some overlap.

Definitions taken from various sites which I'll name but not link because Tumblr's funny about posts not showing up under the appropriate tags if a post has links it deems “unsafe”. I can't remember all the sites I referenced anyway.

I will not elaborate on example words because that will make this post much longer than necessary.

Summarised/paraphrased/translated into English by me.

-------------------------------------------

Difference between 「夥」 & 「伙」

When used to mean “companion/partner” or “a gang of people”, both can be used interchangeably in Traditional today. But 「夥」 was originally from a rural dialect that just meant “many” or “much”.

「伙」 is actually “more correct” in keeping with the meaning of “companion/partner” or “gang of people”. 「伙」 has its origins from the military of ancient times, where soldiers will have meals round a campfire together. 「火伴」 (literally “fire companions”) evolved to become 「伙伴」, and that's why 「伙食」 (“mess meals”) is always 「伙食」 and never 「夥食」.

[Ref.: Wikipedia/Wikitionary]

Both are pronounced the same in Cantonese and Mandarin.

🇭🇰🇲🇴 fo², 🀄 huǒ/ㄏㄨㄛˇ

Taiwan's (Traditional) interpretation:

Apart from 「伙食」, 「家伙」 and 「獲益甚夥」, 「夥」 and 「伙」 can be used interchangeably. But according to current dictionary recommendations and real world usage, 「夥」 is more dominant.

China's (Simplified) interpretation:

Apart from where the implication means “more” (basically, 「獲益甚夥」), 「伙」 is used for all other meanings.

[Ref.: 「知乎」]

-------------------------------------------

Difference between 「凶」 & 「兇」

Generally, they both mean the same thing: some kind of negative/aggressive situation. And if you're focusing on only Simplified, good news! You just have to remember one: 凶.

But in Traditional, there is 凶 & 兇, and more nuance involved. Both are pronounced the same in Cantonese and Mandarin.

🇭🇰🇲🇴 hung¹, 🀄 xīong/ㄒㄩㄥ

凶 — Inauspiciousness; bad year for a harvest or bad vibes. In short, more to do with bad luck, inauspicious, unfortunate circumstances beyond one's control.

e.g.：(inauspicious/misfortune) 凶多吉少、吉凶難卜、逢凶化吉、凶耗、凶兆、凶事、凶終��末（交友有始無終）、凶神惡煞；(bad year for a harvest) 凶年饑歲；(bad vibes/premonition) 凶氣。

兇 — ferocious, aggressive manner. In short, more to do with a person's temperament, actions and intentions, or a fearsome power/aura that may or may not be man-made.

e.g.: (ferociousness/aggressiveness) 兇惡、兇狠、兇猛、兇橫、兇悍、兇殘、兇險、兇相畢露； (aggressive intentions) 兇手、兇犯、兇徒、疑兇； (power/aura) 鬧得很兇、雨勢很兇。

Differentiation — where mistakes are commonly made is when 「凶」 is erroneously substituted with 「兇」. For example, 「凶耗」 is written as 「兇耗」, 「凶多吉少」 is written as 「兇多吉少」.

And the idiom 「凶神惡煞」 should not be 「兇神惡煞」.

[Ref.: 「豆瓣」、「痞客邦」]

-------------------------------------------

But it's still not that clear-cut! I also came across several instances in the book I was reading where I thought 「兇」 should be used, but 「凶」 was used instead, namely, 「行凶」. And it was repeated consistently, several times throughout the book for it not to have been a typo.

Another one is 「凶案」 (not in photo). I thought it would be 「兇案」 but my book has consistently shown 「凶案」! ༼⁠⁰⁠o⁠⁰⁠；⁠༽

I can only conclude that 「行凶」 and 「凶案」 was used in the book because 「凶」 has more room for ambiguity (i.e. misfortune that may or may not be violent) and was what the author and translator wanted to convey, whereas 「兇」 just clearly indicates intended violence involved?

Edited-to-add: Noticed in another book I have (with a different translator), 「凶」 is used in 「凶手」 now! ༼⁠⁰⁠o⁠⁰⁠；⁠༽ ↓↓↓

If anyone can shed more light on this, please do!

