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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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Apple fucked us on right to repair (again)

Today (September 22), I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. Tonight, I'll be in person at LA's Book Soup for the launch of Justin C Key's "The World Wasn’t Ready for You." On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

Right to repair has no cannier, more dedicated adversary than Apple, a company whose most innovative work is dreaming up new ways to sneakily sabotage electronics repair while claiming to be a caring environmental steward, a lie that covers up the mountains of e-waste that Apple dooms our descendants to wade through.

Why does Apple hate repair so much? It's not that they want to poison our water and bodies with microplastics; it's not that they want to hasten the day our coastal cities drown; it's not that they relish the human misery that accompanies every gram of conflict mineral. They aren't sadists. They're merely sociopathically greedy.

Tim Cook laid it out for his investors: when people can repair their devices, they don't buy new ones. When people don't buy new devices, Apple doesn't sell them new devices. It's that's simple:

https://www.inverse.com/article/52189-tim-cook-says-apple-faces-2-key-problems-in-surprising-shareholder-letter

So Apple does everything it can to monopolize repair. Not just because this lets the company gouge you on routine service, but because it lets them decide when your phone is beyond repair, so they can offer you a trade-in, ensuring both that you buy a new device and that the device you buy is another Apple.

There are so many tactics Apple gets to use to sabotage repair. For example, Apple engraves microscopic Apple logos on the subassemblies in its devices. This allows the company to enlist US Customs to seize and destroy refurbished parts that are harvested from dead phones by workers in the Pacific Rim:

https://repair.eu/news/apple-uses-trademark-law-to-strengthen-its-monopoly-on-repair/

Of course, the easiest way to prevent harvested components from entering the parts stream is to destroy as many old devices as possible. That's why Apple's so-called "recycling" program shreds any devices you turn over to them. When you trade in your old iPhone at an Apple Store, it is converted into immortal e-waste (no other major recycling program does this). The logic is straightforward: no parts, no repairs:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

Shredding parts and cooking up bogus trademark claims is just for starters, though. For Apple, the true anti-repair innovation comes from the most pernicious US tech law: Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

DMCA 1201 is an "anti-circumvention" law. It bans the distribution of any tool that bypasses "an effective means of access control." That's all very abstract, but here's what it means: if a manufacturer sticks some Digital Rights Management (DRM) in its device, then anything you want to do that involves removing that DRM is now illegal – even if the thing itself is perfectly legal.

When Congress passed this stupid law in 1998, it had a very limited blast radius. Computers were still pretty expensive and DRM use was limited to a few narrow categories. In 1998, DMCA 1201 was mostly used to prevent you from de-regionalizing your DVD player to watch discs that had been released overseas but not in your own country.

But as we warned back then, computers were only going to get smaller and cheaper, and eventually, it would only cost manufacturers pennies to wrap their products – or even subassemblies in their products – in DRM. Congress was putting a gun on the mantelpiece in Act I, and it was bound to go off in Act III.

Welcome to Act III.

Today, it costs about a quarter to add a system-on-a-chip to even the tiniest parts. These SOCs can run DRM. Here's how that DRM works: when you put a new part in a device, the SOC and the device's main controller communicate with one another. They perform a cryptographic protocol: the part says, "Here's my serial number," and then the main controller prompts the user to enter a manufacturer-supplied secret code, and the master controller sends a signed version of this to the part, and the part and the system then recognize each other.

This process has many names, but because it was first used in the automotive sector, it's widely known as VIN-Locking (VIN stands for "vehicle identification number," the unique number given to every car by its manufacturer). VIN-locking is used by automakers to block independent mechanics from repairing your car; even if they use the manufacturer's own parts, the parts and the engine will refuse to work together until the manufacturer's rep keys in the unlock code:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

VIN locking is everywhere. It's how John Deere stops farmers from fixing their own tractors – something farmers have done literally since tractors were invented:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

It's in ventilators. Like mobile phones, ventilators are a grotesquely monopolized sector, controlled by a single company Medtronic, whose biggest claim to fame is effecting the world's largest tax inversion in order to manufacture the appearance that it is an Irish company and therefore largely untaxable. Medtronic used the resulting windfall to gobble up most of its competitors.

During lockdown, as hospitals scrambled to keep their desperately needed supply of ventilators running, Medtronic's VIN-locking became a lethal impediment. Med-techs who used donor parts from one ventilator to keep another running – say, transplanting a screen – couldn't get the device to recognize the part because all the world's civilian aircraft were grounded, meaning Medtronic's technicians couldn't swan into their hospitals to type in the unlock code and charge them hundreds of dollars.

The saving grace was an anonymous, former Medtronic repair tech, who built pirate boxes to generate unlock codes, using any housing they could lay hands on to use as a case: guitar pedals, clock radios, etc. This tech shipped these gadgets around the world, observing strict anonymity, because Article 6 of the EUCD also bans circumvention:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Of course, Apple is a huge fan of VIN-locking. In phones, VIN-locking is usually called "serializing" or "parts-pairing," but it's the same thing: a tiny subassembly gets its own microcontroller whose sole purpose is to prevent independent repair technicians from fixing your gadget. Parts-pairing lets Apple block repairs even when the technician uses new, Apple parts – but it also lets Apple block refurb parts and third party parts.

For many years, Apple was the senior partner and leading voice in blocking state Right to Repair bills, which it killed by the dozen, leading a coalition of monopolists, from Wahl (who boobytrap their hair-clippers with springs that cause their heads irreversibly decompose if you try to sharpen them at home) to John Deere (who reinvented tenant farming by making farmers tenants of their tractors, rather than their land).

But Apple's opposition to repair eventually became a problem for the company. It's bad optics, and both Apple customers and Apple employees are volubly displeased with the company's ecocidal conduct. But of course, Apple's management and shareholders hate repair and want to block it as much as possible.

But Apple knows how to Think Differently. It came up with a way to eat its cake and have it, too. The company embarked on a program of visibly support right to repair, while working behind the scenes to sabotage it.

Last year, Apple announced a repair program. It was hilarious. If you wanted to swap your phone's battery, all you had to do was let Apple put a $1200 hold on your credit card, and then wait while the company shipped you 80 pounds' worth of specialized tools, packed in two special Pelican cases:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

Then, you swapped your battery, but you weren't done! After your battery was installed, you had to conference in an authorized Apple tech who would tell you what code to type into a laptop you tethered to the phone in order to pair it with your phone. Then all you had to do was lug those two 40-pound Pelican cases to a shipping depot and wait for Apple to take the hold off your card (less the $120 in parts and fees).

By contrast, independent repair outfits like iFixit will sell you all the tools you need to do your own battery swap – including the battery! for $32. The whole kit fits in a padded envelope:

https://www.ifixit.com/products/iphone-x-replacement-battery

But while Apple was able to make a showy announcement of its repair program and then hide the malicious compliance inside those giant Pelican cases, sabotaging right to repair legislation is a lot harder.

Not that they didn't try. When New York State passed the first general electronics right-to-repair bill in the country, someone convinced New York Governor Kathy Hochul to neuter it with last-minute modifications:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/weakened-right-to-repair-bill-is-signed-into-law-by-new-yorks-governor/

But that kind of trick only works once. When California's right to repair bill was introduced, it was clear that it was gonna pass. Rather than get run over by that train, Apple got on board, supporting the legislation, which passed unanimously:

https://www.ifixit.com/News/79902/apples-u-turn-tech-giant-finally-backs-repair-in-california

But Apple got the last laugh. Because while California's bill contains many useful clauses for the independent repair shops that keep your gadgets out of a landfill, it's a state law, and DMCA 1201 is federal. A state law can't simply legalize the conduct federal law prohibits. California's right to repair bill is a banger, but it has a weak spot: parts-pairing, the scourge of repair techs:

https://www.ifixit.com/News/69320/how-parts-pairing-kills-independent-repair

Every generation of Apple devices does more parts-pairing than the previous one, and the current models are so infested with paired parts as to be effectively unrepairable, except by Apple. It's so bad that iFixit has dropped its repairability score for the iPhone 14 from a 7 ("recommend") to a 4 (do not recommend):

https://www.ifixit.com/News/82493/we-are-retroactively-dropping-the-iphones-repairability-score-en

Parts-pairing is bullshit, and Apple are scum for using it, but they're hardly unique. Parts-pairing is at the core of the fuckery of inkjet printer companies, who use it to fence out third-party ink, so they can charge $9,600/gallon for ink that pennies to make:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Parts-pairing is also rampant in powered wheelchairs, a heavily monopolized sector whose predatory conduct is jaw-droppingly depraved:

https://uspirgedfund.org/reports/usp/stranded

But if turning phones into e-waste to eke out another billion-dollar stock buyback is indefensible, stranding people with disabilities for months at a time while they await repairs is so obviously wicked that the conscience recoils. That's why it was so great when Colorado passed the nation's first wheelchair right to repair bill last year:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

California actually just passed two right to repair bills; the other one was SB-271, which mirrors Colorado's HB22-1031:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB271

This is big! It's momentum! It's a start!

But it can't be the end. When Bill Clinton signed DMCA 1201 into law 25 years ago, he loaded a gun and put it on the nation's mantlepiece and now it's Act III and we're all getting sprayed with bullets. Everything from ovens to insulin pumps, thermostats to lightbulbs, has used DMCA 1201 to limit repair, modification and improvement.

Congress needs to rid us of this scourge, to let us bring back all the benefits of interoperability. I explain how this all came to be – and what we should do about it – in my new Verso Books title, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

Image: Mitch Barrie (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daytona_Skeleton_AR-15_completed_rifle_%2817551907724%29.jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

kambanji (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kambanji/4135216486/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Rawpixel (modified) https://www.rawpixel.com/image/12438797/png-white-background

#pluralistic #vin locking #apple #right to repair #california #ifixit #iphones #sb244 #parts pairing #serialization #dmca 1201 #felony contempt of business model #ewaste #repairwashing #fuckery

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identifying-cars-in-posts · 1 year ago

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I GOT A NEW CAR

Everybody meet the new baby that i will never shut up about forever!

