#the jumping frog

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week: Twain’s “Revenge Translation”

Mark Twain wrote, “I am quite sure I that (bar one) I have no race prejudices.” It is generally interpreted that the prejudice to which Twain referred is toward the French. As is often the case with Twain, it can be difficult to determine the sincerity of his ribbing; in Mark Twain and France: The Making of a New American Identity, the authors argue that Twain used France “as a kind of foil ... to help build a modern American sense of cultural self.” Sincere or not, Twain’s antipathy toward the French is on full display in The Jumping Frog: in English, then in French, then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil. Perhaps it would amuse Mr. Clemons that I came across this title because I am a bit of a francophile! Our first edition copy was published in New York in 1903 by Harper & Brothers, with illustrations by Frederick Strothmann.

The frog tale, Mark Twain’s first published short story, first appeared under the title “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” in November of 1865 in the literary weekly The Saturday Press. It was widely reprinted; Twain continued to refine the story and a new version appeared in The Californian a month later with the title “The Celebrated Jumping From of Calaveras County.” Keeping this title, it appeared again as the titular story in Twain’s first book, a collection of short stories published in an edition of 1000 in 1867 by American News Company, edited by Twain’s good friend Charles Henry Webb. Issued in seven different colored bindings, the sales were lackluster, but it has since become a hot item among rare book collectors.

A French translation of the story was completed by Thérèse Bentzon and published in 1872 in the monthly magazine Revue des deux Mondes, embedded in an essay about American humorists that Twain interpreted as condescending. He complained that Bentzon’s translation stripped all the humor from the story, and cited that as the impetus for “clawing back” the story into English, but it might have been Bentzon’s characterization of Twain as an unrefined rube that really got his goat. His retaliatory “retranslation” is a word-for-word translation retaining the French syntax. Therefore, it reads like the early days of computer-assisted translators when it was a fun party game to see who could come up with the most convoluted phrase by translating it into another language and back (although maybe this is something only English-major nerds did?). Whether read as a meditation on the limits of translation or an example of pre-internet literary trolling, it is a fun little book. 

Find more Staff Picks here. 

Check out past posts on Mark Twain here. 

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[vxmpire-vxlle]

[frogteethblogteeth]

Frog automaton, Switzerland, c. 1820  !

[yyamssoup]

old RE stuff i didnt finish

[gifs-of-puppets]

Happy Leap Day!

[alllgator-blood]

I wanted to wait until your birthday, but I got too impatient so I’m putting this right here-

I based Heket off of those little Desert Rainfrogs and I added Shamura in for funsies ^^ (I wanted to draw them as a black widow, but I couldn’t get a good reference of a black widow’s face)

NO WAYYY LOOK AT THEM, I'M SO GLAD YOU SENT THIS IN EARLY BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA. I am weak to all and any art of the bishops as funny little critters tbh, ESPECIALLY MY TWO FAVES BECAUSE FROGS AND SPIDERS ARE JUST SUCH AWESOME ANIMALS TBH?? Thank you so so much for this, I kept thinking about it while running errands today kjhsdfkfj- during my free time I worked on desert rain frog heket to match yours, with the addition of black widow mura because I was doodling them last week!

Been wanting to draw shamura doing more art stuff, and imagining them as a tiny spider weaving blankets on a tiny loom was too cute to pass up. Heket as the smallest/cutest yet temperamental frog is the funniest possible species choice for her, you have good taste LMAO

[curdledmilkk]

nine of swords for the @founders-tarot-zine

I’m so lucky to have been able to participate in a collaboration with a dear friend and muse (who wrote a beautiful fic to pair with this drawing)! So happy to create something together after all this time, and if you haven’t read her fics yet then I highly suggest checking them out.

[anactualfrog]

Pinch a boy

[dustykneed]

hey dusty I'm here to push my Spock purring agenda on you. thoughts?

of course <33 he's the og catboy. now for a transporter malfunction so they all purr:

i like to think jim is DEEP in that cat brain (not because the transporter malfunctioned any differently for him as opposed to bones. but because he is just Like That honestly). bones is the sort of... almost humanly intelligent flavor of cat. except he retains his 24/7 anxiety and jumps three feet every time someone sneezes too suddenly. and jim knocks shit off spock's counter all the fucking time so bones just eats shit all the fucking time lmfao

[googleplaysore]

[haahka]

Kinnporsche x textposts pt. 20 [more]

[markscherz]

Prepare for the worst frog question you've ever received :(

Why do frogs pee when they make their escapes? They've soared high over my head, raining pee down on me (and in one case, my ice cream). They've leaped into the water at astonishing speeds, with the aid of projectile peeing. They've paced themselves and done one thousand short hops, peeing the entire way for emphasis.

But none of them have ever told me why... no matter how politely I've asked. Wise and powerful Tumblr frog guy, why do they do it?

Frogs are actually employed by the local firefighting service to help prevent wildfires. Every time they get scared, they release the flame retardant.

[amphibianaday]

day 1497

[knight-of-aether]

Larger versions of the letter and frog I drew for the Fan Joy July thank you collab. As someone who's recently been getting back into creating for fun by diving headfirst into the Legend of Zelda and Linked Universe scenes, it's been nothing short of inspiring to see so many fans come together and support each others' works this past month. The event @kikker-oma started has introduced me to so many amazing stories and artworks, and encouraged me to share more of my own. Thank you all so much for existing and sharing your creativity with the world, and here's to whatever comes next.

[astralzeraphias]

my favorite mean girl

[soraamixx1]

กบ โก เมลมๆ 🐸