Seems like even between professional translators/translations, there is no standard on when to use 「兇」 or 「凶」？¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[xslytherclawx-writes]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

stolen from @thebreakfastgenie - if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

508, not including anon works

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

1,779,933

3. What fandoms do you write for?

uh... lots? i think i've written in upwards of 70 fandoms. mostly currently Harry Potter and Star Trek (Voyager & Lower Decks). Occasionally I'll toss in a Miraculous fic. My top 6 by works are: Harry Potter (187), Yuri!!! on ICE (62), Chronicles of Narnia (39), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn (18), The Umbrella Academy (TV) (12) - tied with Original Work (12)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Total Agony of Being in Love (Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston)  Two of A Kind (Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones) La Magique étude du Bonheur (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling)  i bloom just for you (Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston) enough contrition to spare (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! but i do have over 100 comments in my inbox so perhaps i am not like... the best at it haha

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I think maybe either: (for you) i would ruin myself (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling) or: Death Date (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling)�� OR: like my parents never did (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling)  but like i write a LOT of angst lol

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I've written so much fluff so I'm just going to plug relationship advice (Miraculous Ladybug) (written for @nemaliwrites actually haha) because I think it has enough stakes for the ending to count as truly happy instead of just. fluff all the way through. (though it is pretty fluffy)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

yeah. i wrote aged up characters once and got called disgusting like ok thanks you're the one who took the time to click on it and leave a comment. but ok. i also was told very rudely that sirius was ooc in a fic for not being fanon sirius. again: ok. read the books.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, pretty often, actually. I've written F/M, F/F, M/M, F/M/M. I'll be posting some F/F/M soonish too.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not often? I think the craziest one I've written was Star Wars PT / Buffy the Vampire Slayer: friends in highly low places 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not just that, but I had a fic ripped off for a professionally published novel. not that i'm still bitter, or anything.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Введение в дипломатию by lyomna, translation of an introduction to diplomacy (Narnia) From English to Русский

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Sure have! Mostly in Yuri!!! on ICE

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

don't do this to me. I genuinely don't know. all-time?? Jill/Eustace and Polly/Digory have stood the test of time better than anything for any of my other fandoms tbh. But like favorite???? I can't pick. Some evergreen ships: Katniss/Peeta (THG), Remus/Lily (HP), Drarry (HP), Hyacinth/Gareth (Bridgerton).

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i mean the entirety of the cat café universe is probably not being touched again. uh. beyond that? not one for being let down (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling) - I should probably just put an epilogue on it and call it done a matter of diplomacy (Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis) - I really do like this one, but my brain is just not giving me many more ideas for it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue and character voice!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

detailed description

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I did it before bc I was a pretentious ass and continue it in Ravenclaw AU for consistency's sake, but I probably wouldn't do it again, unless it was a language I spoke fluently (so French or German) and didn't want my POV character to understand, and even then... eh.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter, officially, but I wrote out some Halloweentown fanfiction in 3rd grade and submitted it for an assignment, so does that count?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

making me choose a favorite child. jk it's probably Lost Causes (Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling) or, in a completely different vein, the proof is in the pudding (literally. no one tested the pudding.) (Succession (TV 2018)) 

[daydreamingyacchan]

Today I would like to share with you an excerpt from "Достоевский. Жизнь и творчество" (К. Мочульский, 1947) that describes the meeting of Pavel and Marya Kondratyevna in "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which was supposedly omitted from "Pro and Contra" because "it could affect the pacing" or so the book says. This has already been translated to English but it doesn't seem to be easily available online(or it is and I just don't know), so I decided to translate it to English myself for entertainment(educational) purposes. This scene adds some characterization to Smerdyakov and I hope it's an interesting read (although my English isn't perfect and this isn't a professional TL). TL note: Marya Kondratyevna used to be Marya Nikolaevna in the draft of the novel