This is Clifford the Third, my new 1996 Nissan Pickup!! I probably paid too much for her but given that I live in Massachusetts and she has virtually no rust I’m okay with that lol.

So a brief history of the Nissan Pickup! These trucks were released in the US in 1985 and were sold through 1997, when they were replaced with the Frontier. They were the successor to the beloved Datsun 720, which had been in production since 1979. They are in fact just called the Pickup! They’re colloquially known as the D21 - their chassis code, and the Hardbody, because of the double walled durable construction of the trucks’ bed.

The D21 was available with a couple different engines and drivetrain layouts. Mine is a 4x4 with the KA24 motor (which it shared with the 240SX/Silvia). She’s also a King Cab, meaning she has a slightly elongated wheelbase to allow for two small inwards facing jump seats in the back of the cab. Still a two door though.

AND SHE’S A STICK! She has a 5-speed manual transmission, and it’s the best transmission i’ve ever personally had in a car. She’s my third manual, the other two being a 1999 Toyota Corolla and a 2004 Subaru WRX, both of which were great but the Corolla had a really sloppy gearbox that felt incredibly vague at times, whereas the WRX had a sportier transmission that was pretty unforgiving and stiff. This one is definitive about where each gear is, but also won’t get too jerky or loud if you shift a little early or late.

Nissan Hardbody trucks are known and loved for their durability, versatility, and simplicity. They’re super bare bones but what they do have is built remarkably well and meant to withstand lots of abuse. If they don’t rust and have basic maintenance kept up it’s not uncommon for them to go 300k+ miles with minimal issues. Mine has around 184k miles, high but manageable. She also has a few modifications from the previous owner, namely a straight piped exhaust (no muffler, just one big long aluminum tube), aftermarket bumpers and lights, locking hubs, and a small lift. The guy i bought it from had plans to make it an off-roader but had too many projects and needed to offload one to make space in his driveway.

While many people either take these off-roading or turn them into drift trucks, my plan is to bring her back to mostly stock. I’m in the process of tracking down OEM bumpers and a more typical cat-back (from the catalytic converter back) exhaust system so she’s a little less obnoxiously loud. Since i mostly just need reliable transport more than a toy and she is now my sole car, I want to just make her relatively normal. But I love her a lot and am happy to be able to share!

#not a car id #nissan #i put like 70 miles on her today alone and she did great

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synthaphone · 3 months ago

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Allowing myself to go on a tangent about the nearly 26 year old virtual pet website that i am way too invested in.

So today they released the Candy Pteri. While I appreciate what they were trying to do here with it effectively having two designs that you get to choose between (The "Melted Candy Pteri" on the left is a Paint Brush wearable that can be removed to reveal the customizable base pet on the right), I think in this case, they have created two extremely boring designs when they could have easily created one strong design, or hell, even two strong designs if they wanted to do extra work.

Because with this release, we get a base Candy Pteri with no real lineart changes (like the rounded hair tufts and spines on the Candy Zafara), and an alternate design that's just... a drawing of a Marshmallow Peep™???

I would have WAY preferred a base Pteri where they did something like give it a little marshmallow dollop shape on its head and in place of the tail tuft, like my friend @darieyrie suggested. Or they could give it the Peep dot eyes and more rounded features! There's all kinds of ways you could do this concept.

I'd be less frustrated if the Peep wearable had any Pteri traits whatsoever, but its JUST a Peep that's been slightly microwaved. Which is a little funny, but even more than the Toy Poogle is just an iDog, the Candy Pteri does not have any deviation from its base inspiration at all. It's not actually an execution of the concept of "Candy Pteri thats based on a Peep" if there's no Pteri left at all!

(also are they just banking on the Just Born corporation (who make Peeps) never taking any action on this? it kind of goes beyond 'cheeky reference', its EXACTLY their product. I mean, it seems unlikely that they'll notice or bother doing anything if they do, but i don't really know why you'd risk that.) The saving graces of this design, imo, are that the pink and cream color scheme of the base pet IS pleasant (though the lineart and shading treatment aren't really my bag), and some people will enjoy the novelty of having a pet Marshmallow Peep™.

But really this is just the latest of a number of recent outfit and color releases that feel like they don't think people want Neopets. Like. This cardinal outfit that they also released today.

I love the idea of a cardinal Pteri! But this outfit literally takes away every distinguishing trait of the Pteri to make a high effort, nicely rendered, but stylistically incongruous generic cartoon cardinal????? Its not even a Neopet anymore!!! Even if I set aside my personal dislike of the overly rendered style they're using for more and more of the site assets, this wouldn't work with most of the rendering removed either, because it would still be a Pteri in pose and proportions only.

Not every new design and outfit that's come out in the past couple years has these issues and there have been a number I've really liked, and I DO think its great that the quality of the art has improved since the JumpStart era. But I would really appreciate it if the new pet colors in particular were designed a little more thoughtfully, so that they at bare minimum still resemble the species they're supposed to be outside of the rough pose and proportions. It sometimes feels like there isn't a rough draft or workshopping progress for new colors, and the members of the art team just kind of do their own thing and then the very first draft of an idea is what gets polished and released.

The current art direction for the customization aspects of the site just has me feeling like they've decided to throw out years of relatively cohesive art and world design for a strange jumble of ideas that don't really capture the appeal or feeling of Neopets to me.

#neopets #long post #i need a text post tag #sorry for my derangement #while this is frustrating to me at the end of the day like. there's years of stuff that they already made that i do like #so i'm not sitting around constantly seething. also i swear i have interests besides neopets as well lol #i'm just very invested in and opinionated about both neopets and design

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borbygorlinbbqworld · 9 months ago

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A woman doesn't notice that one of the bras she bought is a nursing one. Once she wears it her boobs fill with milk and keep growing

Anya had always had big boobs.

Ever since they had started growing at age 13, they had been on the larger scale. The process for buying bathing suits and bras in particular had always proven a challenge; she had a very petite frame, but her breasts seemed to stick out of everything, and were often sore from the padding that came with retail bras.

Which was why finding the Abra Cadabra bra in the return pile at Target meant so much to her. She looked at herself wearing it in the mirror, turning this way and that. There was virtually no padding, so while her nipples did poke through the fabric a bit, it was super comfortable. The straps didn't dig in, which was another huge bonus.

She marveled at how well it supported her jugs, even bouncing them by the straps. Though they did jiggle quite a bit, it still felt comfortable.

She smiled at herself in the bathroom mirror, finally content. She looked at the box the bra came in, wondering how she had missed this product for so long.

Nursing Bra.

Anya's cheeks flushed. The reason it must have fit so well was because the bra was intended for women with massive jugs nursing their kids.

It was a little embarrassing, but so what, right? No one would know the bra was meant for--

Suddenly, Anya felt a tightness in her breasts. It was a feeling she usually got when her bras were too small, but this bra fit, didn't it? She looked at herself in the mirror, but nothing seemed amiss.

But the feeling continued, even through to the next week.

She stood in front of the mirror again with her top pulled over her breasts, examining them. Her healthy, round double Gs looked... different.

She was no stranger to her cycle filling her cups up a little bit here and there, but this was different. Her breasts looked swollen and full, and they felt like they weighed a ton. Her nipples were constantly hard now, poking through the fabric of the bra like two aching cherries.

"Holy fuck..."

Anya whipped around, jostling her full breasts, and startled at the sound of the man's voice. Ben, her older brother's friend, stood before her. His cheeks were flushed as he stared down at her chest.

She fumbled with her shirt, doing her best to pull it back down over her boobs, but the fabric protested. It was a stretchy fabric, but even it has its limits. Finally, she shoved them into the shirt, the tightness forcing breath from her.

The shirt certainly hadn't been that tight when she put it on this morning...

"Sorry," she finally said. "I was just seeing something..."

"Looking at how big they've gotten?" Ben asked.

Anya flushed. So he noticed too... "I don't know what you mean."

He reached his hands over, gently hoisting her heavy boobs up. She released a heavy sign of relief; who knew her back ached so much from them!

But Ben didn't stop there. Gently, he rubbed his thubs over her nipples, hardening them further. Anya let out a moan; good God, that felt good!

What didn't feel good, however, was the continued tightness in her chest as it strained against a t-shirt unequipped to hold her endowment.

"Your tits were already big. Now, they're..."

Anya squeaked helplessly as he massaged her breasts occasionally jiggling them around. Every jostle not only made her shirt feel even tighter, but her clit begged for release.

"Can I tell you something?" Ben tore his gaze from her breasts to look her in the eyes. "I always had a bit of a crush on you when we were all younger. Couldn't help but picture marrying you, and getting you pregnant as many times as I possibly could."

She bit her lip to stifle the moan of pleasure his words brought her.

Riiiip.

What was that? Anya was too distracted to look away from Ben to bother. He continued handling her, sinking his fingers into her flesh; she could feel each and every gland swell at his touch.

"I couldn't stop myself from thinking about how I'd fuck you, even when you're pregnant. How your tits would get so fucking huge, you'd be some bed-ridden breeding cow..."

His thumbs swirled around the outside of her areolas, teasing the hell out of her.

Finally, with another sound of tearing fabric, she realized her shirt had ripped. Her full breasts pulled her forward from the added weight, and she moaned.

They had never felt this engorged before, let alone so full. She caught sight of them in the mirror. Where she had already been a well-endowed double G cup before, she doubted her old bras would even cover her nipples anymore. The massive mounds had deep blue veins that throbbed near her nipples, and her breasts would have filled her entire lap had Ben not been supporting them.

"God, I wanna put babies in you so bad..."

Her underwear soaked at the suggestion. The idea of being impregnated by him right now made Anya burn with desire.

His touches were agonizingly arousing, and her teats begged for release.

