#the jumping frog
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Photo
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
#Staff Pick of the Week#Staff Pick#Mark Twain#The Jumping Frog#The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County#Thérèse Bentzon#Revue des deux Mondes#The Saturday Press#The Californian#American News Company#Harper & Brothers#Frederick Strothmann#Charles Henry Webb#Satire#Humorists#translation#revenge translation#literary beefs#olivia
55 notes
·
View notes
Text
#retro aesthetic#aestethic#90s#90s aesthetic#anime#anime edit#retro#anime and manga#naruto shippuden#naruto classic#naruto series#naruto#gamabunta#bunta#frog#taod#90s nostalgia#90s anime#early 2000s#2000s nostalgia#2000s#shonen anime#shonen jump#shonen#shinobi#ninja#manga anime#cyberconnect2#kurama#retro graphics
1K notes
·
View notes
Photo
Frog automaton, Switzerland, c. 1820 !
#I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH!!!#apparently he croaks and jumps#I would kill to see him in action#what a fabulous thing!#reminds me of something my aunt had as a kid that was this metal frog with shiny green enamel and red jewels for eyes#it opened up so I guess it was a box but it was pretty small#anyways#frogs#automatons#or is it#automata#mechanical#pearls#rubies#enamel#1820s#19th century#gold#switzerland#swiss restoration period#animals
12K notes
·
View notes
Text
old RE stuff i didnt finish
#resident evil#re4#re2#second is based on my darkside chronicles experience with a friend#was gonna be one of them fat ugly frog things jumping behind em that was the entire punchline but leons arm frustrated me so bad i quit 😭#back in ... april#i miss my RE era#my art#shocked i never made more RE art tbh for how fixated i was#took a reblog to realise i forgot to tag claire#claire redfield#claire baby angel i am so sorry 💔
385 notes
·
View notes
Text
Happy Leap Day!
#the great muppet caper#gonzo#gonzo the great#kermit the frog#fozzie bear#taxi#taxi cab#jump#leap#stopping traffic#muppets#muppet#the muppets#jim henson#gif#muppet gif#muppets gif#gifs of puppets#leap day#happy leap day
898 notes
·
View notes
Note
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
#cotl#cult of the lamb#heket#shamura#YOUR ART IS LITERALLY SO CUTE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING ME IT#I WOULD SACRIFICE MY FAMILY 4 RAIN FROG HEKET AND JUMPING SPIDER SHAMURA
422 notes
·
View notes
Text
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.
#frog wrote my favorite fic of all time so I literally jumped for joy at this opportunity#senju tobirama#uchiha kagami#my art#KagaTobi#sort of#I’m posting late so I may rb in the morning. sorry in advance
493 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pinch a boy
#toad#frog#toadblr#toads#frogs#little guy jumped out in front of me on my way to my car#she wanted to Subaru
368 notes
·
View notes
Note
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
#star trek#star trek fanart#mcspirk#mcspirk fanart#star trek the original series#star trek tos#spirk#spirk fanart#mckirk#mckirk fanart#spones#leonard mccoy#bones mccoy#spock#jim kirk#mcspurrk#that's it that's the tag for this now#dust trek hcs#yes jim is perfectly capable of doing the graceful cat thing and perfectly vaulting onto spock's dresser.#he was just huffy bc spock wasn't petting him lmao. he needs the attention <33333#bones on the other hand. SO BAD at doing the graceful cat thing#yes he can jump. No he cannot aim. he leaps like one of those tiny frogs that evolved to be so small they fling themselves bc they cant jum#he eats shit ALL THE TIME (mainly because of jim lmfao) but that one time he tried to get out of spock's way on the ground but failed that#MISERABLY lolll and spock stepped on his tail and spock felt so bad about it he scritched him behind the ears for twenty minutes#cats#tos#spock is like...catnip for cat!mckirk bc he PURRS and he's warm and he gives the best scritches#also jim will not hesitate to scratch a bitch if provoked but bones just does the batting paw thing because he's a doctor not a cat dammit#he feels bad about scratching people even though he is literally a cat xDD
292 notes
·
View notes
Text
Kinnporsche x textposts pt. 20 [more]
#kittysawat brothers represent!!!!#also. pete. hi#mmmm pete is the frog that jumps into the pot. pete is a lobster that wont claw its way out. until. snip snip#anyway. anyway#im still here. too bad#kinnporsche#kpts#kinnporsche memes#kptp:mine#kp
272 notes
·
View notes
Note
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.
#only frogs can prevent wildfires#the real answer to this question is that their urine is anyway almost pure water#and by losing that water fast they can minimise weight#meaning they can jump further#and thus escape better#not entirely unrelated to the reason humans might pee when scared#frog#frogs#science#Herpetology#biology
572 notes
·
View notes
Text
day 1497
#amphibian#frog#frogs handshake emoji bunnies#jumping#cartoon drawings can have a similar silhouette with the ears/eyes
318 notes
·
View notes
Text
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.
#the froggo is making the same face i make whenever i see oma's art btw#jumping for joy every time angsty elf boys appear on my dashboard :)#went for a stained glass kind of effect here (i may be addicted to doubling and overlapping lines to add a satisfying colored edge)#i've drawn so many silent princesses over the years... was finally confident enough to play with the shapes on this one :)#and i did reference wild's embroidery from jojo's art but even then i couldn't figure out what half of it was. still looks cool tho#my art#digital art#the legend of zelda#breath of the wild#linked universe#linkeduniverse#fan joy july#fanjoyjuly#lu wild#silent princess#hot-footed frog
65 notes
·
View notes
Text
my favorite mean girl
#starscream#maccadam#transformers#kotobukiya bishoujo#i have been playing tesmw for the past week or so#like endlessly#so i’m mentally unwell#but she pulled be from the darkness into another darkness#jumping from one thing that makes me unwell to another thing that makes me unwell . i’m a fucking frog bro
343 notes
·
View notes
Text
กบ โก เมลมๆ 🐸
#touhou project#東方project#touhou#touhou fanart#2hu#my art#doodle#rkgk#suwako moriya#moriya suwako#frog#mlem#help#jump off a cliff
122 notes
·
View notes