"Fyodor Pavlovich's garden was separated by a fence from the neighbors garden... The owners of the house were a legless old widow of the petty bourgeois class, and her daughter... The old woman could still walk two years ago; she did some sort of work, visited people as a commission agent, sold goods for a percentage, but the longer she worked the less she earned. When her legs gave out, her 22-year-old daughter Marya Nikolaevna returned – she used to live in a provincial town, "in service" in a certain prosperous house. Even though she was only a maid, she carried herself like a lady, and owned two or three decent dresses. She had no practical skills, not even sewing… One mistake she made early on was that she took no notice of Smerdyakov, because of some prejudice, some distant foreboding or just for some reason, didn't consider him worthy of attention. And what happened next? It was something you couldn't possibly expect. Marya Nikolaevna, who adored noblemen and high-class society, came to like Smerdyakov's unyieldingness, specifically his cold tone and his complete dissimilarity to any "man" of the class to which Smerdyakov belonged. Smerdyakov, in turn, quite liked two of her dresses – one with a train, and the fact that she was able to shift the train. At first the train angered him greatly, but later he liked it very much. They both recognized higher people in each other. Although Marya Nikolaevna wasn't particularly pretty, she was tall and very thin, there were even some pockmarks on her face, just a few, but they still marred her. The kind Marfa Ignatievna considered her quite adorable. For a long time, Marya Nikolaevna had been urging Smerdyakov to visit them and make their acquaintance, and she spoke about it sweetly: to visit their refuge (meaning “their haven”), to visit their little corner or nest. Smerdyakov always mumbled something in answer, but at least he didn't complain. After all, she was inviting him with a smile and even forwardness. Smerdyakov wouldn't go. And after a while, she began inviting him without any boldness and with a begging expression on her face. –Why is it that you don't want to grace them with your presence, do you not have time for it or something, – noted Marfa Ignatievna at last, who in her heart was very pleased to see a meeting of two young people. Had Marfa Ignatievna only said something awkward, made some insinuation about, for instance, you're young people, and it's God's will for what's to happen, and she would have ruined everything.  Never, ever and under no circumstances would Smerdyakov have come to visit the neighbors and he would have just stopped talking to them. But God swept the dark cloud away, and Smerdyakov went to visit; not on the next day, not on the third day, but on the fourth day. Of course, he considered that more elegant."

The original Russian text is found in "Достоевский. Жизнь и творчество" (К. Мочульский)

[gnosisjournal]

Gnosis: An International Journal Of English Language And Literature Citefactor Org-journal Analysis Paper Indexing

Mani's father was a member of the Jewish-Christian sect of the Elcesaites, a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites. At ages 12 and 24, Mani had visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his, calling him to go away his father's sect and preach the true message of Christ. In 240–41, Mani travelled to the Indo-Greek Kingdom of the Sakas in modern-day Afghanistan, the place he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies. Returning in 242, he joined the court of Shapur I, to whom he devoted his solely work written in Persian, often identified as the Shabuhragan. The authentic writings were written in Syriac Aramaic, in a novel Manichaean script.

Hence, our choice to charge no publication fee/article processing costs from the contributors whose papers might be printed in the issues of GNOSIS. Nair is Consulting Editor of Biblio, a quantity one Indian evaluation journal, and on the editorial board of international, peer-reviewed journals such because the Journal of Literary Semantics (De Gruyter) and Language and Dialogue (Walter Benjamins). She additionally writes broadly in national papers and journals and has been a regular contributor to Australian radio's 'The Book Show' and Mark Tully’s BBC program 'Something Understood'. From 2015 onwards, she has additionally been an occasional on-line columnist for NDTV. Many of those movements used texts associated to Christianity, with some identifying themselves as particularly Christian, though quite completely different from the Orthodox or Roman Catholic varieties. Jesus and various other of his apostles, such as Thomas the Apostle, claimed as the founding father of the Thomasine type of Gnosticism, determine in many Gnostic texts.

Publication in our Journal signifies that your analysis articles will be out there free of charge entry online being instantly citable. Our Journal shortens the time wanted earlier than publication, presents a high quality peer-review system, highly-professional scientific copyediting, DOI task, and submission to many online directories. Several prominent scholars have contributed editions of their authoritative translations to our library collection.

Harvest offers a frightening imaginative and prescient of a futuristic, technologically advanced world the place a human physique is a saleable entity towards the favored photographs of romantic, fancy, beautified, and easy going virtual world. Body becomes a site of reconstruction and enhancements in order to get saleable. Technology somewhat confirms the present gendered meanings assigned to the human bodies instead of neutralizing and minimizing the gender disparity. The examine suggests that the digital house doesn't liberate people from gendered our bodies however emphasizes the gender based classes and additional objectifies the body. With the textual examine of Padmanabhan’s play Harvest, the paper explores how technology reinscribes gender constructions. He obtained his doctoral diploma from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

As such, it survives in the artifacts that gnostics and their opponents have left behind, artifacts that help orient religious seekers to make sense of their very own moments of ecstasy and revelation. GNOSIS (An International Journal of English Language & Literature) is an International peer-reviewed, Print journal, revealed quarterly (January, April, July, and October) and devoted to disseminate, scholarly research and analysis. Each concern incorporates articles on a variety of authors and literary texts in English, geared toward readers inside universities and schools. Reviewing Procedure Gnosis follows a double-blind peer reviewing procedure.