Release?

Finally, Ben squeezed at her nipples playfully, and she realized what had been happening. Two hot spurts of milk showered his face. Anya moaned with pleasure and from the relief; holy fuck, it felt good!

Ben let her breasts go, once again causing her to lurch forward a bit. They swayed, sloshing the gallons of milk that had come out of nowhere. He knelt down so her teats were at eye level before pulling the nursing bra down to reveal her puffy nipples. Steady streams of milk leaked from them, and she begged him internally to lap it up.

But that wasn't the only thing her body needed at the moment, was it?

She stared down at him needily. "B-Ben?"

He looked up, a small smile on his face. "Yeah?"

Anya unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her legs. "I need you to fuck me. Like... right now."

-----

🐮❤️

#breast expansion #lactation kink tw #tw lactation kink #massive breasts #smut #huge natural melons #huge cleavage #mommy milkers #big tiddy committee #writing

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eminenceevent · 2 years ago

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How Event Marketing in Singapore Can Boost Your Business

Companies constantly seek innovative ways to promote their products and services in today's competitive business landscape. One effective strategy that has proven to yield emotional results is event marketing. With its dynamic and engaging nature, event marketing can produce memorable experiences for businesses and attendees. This blog post will explore how event marketing singapore can help your business thrive and achieve its goals.

Building Brand Awareness and Exposure

This event marketing singapore offers a unique opportunity to showcase your brand in a highly targeted and interactive environment. By organizing events in Singapore, you can effectively reach your target followership, generate buzz, and increase brand visibility. Whether it's a trade show, conference, or product launch, events give a platform to showcase your offerings, connect with potential customers, and leave a lasting impression.

Driving Customer Engagement and Relationship Building

Singaporean consumers appreciate meaningful interactions with businesses. Event marketing allows you to engage directly with your followership, fostering genuine connections and building lasting relationships. You can create a strong emotional connection with attendees through interactive activities, live demonstrations, and personalized experiences, driving customer loyalty and advocacy. Also, events give an avenue to gather valuable feedback, understand customer preferences, and tailor your offerings accordingly.

Conclusion

The event marketing singapore offers various benefits for businesses seeking to make a continuing impact in their industry. You can position your business for success in the dynamic Singaporean market by using events to make brand awareness, drive customer engagement, and foster relationships. Remember to plan strategically, define clear objectives, and ensure seamless execution to maximize the impact of your event marketing efforts. So, whether you are a small startup or an established corporation, consider incorporating event marketing into your overall marketing strategy to unlock new opportunities, expand your reach, and drive business growth in Singapore.

#virtual product release #retail launch events #b2b event marketing #event company sg

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wheelsgoroundincircles · 10 months ago

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1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst

One of the great unknowns about the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst is exactly how many cars were built. Estimates put the total as low as 485, and as high as 502 cars. Regardless of what the figure actually is, the car itself is a pretty special piece of machinery.

The 300 Hurst is a giant of a car at 19′ in length. All of the Hursts rolled off the production line finished in Spinnaker White. The cars were then shipped to the Hurst factory in Warminster, Pennsylvania, where a substantial transformation was performed. The first change to be made was the removal of the standard Chrysler steel hood skin, which was replaced with a fiberglass unit. This featured a decorative hood scoop and the obligatory set of recessed hood locks. The deck lid was also removed, and once again, a fiberglass replacement, complete with a spoiler integrated with the rear quarter panels, was also installed. The White paintwork was complimented by the addition of Satin Tan highlights and contrasting pinstripes, and the wheels were adorned with the same Satin Tan color in the centers. This Hurst is a clean car, with a small area of rust visible in the lower section of the driver’s side front fender, and surface corrosion present on the car’s underside. The Spinnaker White paint appears to be in good condition, but there has been some deterioration of the Satin Tan paint on both the hood and the deck lid. The exterior trim and chrome all look good, while the tinted glass is close to perfect.

The 300 Hurst was a premium car at a premium price, so naturally, it required a premium interior. In this case, seat upholstery was available in a single type and color. Continuing the exterior theme, the color is Saddle Tan, and the material is leather. The plush front seats are not standard 300 items but have been pilfered from the Imperial parts bin. While the original intention was for a Hurst shifter to be part of the interior features, this is something that never eventuated. The interior of this Hurst is close to perfect, with a single discolored spot on the dash pad being the most obvious fault. The rest of it presents in virtually as-new condition, and as befits a luxury car, it is loaded with luxury touches. These include air conditioning, power windows, six-way power seats, cruise control, a remote trunk release, and I think that there also might be an 8-track player hanging under the dash.

The 300 Hurst was the biggest of the muscle cars, and as such, it needed a big motor to get it moving. In this case, it is the TNT 440 engine, pumping out 375hp. The Hurst also features a 727 TorqueFlite transmission, a 3.23 rear end, power steering, power brakes, heavy-duty rear springs and front torsion bars, and sway bars. The exhaust was a full dual system, ending in quad tips. This Hurst hasn’t seen a lot of recent use, and documentation confirms that between 1986 and 2019, it managed to accumulate a grand total of 20 miles! Since being removed from its climate-controlled storage, it has undergone a meticulous mechanical check and recommissioning, and it is now said to run and drive perfectly. The owner does suggest that while the tires look good, they are pretty olds, and replacing them might be a good idea. He also says that the Hurst may need mufflers fairly soon. The car does come with a fair collection of documentation, including the original Build Sheet and Window Sticker, a pristine Certi-Card, Owner’s Manual, as well as dealer paperwork and other assorted items.

While there has always been some question surrounding the build totals for the 1970 300 Hurst, one thing is certain, and that is that there are less than 300 cars in existence today. Pristine examples can fetch sums in excess of $30,000, and even a rough example in need of restoration can still sell for anywhere around $13,000. This one doesn’t need a major restoration, but it does require some cosmetic work. I’m not sure where bidding is eventually going to go with this one, but I would suspect that it will be somewhere around the low to mid $20,000 mark. Even at that price, it probably wouldn’t be a bad buy.

#Chrysler 300 Hurst #chrysler 300 #chrysler #car #cars #muscle car #american muscle #mopar #moparperformance #moparnation #moparworld

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gayconstruct · 1 year ago

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Humans are Weird — Fever

We literally heat up to cook our bodies when we can't ward off things with our immune cells, and there's a VERY slim margin for what's healthy vs what's not. If you'd like to skip the context portion scroll down to the second set of emdashes

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For some quick context, I use some consistent concepts and variations of time words under the impression there's a unified, simplified time scale in an intergalactic universal community

Shifts are 10 hours with hour lunches

There's 3 parts to every species day — Work, Relax, and Sleep — all 10 hours

Diurnal aliens including most humans are working in the mornings, relaxing in the evenings, and sleeping at night

Crepuscular aliens are working in the evenings, relaxing at night, sleeping in the morning

And Nocturnal aliens are working at night, relaxing in the morning, and sleeping in the evening

The clock is from 01:00 — 30:00 (simple 30 hour days for an even number and more leisure time) and rolls over to 01:00 from 30:59 with 01:00 being the roll over from night to morning

Time Increments

Seconds = Instants

Minutes = Moments

Hours = Periods

Days = Cycles

Weeks = Phases

Months = Stages

and Years = Terms

—————

Temperature Rising

Diverse biomes and work sectors began to stir to life, as the many species stationed upon the Integrated Vessel Ro’Vanna responded to the coming shift change. The Universal Timepiece, standard across the known universe, finally struck 0100 Cycles, the nocturnal species like the Umborra and Nostro eager to spend their recreational hours peacefully, while Diurnal species like the Shal’Dorei and newly integrated Humans were waking to begin another productive morning.

Qin, the most well known Troqir aboard and one of its select Charters, rushed to his station in the hub of the Astrometry Center, cranial crests flaring with an eagerness that to most of his crewmates would otherwise go unnoticed. Ready to start his shift as soon as his posterior hit the chair, the rather tall and muscular humanoid gracelessly plopped down, emitting quite the noise as he got started. Other species present had their full attention focused on their tasking at hand, not a single thought or care thrown to his quite hasty entrance to his station. Several crystalline scales in the crook of his neck iridesced at the thought of his companion joining him soon, his thoughts anywhere but the latest mapping data coming up on his Virtual HUD. Time passed quickly at first, the sturdy man pointing metallic fingers to different notifications that needed immediate attention, adjusting calculations to chart the next few thousand Cargo routes as he went. After roughly 14.5 moments, though, he turned to search for his oddly quiet coworker to notice that the Human had made no attempt to join him this morning, the thought causing a darker color to glisten across his crystal scaling.

He’s late.

Why is he late?

He specifically stated last night he’d “see me soon.”

He’s never this late.

For the first time in his life, Qin was completely out of focus. Several happy-go-lucky phases — human parlance, not his own — had enveloped him, exchanging his stark Troqir logicality for Human whimsy and curiosity. His work tempo was slower and uncoordinated, an unfamiliar feeling coalescing into the turbulent color shifts across his luminescent scales. Every instant that passed on the cargo vessel's timekeeper seemed to lurch at an uneven pace, a deepening pit forming at the base of his abdomen. For four and a half painstaking periods, Qin swallowed his personal thoughts to gain some form of traction on his workload, swallowing emotion as all of his people were taught and opting for diligent productivity, until - finally - the release of his allotted Nutrition Period arrived. There was no moment spared as his dense footfalls rushed towards his companions quarters, his focus unbroken as the ceiling dropped from 4 meters to a much tighter 2.4m. Qin, at just under 2.2 meters, absentmindedly ducked to overcompensate, having quickly become accustomed to this section and its many distinctions after quite a few visits.

There at last, the tall, silvery man reached what was worth looking for, a door which read in standard human language,

Room 152

Aspen Wright

With the slightest shake in his hand, Qin formed his digits into a fist to knock.

Knocking… he thought, quite the odd custom, but like many human practices, this was the most respectful of his companion’s personal space and time. For several instants, the silence in the Human Sector’s Hall allowed him no sweet mercy, the lone alien man uncertain what to do as his weight shifted back and forth between his feet, a metal clang ringing out with each motion. Thankfully, a digital projection finally slid across the width of the door, Entry Permitted, displayed in large English typeface.

Thank the Fathers and Mothers for universal translation.

With the invitation obvious and a rather low duck through the smaller door, Qin entered into the darkened room — the simulated window turned off, the curtains drawn, clothes strewn across the floor, and strange devices and pill capsules laid upon the table — not even the so-called “fairy lights” lit the quarters he had become so accustomed to. The Troqirian’s own voice came quieter than he expected, as he rasped out, “Aspen? Are you there?” A strange groan followed, then silence, then- a weary voice.

“Q-,” a cough, “Qin?”

“Y-yes… it is I, I am present,” a facepalm.

“Oh, this is a-” more coughing, “a surprise. Aren’t you on Lunch Break sweetie?”

For a moment, the light from Qin’s Luminescent Scales - ones at his nape, a few at his crests, even the ones on his exposed digits - shined brighter than before, a rainbow of colors flowing across their surface at the thought of being a “sweetie”, before taking a dim, solemn purple. “I- yes, but when you did not show up promptly 15 moments late after last night's recreation I- I began to worry. Lateness? Normal to an extent. Absence??? Abnormal, even for you… Did I… do something wrong? Did our meetings and leisure time make work uncomfortable for you?”

For his first time that entire cycle, Aspen bolted upright with a purpose, but immediately regretted it as a wave of dizziness caused the room to spin around him before he fell the wrong direction, right out of his bed into the floor.

The sight startled Qin, having no frame of reference where the human man was until now, “Fathers and Mothers! Aspen, are you injured!?”

With a weak chuckle and the groan of even more pain, he responded in turn, “I’m fine, I’m fine… I’m sorry to worry you, you never make me uncomfortable dear, I’m just a bit [under the weather] today.” Another small laugh came, and then he continued, “I was trying to tell you that, and I- I must’ve moved too fast… everything is- ugh everything is spinning. Could you help me back into bed?”

Frantic to assist, Qin’s larger form - clumsy in the smaller space, helped lie the smaller, lighter human in his nest, placing his head upon the pillow. Once situated, he covered the small man, as many human’s liked, and noticed his skin far hotter to the touch than normal, homeostatic balance oddly off. “Damn translator…” a joyous light crossing his scales as he used the human swear as he’d been taught, “for whatever reason the English to Troqirian dictionary hasn’t found a suitable translation for your imprecise speech… Could you please explain?”

“Ah, thank you for the lift, love.” Settling for an instant, eyes closed and his head on the pillow, Aspen pondered with a clouded, slow mind, trying to search for the words as his body ached and caught a chill. “... uh- an English idiom of common use in my native tongue… it’s like… to feel sick, to be unwell. I didn’t go to my work shift today because I’m too sick to go… I’m- I’m sorry I didn’t contact you to say something, this fever is really kicking my ass.”

Fever? What in the Cradles was a Fever?

“Ah… Fever- yes. Hmm, and that is… The translator states you have an elevated temperature? You were hot to the touch, hot because you’re currently ill, or ‘under the weather’ as it were?” Pondering his line of thinking, Qin couldn’t help but attempt to puzzle it together, his evolved logic center placing presented data together to reach understanding.

Why is his temperature so elevated? He… he’s too hot… His temperature felt at least 311.8°K through my temperature cells… Humans are on average 310.2°K and their species exhibits signs of death at temperatures of 315°K or more… Fathers and Mothers that’s far too close. That is far too close.

Startling Aspen’s tired eyes open, the large metallic man started in with question after question, “How are you okay? You were perfectly normal yesterday. You’re temperature is far too elevated! Are you dying? Do you need emergency services? I can call the Human Physician on board! I can, I can, I-”

“Stop. It is gonna be okay. This- uh this is a normal human response to various pathogens our immune system is unable to combat with its defense cells, so we get hotter and hotter to try to kill the invader before it can do too much damage. I’ve already spoken to the captain and the doctor and I was given some things to bolster my strength while I attempt to naturally ride out my fever. It’s gonna be okay Qin, I’m gonna be okay. The fever just has to kill the pathogen and it’ll break on its own.”

For several quiet moments Qin sat in disbelief at such a process. Actively breaking their delicate homeostasis for an illness? Their specialized cells unable to do it on their own??? He found himself running his digits through his smaller companions' hair as he pondered. He looked so weak, so small, so… precious.

Breaking the deathly silence with a few coughs, Aspen shuddered from his fever chills, squinting to the light of Qin’s scales before smiling to himself, “I can see your scared glow through my eyelids, Qin, I promise I’m okay… though the comforting touch is nice.”

“Well your eyelids are thin layers containing Keratin and Collagen, it's a miracle your species is alive…”

A laugh, somewhat stronger this time, escaped Aspen’s lips as he smiled again, “And yours have thick metallic plates and the most beautiful glowing scales I’ve ever seen. What about it?”

A hot reddish-pink overtook the Troqir’s luminescent features as he realized what power the smaller man held over him. The power to care. The power to worry. The power to be emotionally honest, something found few and far between his own people.

The power to be bold.

“Th-they’re beautiful, you… are beautiful, Aspen… I’m sorry I haven’t said it sooner. You always try to make advances on me, and I always try to deflect them with feigned ignorance.”

Slowly, the small human man scooted to leave some room next to himself in the bed, the blanket moving and leaving him even colder than he already was, “Please… could you stay with me a while longer… could you… could you cuddle me to keep me warm?”

The pink glow wouldn’t cease for some time, as the giant of a man laid down on the small bed and wrapped his warm silvery arms around his companion, a small humming noise coming from deep in his throat like a pur. Aspen snuggled close to stifle his chills, overjoyed to know his feelings were reciprocated. Feeling the radiant heat from his alien partner, he drifted into peaceful sleep for the first time that awful sick day.

#humans are weird #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #humans are space australians #writing #original character #humans in space #lgbtqia #gay men #gay aliens #romance #fluff #original post #original story #weakconstruct #gayconstruct

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covid-safer-hotties · 3 months ago

Text

Also preserved in our archive

By John Mackay and Martin Scott

New South Wales (NSW) Ministry of Health data released last month under freedom of information laws reveal that 6,007 patients contracted COVID in the state’s public hospitals in 2023. This contributed to the death of 297 people, meaning that 14 percent of fatal COVID infections in the state were acquired in hospital.

The data, which also cover the first four months of this year, show that similar infection and death rates have continued, with 1,729 patients catching COVID in NSW hospitals and 86 dying, between the start of January and the end of April.

The NSW figures are in line with previously uncovered Victorian data, which showed that 6,212 patients contracted COVID in the state’s public hospitals and 586 died in 2022 and 2023.

This is a direct product of the conscious and planned abolition of virtually all public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID, including the removal of mask mandates in hospitals. These pro-business “forever COVID” policies, adopted by all governments worldwide, have in Australia been spearheaded by Labor at the state and federal level.

The NSW hospital infection figures were unearthed through a persistent 18-month campaign by lawyer Peter Vogel. His first Government Information Public Access application to the Ministry of Health was made in February 2023. This was rebuffed, with the Ministry claiming, according to Vogel, “It would take 140 hours to produce a report showing [the] number of hospital acquired COVID cases.”

After Vogel requested an internal review, the Ministry replied in July 2023 that it “does not hold complete and accurate records regarding nosocomial [hospital-acquired] infections.”

Only in June 2024, after multiple additional freedom of information requests to other agencies and repeated denials that any part of the NSW government or health bureaucracy had records of hospital-acquired infection, did the Ministry of Health admit that it held the information the lawyer sought. Even then, it claimed it would take 31 hours to produce a report, and Vogel would have to pay $930 for it. The data were finally provided to Vogel on September 17.

This is just one example of the extent to which serious illness and death from the ongoing COVID pandemic is being consciously covered up by the state and federal Labor governments. With the aid of the corporate media, virtually all reporting of the deadly virus has been suppressed, to provide phoney justification for the profit-driven and unscientific abolition of basic infection control measures.

The entire testing and reporting infrastructure has been eviscerated. Only two states, NSW and Western Australia (WA), continue to test wastewater samples for COVID, while hospitalisation figures in most jurisdictions are only reported intermittently.

Most strikingly, COVID deaths are no longer reported in NSW, Queensland, WA or the Northern Territory, except as part of overall mortality statistics, released months after the fact. The presentation of these national mortality figures, produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), has been modified to obfuscate the substantial increase in annual deaths, which is ongoing.

According to the outdated and incomplete official figures, COVID contributed significantly or was the main cause of more than 23,500 deaths between January 2022 and September 2024, around one-quarter of which occurred in residential aged care facilities.

In a grim refutation of the lie that the pandemic is over, COVID-contributed fatalities this year have occurred at a rate of 497.5 per month, barely lower than the 512 per month recorded in 2023.

The fact that so many fatal COVID infections have been contracted in health and aged care settings underscores that, in line with capitalist governments worldwide, Australia’s state and federal Labor governments are committing social murder, targeted at the most vulnerable people in society.

Dr Stéphane Bouchoucha, president of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control, told the ABC the NSW hospital infection data was “concerning and tragic.”

He said: “This is the core business of infection prevention and control… The premise that we can allow some deaths, to me, is wrong.

“We know how COVID is transmitted and we know how to prevent healthcare associated infections,” Bouchoucha stated, referring to the need to ensure good ventilation and air filtration, testing and contact tracing, isolating infected patients and requiring healthcare workers to wear masks.

Many of these measures were introduced in the early stages of the pandemic and had a significant impact in reducing the spread of infection within health facilities, but have since been abandoned.