The name 'Mandaean' comes from the Aramaic manda that means information.[125] John the Baptist is a key figure within the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. According to Nathaniel Deutsch, "Mandaean anthropogony echoes each rabbinic and gnostic accounts."[126] Mandaeans revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and particularly John the Baptist. Significant quantities of authentic Mandaean Scripture, written in Mandaean Aramaic, survive within the trendy era. The most essential holy scripture is called the Ginza Rabba and has parts recognized by some students as being copied as early as the 2nd–3rd centuries,[119] whereas others corresponding to S.

Prior to the invention of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 Gnosticism was recognized primarily by way of the works of heresiologists, Church Fathers who opposed these movements. These writings had an antagonistic bias in course of gnostic teachings, and were incomplete. Several heresiological writers, corresponding to Hippolytus, made little effort to precisely document the character of the sects they reported on, or transcribe their sacred texts. Reconstructions of incomplete Gnostic texts have been attempted in fashionable instances, however research on Gnosticism was coloured by the orthodox views of those heresiologists.

It was, nonetheless, almost completely restricted to Egypt, though according to Sulpicius Severus it appears to have found an entrance into Spain via a certain Mark from Memphis. Dispersal of dangerous fruit fly pests by international trade and a loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay to stop their introduction. Lautaro Lanzillotta and I even have been working with the fantastic people at Brill to start a new journal. This has been a dream of mine for a few years, and after I discovered that Lautaro had related aspirations, we banded together, received many others concerned, and Brill determined to give the journal a attempt. I need to thank everybody who has helped us alongside the greatest way, to make this dream come true. Gnosis is printed by graduate students in the Concordia University Department of Philosophy in Montreal.

Mary Magdalene is respected as a Gnostic chief, and is considered superior to the twelve apostles by some gnostic texts, such because the Gospel of Mary. John the Evangelist is claimed as a Gnostic by some Gnostic interpreters,[147] as is even St. Paul.[90] Most of the literature from this class is understood to us by way of the Nag Hammadi Library. Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was thought of a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[93] Still other traditions identify Mani, the founding father of Manichaeism, and Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures. The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad.[62] From this highest divinity emanate lower divine beings, generally identified as Aeons. Divine parts "fall" into the material realm, and are locked within human beings.

Because the gnostic heresy is a social development imposed by the early Catholics on non secular individuals they recognized as transgressors of Christianity, scholars are entertaining the concept that historic gnostics have been truly various Christians. Making the gnostic into a Christian solely imposes another grand narrative on the early Christians, one which domesticates gnostic movements. Granted, the textual proof https://gnosisjournal.com for the interface of the gnostic and the Christian is present, but so is the interface of the gnostic and the Greek, the gnostic and the Jew, the gnostic and the Persian, and the gnostic and the Egyptian. And the interface looks to have all the signs of transgression, not conformity. Understanding the gnostic as a non secular orientation toward a transcendent God past the biblical God helps us handle this type of variety and transgression.

Gnosis is committed to maintaining a high commonplace of philosophical rigor and high quality with its publications. It additionally works with the Graduate Philosophy Students' Association (GPSA) to publish a select summer time conference concern, showcasing high-quality work from the annual GPSA convention. The Journal welcomes authentic, unpublished research papers which incorporates important analysis of any aspect from the school members, graduate students, unbiased researchers, and writers from all round the world. Gnosis is not a "lifeless historic philosophy", however as an alternative a lived and residing fact of human experience with historic roots and a transformative potential for the longer term growth of human consciousness. With publication of the Red Book, irrefutable evidence is offered of Jung's deep relationship to the visionary and experiential custom of Gnosis. Throughout his life, Jung publicly and privately affirmed his affinity to Gnostic custom.

Around 1970 in graduate college, I wrote a paper on the Gospel of Thomas, one of many paperwork found at Nag Hammadi in 1945. The debate over its gnosticizing components was alive and well, and I weighed in with an argument that its thorough oblivion to history rendered it Gnostic—in the capital-“G” sense. As I studied the teachings of Michio Kushi, its foremost American instructor, I began to suspect religion. With longtime political interests in world authorities, Kushi elaborated on a cosmological spiral, with people descending from a “unique principle” because it divided into yin and yang. Finding balance with yin and yang energies by way of food regimen and lifestyle would result in alignment and peace, even because the earth itself wobbled on its axis by way of cycles that lasted hundreds of years—the earth’s specific location influencing people for good or ill.