This flies in the face of decades of medical advances and longstanding infection control measures in hospitals. For example, there are long-established protocols for identifying and preventing the spread of infections with “golden” staphylococcus, a hospital-acquired bacteria that can be resistant to antibiotics.

In NSW, the tearing down of COVID public health measures began under the Perrottet Liberal-National government, but has been completed under the Labor government led by Premier Chris Minns. This could not have been carried out without the assistance of the health unions, which have enforced every reckless and unscientific step of the process.

In 2022, Health Services Union (HSU) national president and NSW state secretary Gerard Hayes was at the forefront of demands for the scrapping of COVID isolation requirements for health staff, because of the supposed impact of such measures on “the economy.”

In August 2023, the HSU hailed the NSW Labor government’s scrapping of public hospital mask mandates as “a milestone in health.”

The HSU, along with the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, promote the lie that COVID is a thing of the past, entirely separate from workers’ disputes over pay and conditions in recent years. These struggles have included multiple mass strikes by more than 10,000 nurses and midwives, but year after year, the union leaders have pushed through sell-out deals, slashing real wages in line with government demands.

The reality is that the fight for decent working conditions in health is inseparable from the fight to end the COVID pandemic, which has massively exacerbated the dire state of the public hospital system, which faces a chronic shortage of staff and resources after decades of union-enforced government cuts.

To take this forward, health workers will have to take matters into their own hands. Rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, must be established in hospitals and health facilities and the fight for patient and staff safety linked with the struggle for real improvements to workers’ pay and conditions.

In the first instance, this must include the re-implementation of infection control measures, including masks and isolation, in all health workplaces. But as long as the virus is allowed to circulate unchecked among the broader population, protecting hospital patients and staff will be a constant battle.

A fight must be taken up, by health workers and the working class as a whole, for the elimination of COVID worldwide. This is possible, but not under the framework of the capitalist system, which rejects public health measures as unprofitable, and not within the borders of a single country.

Workers in Australia and worldwide confront the existential necessity of a struggle for a political alternative to the ruling class program of endless infection, illness and death. Only through the fight for a workers’ government to implement socialist policies, can society’s plentiful resources be stripped from the banks and corporations and turned towards ridding the world of COVID and making high-quality public healthcare freely available to all.

#mask up #covid #pandemic #public health #wear a mask #covid 19 #wear a respirator #still coviding #coronavirus #sars cov 2

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slugtranslation-hypmic · 26 days ago

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Literally No One Asked: Examining Merits and Limitations of Three Translation Styles via Various Scripts of Chrono Trigger

As the last vestiges of winter vacation slip through our collective fingers (save the proverbial hands of those lucky ducks with another week left), I wanted to take the time to expound on a topic near and dear to my heart: the merits and limitations of three fundamentally different translation approaches, illustrated with three different approaches to a single work.

Under a cut for no doubt grievous length.

Also, a general reminder that this eassay is only about Japanese to English pop culture translations. It assumes certain basic value judgements we make about pop culture. "But this Spanish to Czech literary translation--" Is Jake Gyllenhaal gay? Sir, this is a Narnia blog.

Introduction

It seems like we always come back to the same question: do we as readers want literal or liberal translation in our Japanese to English media? Terrible question! It's too reductive; furthermore, both terms are too vague to be of any practical use. Let's throw it out and talk about something interesting for a change.

It is, perhaps, more telling to examine why we favor certain degrees of "literal" or "liberal" translation work and the relative merits and drawbacks of particular approaches. Certain readers will naturally favor different writing styles for different reasons, and it's likely a futile--to say nothing of boorish--exercise to insist someone change their preferences. However, there are some less subjective qualities we can examine which open the door to more fascinating discussions: In what areas are different approaches most effective? What are the limitations or common pitfalls of such approaches? What does favoring one approach over the other suggest about reader values? And so on.

While there are certain degrees of refinement and transformation in every approach to translation, the majority of styles fall into one of three broad categories:

Structurally untransformative. A text that "hugs" the Japanese and lives within the Japanese media cultural consciousness.

Inefficiently transformative. A text that lives within the English media cultural consciousness but achieves this result with strenuous, often sloppy, transformations. I may be a little harsher on this category because it's the one the majority of my work falls into.

Efficiently transformative. A text that lives within the English media cultural consciousness and is largely a clean, coherent work on its own. Typically (but not always) closely mirrors the source in style. Virtually always closely mirrors the source in spirit.

Due to licensing restrictions--to say nothing of the intense time commitment of translating a full work--we are very rarely blessed with alternate translations of games or books in the pop culture space. This limits our ability to effectively compare approaches, as a "liberally" translated apple bears a non-helpful resemblance "literally" translated orange. Are the visible differences a product of the translators' style, or is it a matter of the different species?

Fortunately, we are extraordinarily lucky to have three fundamentally unique translations of the game of Chrono Trigger with full scripts available at our fingertips. While it feels a tad gauche to put a magnifying glass on what are (mostly) the works of single individuals--particularly when one is a hobby project--all translations have been visible to the public for at least fifteen years. It is sufficient to say they are probably not reflective of any of the translators' current skillsets.

For those of us who haven't played the game twenty times in a probably autism-fueled stupor, let's discuss briefly the history of these translations.

Chrono Trigger was first released in English in 1995 with a translation by Ted Woolsey. I haven't deepdived any of Woolsey's work to a meaningful degree in recent years. My general impression is that his works tend to be "okay" translations with moments of brilliance (the names in Eng!CT are a shining example of this) and occasional complete misTLs. Some of his writing is pretty sloppy or ill-planned but generally acceptable within the game translation space of the 90s. He is reported to have completed the translation of this roughly 200,000 character script within a month. This is not impossible for a professional--we'll touch on this again later--but it is not pleasant. Given this severe time restriction, Woolsey's text is impressive but is a shining example of an inefficiently transformative translation (approach 2).

Fans, while largely appreciative of Woolsey's work, noted multiple minor mistranslations and examples of overzealous--and ineffective--transformation. A full retranslation project was launched in the early 2000s and spearheaded by an individual with the penname KWhazit. This project culminated in 2007 with a full patch of the game. KWhazit's work, in an effort to capture lost or obfuscated meaning in Woolsey's text, is reluctant to depart from the structure and makeup of the Japanese text. The text is largely free of errors, although I disagree with readings in minor instances. It serves as our example of structurally untransformative work (approach 1).

In 2009, with the release of Chrono Trigger on the DS, Square Enix assigned then in-house translator Tom Slattery to update the 1995 Woolsey translation and retranslate significant portions of the text. While some of Woolsey's core translation decisions are maintained--we'll talk more about this later--Slattery's work is generally a unique product. By my estimates, Slattery most likely had two months in which to complete the work and had less familiarity with the game than Woolsey in 1995. The unique challenges of this second official translation will be discussed later.

It would be remiss not to mention that Slattery's script was the first version of Chrono Trigger I ever played, and most of Slattery's other Square Enix translations (FF Tactics Advance, FFVI Advance, FFIV DS) are other childhood or adolescent favorites. Slattery was one of my translation idols when my interest in translation first began budding about a decade ago, so I'm well aware that I harbor some nostalgia for his writing. However, I hadn't looked at the Chrono Trigger DS script in any serious way for a good four or five years until just a few days ago. (Again...the caffeine and probably autism-fueled stupor. That was my idea of a vacation. In my defense, I had a grand old time holing up in a hotel room, reading scripts for hours, and grinning like a fool.) I was pleasantly surprised to find that the script holds up--to the best of my professional ability--even without the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.

Slattery's script is my favorite of the three, because I consider it the most effective and skilled conveyance of the Chrono Trigger spirit. It encapsulates the efficiently transformative approach (#3).

We'll examine why this elegant work is effective in its transformations, what transformations exist in Slattery's translation, and what drawbacks are associated with this approach via several case studies.

Prior to that, it would be helpful to discuss why each approach is fundamentally different.

What is Structural Transformation and Media Cultural Consciousness?

It is helpful at this point to remind the reader that I have no formal education in translation theory and am willfully making terms up as I go. Their significance does not extend past the boundaries of this essay.

That is, I do not use the phrase "structural transformation" purely to mean adjusting grammatical structures (the formal definition); at its heart, virtually all Japanese to English translation requires some degree of adjusting sentence structures for basic readability. "I topic dinner subject eat negative past feminine." is nonsense. At the same time, it's foolish to pretend that "I didn't eat dinner." is just as transformative as "Oh! Pish-posh. Who even eats dinner these days, darling?" (Important note: We are not attaching value judgements to degrees of transformation! I am not suggesting one line versus the other could ever possibly be more appropriate when completely devoid of context.)

To be able to differentiate works that might contain Ms. Didn't Eat vs Ms. Pish-Posh, we must consider what other works these translations are in conversation with. This is what I'm terming the language media cultural consciousness.

Works in the English media cultural consciousness mimic the style of works written originally in English--usually by native or strongly fluent writers--in order to utilize helpful shortcuts. We know, by virtue of reading lots of English works, that "Once upon a time" opens a fairytale. We understand that "Would you make me the happiest man on Earth?" is a marriage or dating proposal with no further context provided. We read "Captain! The flux capacitator is going into overdrive!" and immediately understand the speaker is in an emergency situation on a spaceship in a sci-fi story, even though we do not know what a flux capacitator is or what happens when one enters a state of overdrive. These shortcuts prevent the writer from having to reinvent the wheel with every story. It is an inescapable fact that a work exists in a language media cultural consciousness, and virtually all stories can be lifted (to some degree) from one into another without changing the core components or themes of the story.

By way of comparison, translated works in the Japanese media cultural consciousness mimic the style of other translated works that--for any number of reasons--closely adhere to dictionary definitions of the Japanese text. By being written in English, these works are largely in conversation with each other. (Again, we are not attaching a value judgement!) Savvy readers within this cultural consciousness automatically understand that "I want to be by his side..." is a statement of romantic intent even if they cannot read 彼のそばにいたい… A character saying another's name followed by an ellipsis is an expression of poignant emotion ("Amemura-kun..."); "That is..." is said by someone taken aback.

The media cultural consciousness is determined at the prose level (how the story is told), although some works can transform aspects at the content level (what the story is) without negatively impacting the underlying themes and tone. All choices the translator makes are transformations. Every work is inherently transformative. While, realistically, all works fall on a sliding scale between the two cultural consciousness poles, we can generally consider works that attempt to operate in the Japanese media cultural consciousness structurally untransformative and classify (in)efficiently transformative works as ones that attempt to operate in the English media cultural consciousness.

There. We've gotten all the impartiality out of our systems. Now we can begin assigning value judgements! Whee!

For many native English speakers (a younger me among them), it is tempting to assume that English media cultural consciousness = good and stop there. I am incredibly grateful and humbled by the many people who've spoken on the subject with differing opinions, both indirectly and directly to me. If you wouldn't mind me holding my opinion until the end, it is perhaps more enlightening to examine a couple of key questions first:

Why Do Most Professional Works Favor the English Media Cultural Consciousness?

There are certain subsets of the industry where this is not as much the case (usually anything involving dubbing or other timing-sensitive audio), but to avoid getting into the weeds of why visual/audio mismatch is undesirable, let's focus the discussion on the majority of the industry.

At the most basic level...money talks! The overwhelming majority of the wealthy English readership is based in the US, UK, and Australia/NZ. This is not to say that there are not other major pockets of readers; insider data (you'll forgive me that I can't cite my sources here...) reveals especially high consumership in India and the Philippines. However, consumers in countries with average lower expendable income are less likely to legally purchase translations, and as a result, the market tends to cater to the whims of its highest-paying customers. This isn't especially satisfying on an ideological level, but it is to some degree understandable--at the end of the day, translators, editors, and all the many other industry professionals need to eat too.

However, why is US English the industry standard as compared to British English, say? Even non-American-English-speaking translators are expected to write in American English on the vast majority of their projects, and in the rare instances a work is released in Europe/Oceania but not the US, it is highly likely that the work will be written in American English anyway. What gives?

American English occupies the intriguing niche of being English's lingua (dialetto?) franca by virtue of the US's cultural global hegemony. For better or for worse--and quite arguably the latter--common conventions of American English culture and storytelling are understood across the globe. Most English readers outside the US understand "She's the cheerleader" describes a peppy, outgoing girl who the speaker probably feels negative about--perhaps she's dumb (and blonde, by any chance?) or more sexually active than the speaker feels appropriate. "You look like your mom found you in a Walmart parking lot" is understand as an insult even for those who've never set foot in a Walmart or whose local Walmart has a vastly different image from American Walmarts. By tapping into this cultural consciousness, translators can use shortcuts to tell stories to a large audience.

This latter argument is, to my mind, the more compelling of the two reasons to set works within an (American) English cultural consciousness. This argument also applies to hobby works, albeit to a lesser degree. Indeed, here a myriad of counterarguments begin to take hold.

Why Do Some Translators and Readers Prefer the Japanese Media Cultural Consciousness? And Counterarguments

Apart from matters of personal taste--again, I no longer find it appropriate to comment on individual preferences--some readers prefer the Japanese media cultural consciousness out of a dislike for American cultural hegemony, a conflation of sloppy writing (approach 2, inefficiently transformative works) with all English media cultural consciousness translations, or a desire to feel a sense of distance from the work. I'm fascinated by this last, which I've heard from multiple individuals and still can't claim to understand fully at an emotional level. Historically, I've (unfairly) chalked a lot of that up to exoticism from mainly US-based individuals, but I most often see this argument from those outside the US. It appears that some individuals feel most comfortable when translated English--already a foreign incursion in their lives--rebels against AmEng cultural frameworks embedded in the storytelling. (Personally, I think this concept has fantastic literary merit and would love to hear more from individuals in this camp. Please tell me if you think I'm completely off base, too!)

On the flip side, we also find many individuals who are more fluent or at home in the Japanese media cultural consciousness. Many of these individuals are non-native speakers, although some native speakers who generally don't seek out original English media may feel the same way. The constant prioritization of native English speakers in such discussions can make non-native speakers feel ignored and marginalized, particularly as many individuals are already marginalized in other ways within the AmEng cultural sphere.

It isn't fair to say an individual shouldn't feel at home in their given cultural consciousness; nor is it appropriate the needs of all such individuals. Many structurally untransformative translations speak to this need and provide a space for a unique and fascinating form of English storytelling to flourish.

Additionally, semi-fluent readers sometimes struggle with the figurative language or irregular vocabulary associated with (in)efficiently transformative translations. (Structurally untransformative translations tend to use a strictly limited vocabulary and collection of sentence structures, making them potentially more friendly to semi-fluent readers.) Semi-fluent readers are also more likely to be tripped up by annoyingly flowery or disjointed writing, both common problems of inefficiently transformative translation. It must be noted that this is partially a matter of taste; opinions on what is annoying varies widely even among industry professionals of various degrees of English fluency.

Apart from the law of averages--more readers, native or non-native alike, are likely to be fully fluent than semi-fluent--the common counterargument to this is that semi-fluent readers should read more works in the English media cultural consciousness to broaden their horizons. I agree with this to a limited degree only. While expanding one's knowledge is a powerful thing, I find it insulting to imply some readers do not like certain works due to willful ignorance. It is ultimately the reader's right as to which works they choose to engage with.

Subjectivity abounds! As a result, I generally don't care whether a work is placed in the Japanese or English media cultural consciousness as long as it is done skillfully. However, most structurally untransformative works fall flat due to their inability to retain core emotive information from Japanese. Much of Japanese's emotional tone is carried in grammatical particles which are typically neglected or overemphasized to an awkward degree in structurally transformative works. In the sample sentence at the very top of this section, the grammatical particle わ (rendered as "feminine" in the agrammatical translation) implies the speaker is female, and likely a relatively posh or middle-aged one at that. This is impossible to see in "I didn't eat dinner yesterday."

Other emotive information is lost in conversion due to differences in English vs Japanese stress and line length. This can be made up to some degree by a strong knowledge of the Japanese cultural consciousness, but in most cases, a skilled translator is needed to bridge the gap for the vast majority of readers. For example, tsukkomi (riposting) humor rendered into English usually needs to be short and punchy to be funny, an example of the English cultural consciousness bleeding over into the Japanese space. If Japanese words serving pronounal functions are rendered as English filler words (ie, こんな to "this kind of"), the lines become bloated and lose their humor to all but the most savvy of readers. See "You're the only person who thinks that kind of thing..." vs "Nah, that's just you..."

In most cases, critique on structurally untransformative works ends at whether mistranslations are present in the work. It is rare that more than little attention is paid to how effectively the work conveys style and tone. This is not to say that all translators with structurally untransformative styles are poor translators. Far from it! Off the top of my head, I immediately think of two senior translators with relatively untransformative styles whose works I know very well and admire. However, in order for these works to effectively convey the stories' emotional beats and tone even within the Japanese media cultural consciousness, the translators (or the editors who work with them) must at times be more transformative than is their norm. Even then, I sometimes think they do a poor job in certain key areas. One translator struggles to convey the presence of humor; the other has difficulty writing strong emotions.

On a subjective note, I prefer writing my works within the English media cultural consciousness because I find it more rewarding to more individuals when done properly and, as a side bar, more difficult. This isn't to say that I think generally structurally untransformative translators are lazy--I fully acknowledge I lack the ability to produce such well-composed and untransformative pieces as the colleagues mentioned above--but rather that attempting to write in the Japanese media cultural consciousness can often go hand-in-hand with bad habits. It is tempting to cut corners when overworked and write an easier, but perhaps less effectively communicative, translation. Were I to focus all of my energies in this media cultural consciousness, it would be worthwhile to pursue these translations more often! However, as of now, I do not and thus lack an interest in dipping my toes into this pool--unless, of course, my client stipulates it. Cha-ching. I enjoy being paid for services rendered.

At this stage of my career, I consider myself relatively fluent in the Japanese media cultural consciousness and do have the ability to track story beats and feel emotional tones that do not follow native English conventions. However, I do still have a preference for works written in the English media cultural consciousness, as I find these more emotionally fulfilling when executed well via efficiently transformative translations.

That "when" is doing quite a lot of heavy lifting. What can happen when a translation is inefficiently transformative? Let's dive in.

What is Efficient Transformation? Or: How to Avoid Annoying White Guy Syndrome

Anyone who spends any length of time in the translated Japanese media space knows an annoying white guy. "You're not like other white guys who talk about Japan," a friend once told me after I'd ranted for five minutes about racist undertones in dead literary translators whose work I detest. My friend was very sweet, but a rotten liar.

Annoying white guys are everywhere. They may not be white or male; anyone can be an annoying white guy if they try hard enough. We all have STEM degrees and an inability to shut up. Hi, it's me. Hey. How're you doing?

The bulk of translations complained about as so-called "too liberal" translations are products of annoying white guy syndrome, which is to say poor writing. The executed transformations fail to create the correct tone; in most cases, being obnoxious is not the author's intention!

The reader is annoyed, and rightfully so, because the work does register as part of the English media cultural consciousness--but it falls into the subset of poor writing. Usually, the work registers as such because it is wildly tonally inconsistent. Works often appear a little too hyper (a huge issue for me--I sound like I'm hopped on caffeine, usually because I am. Let's put a pin in that) with inconsistent characterization and tone. In many cases, the translator understands what needs to happen to execute the story successfully but simply lacks the skills--or is otherwise limited--to create tasteful and appropriate transformations.

This is not to say that being overly liberal is the only problem. Rather, it's often the case that the inefficiently transformative translator is overly literal in the wrong places. The inefficiently transformative translator often overstresses emotive particles or is overreliant on dictionary-literal sentence structures, particularly if they have a background in hobby translation.