In Jung in Love, Lance Owens illustrates how Jung's four last books—his "final quartet" of major works revealed after 1945—are summary statements about his experiences during the years he labored with Liber Novus. C. G. Jung's relationships with ladies during these central years of life have generated a quantity of commentaries and critiques. But the power and depth of love has figured little in a lot of the romances about this era patched collectively by biographers, dramatists, and psychoanalysts. In consequence, a crux experience of Jung's life has been miscast and little understood. The Lost Gospels—a ninety minute lengthy BBC documentary (first launched in 2008).

Gnosis has provided students with a possibility to realize exposure of their works in the public sphere. Most submissions to the journal come from Graduate college students, but distinctive Undergraduate work is also welcomed. The journal follows a blind peer-review process to ensure honest and nameless evaluation of all submissions.

If authors do embody their names on submitted papers, anonymous reviewing cannot be assured. This doctoral dissertation dissertation was defended at Uppsala university in 2006. It is the primary time during which text linguistic strategies had been employed on Nag Hammadi texts, in this case, the Gospel of Truth. The work introduces multiple new ideas as for the interpretation of the Gospel of Truth and tries to evaluate Einar Thomassen's ideas of Eastern valentinianism that was offered in The religious seed.

It was accepted for publication in the Nag Hammadi and Manichaean collection by Brill. Due to many delays, Jörgen Magnusson has chosen to broaden the work and embody many new chapters before the revised book will be published. Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα, "fullness") refers again to the totality of God's powers.

[kebriones]

Translated parts of T. Kallifatides’ “Timandra" (PART 1)

Part 2

part 3 coming soon

Intro:

The book has not been translated to english yet, so this is my (very much not professional) attempt at translating some parts of it, mostly the ones that have to do with Alcibiades.

This is a historical novel, told as a sort of autobiography from the POV of Timandra, an hetaera who according to some versions of the story was there to witness Alcibiades’ death. We know nothing about her, so the author has constructed an entirely new story for her. 

I also have to mention that it was written in 1994 and it’s one of the few books this author has written in greek.

I will not include the original greek text, unless someone specifically asks for it. I have tried my absolute best to not take any liberties and translate it as close to word-for-word as possible rather than try to make the prose sound better in english, to convey it as it is. 

I will include commentary after some parts, for fun :D 

Lastly, the setting of the book is as follows: Timandra reminisces on her entire life on the night of Alcibiades’ assassination, while he is sleeping and she is awake. 

the translations are under the cut! enjoy!

(p.7) He was lying next to me, naked. The reflection of the fireplace’s flame fell on his forehead and made the drops of sweat glow like gemstones. That was exactly when steps were heard. I froze. He was breathing deeply, calmly. “Someone’s coming” I said. “Let them come, whoever wants to” he replied to me. “Twenty five years I wait for them” Then he turned on his right side. A moment later he was asleep. He always slept on the right. “I can’t sleep on the left” he had explained to me. “I can’t sleep on my heart, and my heart never sleeps.” (transl. notes: my mother always told me to avoid sleeping on my heart, in order to sleep more easily and not have nightmares)

(p.20) Luckily Alcibiades was asleep, or we would have a quarrel. “Why must we explain everything?” he would say, lisping, something that meant he was truly angry.

(p.22) Night. The sky was close and the stars shone with a light we were not used to. It was a foreign night. I had seen many nights, in Greece, on the islands, in Asia, in Sicily. Nevertheless, I couldn’t feel at home with them. I always missed the night of Attica, which maintains something from the light of day like an afterglow, like the dull shine of an old mirror. (transl. notes: this is really weird to me because I keep saying, there’s something about the sky in attica. If you’ve lived your whole life here, when you travel elsewhere you really get it. idk what it is. maybe a mass delusion)

(p.43) …that not even their king could manage in bed, so poor Alcibiades was compelled to knock up their queen, whose bastard they called Leotychides but she called him Alcibiades, and as a result, the king’s horns were so large that he didn’t dare go out hunting anymore because he got tangled in the bushes. (transl. notes: in greece if your spouse cheats on you, the saying is that you grow horns)

(p.56, timandra talking about the first time she saw Alcibiades) Ten years old I was when I saw him for the first time, he bewitched me immediately both as he was who he was and because he made me dream. I would imagine we lived together, that he was my brother, that I wasn’t a girl but a boy and that we wrestled or competed together at running, that I would rub him with oil after the bath.