In other situations, the inefficiently transformative translator may override the author's wishes and insert their ego to an inappropriate and distracting degree. This may present in surprising ways. A translator who performs a bad faith reading and writes a line in a purposefully inflammatory way for the English media cultural consciousness may be just as inappropriate as a translator who scrubs out problematic elements to the point of censorship.

Other common pitfalls include obfuscating story beats or placing the stress of the story beats in the wrong place via transformative processes or adding information that is contradictory on either a story or tonal level. In some cases, this may appear as the translator poking fun at the work, a concept I generally think very poorly of. Mistranslations are also not uncommon in inefficiently transformative works due to the limitations mentioned below.

In most cases, the inefficently transformative translator wants to execute efficient transformations but is stymied by said limitations. Some translators with this approach eventually improve or remove said limitations to the point that they produce efficiently transformative works, and the whole world is all the better for it.

How, then, is an efficiently transformative work produced? Such a translation requires coherence on the story beat, character, thematic, and narrative voice levels. The translator must almost always have a comprehensive knowledge of the work and effectively retell the work from scratch with good writing practices. Inefficiently transformative works are often produced line-by-line and miss the forest for the trees; efficient transformations require a much higher-level focus.

Some efficiently transformative works are extraordinarily transformative, perhaps to the point where they're arguable more entertaining than the source material. The Brian Gray-led translation of The World Ends With You boasts a lively script with a playfulness that sets it apart from most other translated games with a teenage cast; the Japanese script is more in line with its peers. I personally don't think English TWEWY's zest outstays its welcome, but again, this is a matter of taste. More importantly, the additions to the text serve to support one possible reading of the source game's theme and message.

(Sidebar: The internet being the internet, some people are likely going "Additions to the text? :eyes: :eyes: Hot gossip? One possible reading?" It's nothing that exciting. The additions I can think of off the top of my head are all very granular. For instance, an English line in a secret report "But darkness has always been husband to light" personifies "light" and "darkness" when the Japanese doesn't. Darkness and light are already visual motifs of the characters this line alludes to, so the personification only serves to strengthen the intended message.)

However, not all efficient transformations need to be as radical as English TWEWY. Often, less is more! Clear, coherent writing that conveys the source's message while standing on its own two legs as an independent work is the operative idea, and Slattery's Chrono Trigger script is an excellent example of a more understated text that does just that.

Well, How Hard That Can Be? What Could Possibly Get in the Way?

Apart from a general lack of skill, the biggest obstacles toward producing an efficiently transformative work are lack of time, lack of incentive, or a lack of familiarity in the work. Other work-specific limitations may apply, and we'll examine three such limitations in Woolsey's and Slattery's works.

As mentioned above, Woolsey has gone on record to say he was given about a month to translate the roughly 200,000 character script. Slattery has said he found his pace uncomfortably fast and cited completing an average of 5,000 characters per day. This would put him at approximately 40 work days, so I am assuming he had roughly double Woolsey's time to translate the same script. (Please note that this estimate is mine and may be entirely incorrect.)

Years ago, these numbers horrified me. Now, I don't find the prospect (especially Slattery's) atypically daunting, assuming this full-time project was the only source of income in that time period. You'll forgive me if I'm shy about the details, but I don't translate for my day job. (I'm in a related industry role.) Outside of that, I translate for maybe 2-3 hours per day in less busy periods and complete ~7,000 characters per day. In busy periods, I can churn out between 280,000 to 320,000 characters over the course of two months--and again, I'm not being paid to sit and translate 8 hours a day. Slattery's timeline strikes me as industry typical (if not fun); Woolsey's is even less desirable but not totally unheard of. Of course, it was entirely possible they were also juggling side projects while working full-time for Square Enix. The truth is, translators often work many jobs at once because industry pay is quite poor! As unfortunate as it is, sometimes translators simply can't afford to expend the time and effort necessary to do a stellar job. This rush may have been the cause of some mistranslations or bumpy spots in Woolsey's script.

This, however, assumes the translator is familiar with the source material and is not bogged down by time-consuming thorny patches of research, puns, misleading text, or other work-specific oddities. (Rap battles, anyone?) Chrono Trigger strikes me as a fairly forgiving text; however, I would imagine Woolsey lost a decent amount of time renaming a fair number of major and minor characters.

(Sidebar: "Renaming characters?!" I hear some people cry. Yes! Most renaming schemes were executed very well, and while I don't know for certain that these names can be attributed purely to Woolsey, the new names are largely thematically appropriate and strengthen the English text. Some characters whose names are fanciful in Japanese but plain in English, like the mysterious Princess Sara, are renamed with English fantasy-appropriate names like Princess Schala. Other names that would appear inappropriately odd (Marledia?) become commonplace (Nadia). The only naming choice I do find a bit dubious--if nostalgically charming--are three semi-joke characters (Vinegar, Mayonnaise, and Soy Sauce) renamed to rock figures Ozzie, Slash, and Flea. I do agree that changing the condiments is a smart idea, as that particular combination feels odd in an Am Eng cultural context, but bringing in real life figures is perhaps inappropriately incongruous with the fantasy atmosphere.)

Woolsey seems to have been somewhat familiar with the game prior to translating it; I assume he was able to play a copy at some point in the process or at least had extensive footage of it. Slattery has gone on record to say that he wasn't very familiar with Chrono Trigger prior to translating it, at least compared to Final Fantasy IV (another beautifully executed script). He claims to have struggled with knowing what text went where even with extensive video footage.

Wait, huh? How does a translator not know where a piece of text goes in a game? Surely it should be visible right on the screen!

The problem is, game translation has little to do with looking at the actual game. Most of the work is conducted in Excel or a similarly designed translation tool. As a test, I put the script in Excel and pulled a few lines at random to see what might come up:

私を助けに来てくれたのですね。しかし、それにはおよびませんよ。

(Did you come to save me? That's very kind, but you needn't have bothered.)

This is a character pretending to be the queen, who is not supposed to be present in this scene. I can definitely see some confusion if the translator doesn't know about the imposter.

もう1回やり直し！　ドアの所からさくにそって時計まわりに3回まわる！

(No, no, no. Do it right! Start from the door and work your way around the walls. Three times, counterclockwise. On the double!)

This is a character's response if you mess up a mini game. In the script, it looks like this line comes right before the text for the mini game being completed successfully. Without context, it wouldn't be immediately clear why the character switches from barking orders to cheering.

ぬけがらを押せば…… ぬけがらをのぼれば……

(Push the shell... Climb the shell...)

An NPC telling the main characters how to navigate a puzzle. There's zero textual indication what the "shell" is, and this term could be translated in lots of different ways--husk, skin, etc. One would need to navigate to the video and see the shell itself to choose the correct term.

I was able to identify all the lines at a glance, but that is a product of having played this game over twenty times. Someone less familiar with the game could easily have wasted time on all three lines digging up footage to find out what was going on!

Additionally, all games have tricky bits of non-dialogue that can be nearly impossible to track down. Say an Excel cell contains nothing but the word "bar." Is this a crowbar? A level bar? A pub? Short of querying the development team, another time-consuming task, it may be very difficult to tell.

As if that weren't enough, each translator has expressed encountering a handful of other difficulties during their condensed rush through the script.

Woolsey has stated (presumably this is hyperbole) that 50% of his original translation draft had to be cut for the NES's limited space. Most games have strict space limits which can hamper storytelling for all but the most concise translators. Furthermore, Woolsey's translation was subject to external censors, resulting in some rather silly looking assertions, such as characters visibly drunk on "soda pop." While such censors are relatively uncommon in the current translation space, client or parent company demands can--and do!-throw annoying wrenches into translations. Unless the translation team can cleverly smooth over these unhelpful stipulations, the translator will usually receive the blame for a less-than-ideal reader experience.

Outside of the general feelings of being rushed and unprepared, Slattery has (diplomatically) commented on the difficulty of inheriting a legacy translation, especially one as well-loved as the 1995 Woolsey Chrono Trigger script. Working with a team of translators or taking over for a translator on a solo project requires a much different skillset than translating from scratch. In continuous projects, adopting the other translator's writing and translation style is necessary, a task that can be very difficult--not to mention frustrating!--if the other translator(s) have very different skills or approaches than you. Even in cases where your skillset is more adapted to the particular project, it is inappropriate to flex those chops and create an incongruent product.

Slattery was not beholden to matching Woolsey's style; however, by retranslating a beloved game, his work would naturally appear as in dialogue with Woolsey's. Changing fan favorite lines could arouse fan ire, but at the same time, nostalgia-laden lines written in Woolsey's style might not mesh well with the bulk of Slattery's work. Similarly, correcting mistakes (especially well-known ones!) or modifying characterization are always tricky maneuvers. While it is crucial to not perpetuate errors, performing large changes or having to go on record to discuss such modifications can veer into finger-pointing territory unless handled with care. Interestingly, Chrono Trigger was not Slattery's first retranslation of a Woolsey text (see FFVI Advance and FFIV DS), and that wealth of experience may explain why this retranslation is so deftly done.

All this is to say, it is a miracle most commercial translations turn out as well as they do! While it is certainly the professional's responsibility to complete quality work under industry-standard conditions, one cannot help but wonder if better pay and better timelines would go hand-in-hand with more elegant and error-free translations.

Case Studies

We've now discussed extensively different approaches to translating, how these approaches may come about, and their relative merits and drawbacks. I've selected three examples to illustrate these points and add a final few notes. These examples are largely illustrative of each translations' full text and haven't been cherry picked so much as selected lovingly from a smorgasbord of delightful lines rich with potential commentary.

Glen's Flashback: Emotional Tone and Consistency in Voice

(This is not really a spoiler, and this game is nearly thirty years old... But I suppose if you haven't played it and wish to spare yourself any plot details, please skip to the next case study.)