(p.88) He had to sleep. The war had lasted almost my whole life. The first time he took part in battle he was still a teenager. Now he was forty four years old. Twenty eight winters and twenty eight summers he had prepared to be killed, every battle could be the last. Most of his friends and even more of his enemies had already died or fallen in the war. His life was emptying. Around him was the void, in Athens as well as in Sparta. Twenty eight years lasted the war and all those years I was in love with Alcibiades, however I never tried to keep him near me. I never made use of neither tears nor caresses-and I had no other means. Afterall, I liked seeing him wear his armor. The shield, the helmet, the sword. He seemed to me immortal. I know though that he wasn’t. My nails could leave bloody marks on his bare shoulders, let alone a sword. 

(p.92) One afternoon, as I was climbing my pine tree, I found my spot taken by a blonde girl at my age. I knew who she was. She was the daughter of Hipponicus, one of the richest Athenians, who was also Aspasias’ first husband before she got Pericles. They called her Hipparete. I was pissed, of course, even though I couldn’t do anything about it, the pine tree was not my property and so I started to climb down, when Hipparete, with a soft voice that surprised me, said: “We both fit” There was something so polite and mild in her tone that I acquiesced. I climbed up again and sat next to her. She offered me almonds. I didn’t talk much. We looked silently at the spectavle down on the field, when suddenly we saw Alcibiades enter the palestra and I felt Hipparete next to me focus her attention, as I did mine, and I understood that this sweet-voiced, blonde girl was one of my rivals. If only I knew how right I was. I pretended to observe the match and in reality I observed Hipparete. Her face kept changing color. One moment she was ashen, the next beet-red, she clenched her hands as if in adjuration and other times she shut her eyes as if she couldn’t bear to watch. Alcibiades at the palestra was having problems. His opponent was bulky and buff. Alcibiades was trying to slip away but the other had caught him about the waist and was pressing him backwards like a sapling. Looking at Hipparete, I saw she was ready to faint, when suddenly we heard a shout and Alcibiades’ opponent had let go of him and was rubbing his shoulder. “You bite like a woman, Alcibiades!” He said, so loudly that everyone heard him. “I bite. But like a lion” replied Alcibiades, even louder. The old men on the bleachers started laughing, even the bitten one could not help himself. He gave a friendly pat on Alcibiades’ shoulder and they left together for the baths. We saw them wash each other, dry each other up. When I turned again to Hipparete, I saw her crying. (transl. note: I feel like it’s highly unlikely that Hipparete, being from the family she was, would be allowed to do anything like climbing trees to look at boys at age twelve or thirteen that she’s supposed to be here but it’s a cute scene i guess. plus it’s the bitting scene so I had to include it.)

(p95) The rest of them did not want anything more than that. And so, Alcibiades stopped Hipponicus, greeted him respectfully and suddenly slapped him across the face. Hipponicus was lost for words, tried to say something, regretted it and walked away, as fast as his age and dignity would allow. Alcibiades won the bet. At the same time, he fell in the Athenians’ esteem, who could forgive a murder in cold blood, but not the slapping of an old and respected citizen. There were some limits, that not even Alcibiades could surpass without punishment. There was nothing left but ask for forgiveness. Something he did, but in such a way that the Athenians would talk more about the repentance than the offense. Early the next morning, he stood himself outside of Hipponicus’ house, waiting for him with his head bowed. To those who asked what he was doing there, he replied that he wanted to ask for forgiveness from Hipponicus. Why didn’t he go inside? they asked him. No, he wasn’t worthy of stepping food in that house. Athenians, always fond of shows and curious, smelled that something was cooking and started gathering in the corner. It is not known what crossed the mind of Hipponicus, when he saw all those people outside his house. Eye witnesses said that he was terrified and turned to go back inside. But Alcibiades ran and pleaded with him to stop. After that, taking off his chiton, he stood in front of him completely naked. Someone was saying later that his beauty doubled the light of day, someone else was saying he looked like Eros himself. Complete silence fell and everyone could hear Alcibiades’ raspy voice, who spoke way too slowly, like all who lisp. “Hipponicus, I behaved insolently towards you and I ask for your forgiveness and as proof of my repentance, I hand over my body to you, to whip it or do whatever else you consider fit. Hipponicus had not become this rich without eyes or tongue. “Alcibiades, son of Kleinias” he said. “I am not so small-souled (mean-spirited, petty?) as to whip you and unfortunately I am way too old to do to you what I consider fit!” The mass around them broke into laughter and some not quite seemly comments were made.

PART 2 COMING SOON