In this scene, a character named Glenn reflects on a pivotal moment of his childhood when his older friend, Cyrus, scared off a group of children bullying Glenn. Both characters are present in the medieval period but speak modern Japanese. In other scenes, their tone is appropriately knightly.

Source (English text courtesy of the archivist):

[Frog's Flashback, Unknown Forest, ? A.D.] [Glenn] 「うわーん！[END] [Cyrus] 「お前らーッ！[END] [Kids] 「やべえ、サイラスだ、逃げろーッ！[END] [Glenn] 「ヒック……、ありがと…… 　サイラス……、ヒック。[END] サイラス「グレン、男はな、立ち向かって　　　行かなきゃいけない時もあるんだぞ。[END] グレン「でも……、ぶたれたらイタイよ。　　　アイツらだって……[END] サイラス「優しすぎるよ、グレンは……。[END]

Let's take a look at this scene through the lens of approach one:

[Glenn] Uwaan! [Cyrus] You guuuys! [Kids] Look out, it's Cyrus, run awaaay! [Glenn] hic...... thanks...... Cyrus...... hic. Cyrus: Look, Glenn, a man's got times when he has to fight back, too. Glenn: But...... getting hit hurts. Even for them...... Cyrus: You're too gentle, Glenn......

This translation is free of errors (dubious lack of capitalization on "thanks" aside) but has room for improvement in a few areas.

Let's take a look at all those long vowels. "Uwaan!" is largely understood as crying or distressed screaming within the Japanese media cultural consciousness, but I worry about the emotional ambiguity of "You guuuys!" "お前らーッ!" is unambiguously angry. Were the game to provide an image of Cyrus looking angry to support this vague text, this would be acceptable. Alas, Cyrus's sprite looks like this:

Not the most imposing, I fear.

"Getting hit hurts. Even for them..." is also more unnatural than is my preference. In a professional work, I would find this distracting and be taken out of the moment. The tone is supposed to be somber, but I have difficulty seeing it here.

Now, via approach two:

[Glenn] Aaahhhh! [Cyrus] Hey you-! [Kids] It's Cyrus! Run for your lives! [Glenn] Sniffle...thanks, Cyrus...Hic...! CYRUS: Glenn, there're times when people simply have to grit their teeth! GLENN: But...it hurts when I get hit. They... CYRUS: You're a marshmallow, Glenn...

Glenn's scream has become more recognizably grounded in the English media cultural consciousness, and the sniffle is a smart touch--too much hiccuping could make Glenn sound drunk within the parameters of the Eng MCC. The "Hey" in "Hey you-!" largely clears up the emotional ambiguity of approach one, although there are surely even clearer solutions.

However, some other choices are a bit odd or simply not desirable. "Run for your lives!" is at odds with a character readers are supposed to sympathize with. I wouldn't stress this point were I editing it, but we're nitpicking! We're having fun!

Cyrus's tone is in "Glenn...teeth!" is more assertive than I'm reading it (to me, it's more of a gentle reminder like "Y'know, Glenn...there are times when you have to stand up for yourself") but I see an argument for Woolsey's take on it. I don't have an issue with that, nor do I particularly mind changing "men have to blah blah" to "people have to blah blah." It is generally a smart choice to work around overly gendered language when it would appear distracting, but given the medieval setting of these two would-be knights, I wouldn't find it inappropriate to lean into the machismo. "Grit their teeth" is the true problem in this line. It is good to use figurative language, particularly when the source does (as it does here; when Cyrus says literally "stand and face" he doesn't mean Glenn should simply stand up and stare holes into the bullies), but "grit their teeth" is too vague to the point that it fails to convey Cyrus's intent.

The two biggest concerns, however, are in the last two lines. Woolsey, perhaps going too fast in a slightly ambiguous section, misunderstands the dropped subject in "It hurts to be hit." Glenn is not scared to fight back because he's afraid of being hit harder. Glenn refuses to fight out of compassion for the enemy--a core aspect of his character! Misrepresenting one of the most crucial pieces of this main character's backstory is a disappointing feature of this text.

Finally, while "marshmallow" is a fun and childish choice, this is incongruous with the medieval setting and overly Ye Olde style of Cyrus and Glenn's speech later. In fact, Glenn's over the top (even distracting!) speech pattern appears to have been dropped entirely here. It isn't inappropriate to dial back hammy characters in serious moments to avoid shattering the tone (although it may be better to never let them reach a distracting level of ham in the first place!) but it simply seems incongruous in this scene.

Each line seems to have been considered one-by-one and thus fits poorly within the larger work.

And the same scene in approach three:

Glenn: Aaahhh! Cyrus: Stop that! Kids: Oh, no, it's Cyrus! Run! Glenn: *sniffle* Thank you, Cyrus... *sniffle* Cyrus: Glenn, there are times a man must stand and face the things that trouble him. Glenn: But...it hurts to be hit. I cannot hurt another. Not...not even them. Cyrus: You're too soft, Glenn.

While I'd argue that the usage of ellipses on line 6 is more in line with Japanese than English, this passage does a great job of standing on its own as a well-written piece of English text.

The screaming and crying is unambiguous to fluent English readers. More pressingly, Cyrus's second line has become a crystal-clear "Stop that!"

The rather distracting elements of the second translation have vanished, and Glenn's character--the key point of the scene!--is accurately represented. By adding "I cannot hurt another." Slattery conveys a strong understanding of the source's intent and successfully ties the concepts of "being hit" and "hitting back" together without awkward phrasing.

The character's voices are simple but present. With the use of "cannot," we see a slight formality in Glenn's voice that will carry throughout the rest of the game. It isn't fancy, but it doesn't need to be! The lack of bells and whistles helps sell the simple concept and is easier to implement throughout the script.

Dance Bobonga: Lyricism and "Dangling" Text

In this scene, a group of prehistoric cave people invite the main characters to "Dance bobonga!" Bobonga is, we assume, a nonsensical cave-person sounding word.

Source:

[Dancers] ボボンガ　コインガ[note] ノインガ　ホインガ[note] 歌えや踊れ　風達と[note][note][END] ボボンガ　コインガ[note] ノインガ　ホインガ[note] 歌えや踊れ　山達と[note][note][END] ボボンガ　コインガ[note] ノインガ　ホインガ[note] 歌えや踊れ　この一夜[note][note][END]

Let's have the song in approach one:

[Dancers] Bobonga, koinga[note] Noinga, hoinga[note] Sing, dance, with winds[note][note] Bobonga, koinga[note] Noinga, hoinga[note] Sing, dance, with mountains[note][note] Bobonga, koinga[note] Noinga, hoinga[note] Sing, dance, all this night[note][note]

I am unnaturally fond of "noinga, hoinga"--what a stellar bit of nonsense.

In terms of accuracy, this translation fails to capture the personification applied to "winds" and "mountains." Does this matter in the grand scheme of the game? No; I'm nitpicking.

What is more disappointing is a general lack of anything that makes it sound like a song, apart from the music notes. I can't complain too much because this is standard for works in the Japanese media cultural consciousness, but I hope we'll see it in the more English-focused texts.

Now, for approach two:

[Dancers] Oohga, bunga [musicsymbol] Munga, meeple [musicsymbol] Dance with wind people [note][note] Oohga, bunga [musicsymbol] Munga, meeple [musicsymbol] Dance with mountain people [musicsymbol] Oohga, bunga [musicsymbol] Munga, might [musicsymbol] Sing and dance all night [musicsymbol]

The song has changed quite a bit! Swapping the caveman noises for "Oohga, bunga" is excellent, as these sounds are more instantly recognizable as "English" caveman grunts. Additionally, the rhymes lend an added sense of lyricism we lacked in approach one. Woolsey also solves the problem of the personified winds and mountains by naming them "wind people" and "mountain people." It helps that 2/3 of the song is nonsense, but Woolsey does a good job of creating musical-sounding lyrics without deviating from the source. It's much easier said than done!

The one drawback is that, by dropping the "bobonga," Woolsey has now created a problem of dangling text. The invitation to "dance bobonga" now connects to nothing at all, giving the line an awkward randomness. Transformative translators must be careful of dropping concepts for this exact reason.

Approach three is quite similar:

[Dancer] Ooga, booga [note] Munga, meeple [note] Dance with wind people [note] Ooga, booga [note] Munga, meeple [note] Dance with mountain people [note] Ooga, booga [note] Munga, might [note] Sing, sing, dance all night [note]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Slattery cleans up the spelling and rhythm slightly but otherwise leaves this unchanged. I consider this smart--Woolsey did a good job on it, this song is an iconic legacy translation, and the adjustments give the song an extra level of polish. Slattery does a similar clean-up treatment on a handful of other songs or chants in the game but generally leaves the bulk of Woolsey's work there intact.

Unfortunately, Slattery's translation has the same dangling "dance bobonga" line. This is a problem he inherited as opposed to one he introduced himself, but there are a small handful of other dangling lines or concepts sprinkled throughout the script. Even very well-executed translations can have slip-ups.

Welcome to Enhasa: Ambiguous Meaning and Tonal Inconsistency

Now, for some NPC text! Unlike scripted scenes, NPC text does not need to flow like a conversation. Instead, these miniature monologues establish setting through tiny snippets of text--microstories. We only get a few sentences with these characters, so it's crucial to use the space effectively and convey the necessary information with a strict eye on tone.

These NPCs are some of the first the player encounters upon entering a magical kingdom floating in the sky. They are designed to give the player a sense of mystery and whimsy.

Source:

[Young Man] ようこそ、エンハーサに。エンハーサは、魔法王国ジールの夢みる町です。ねむりのよろこびの中でしんりを探しているのです。おや……？しかし、あなた方は……。[END] [Doreen] ここは永遠なる魔法王国ジール。すべての望みのかなう場所……。だけど、そのだいしょうがどのくらい高くつくかは知らないけれどね……。[END] あなたの目に見えてる世界とアタシの目に見えてる世界とはまったくちがうものなのかもね。いい？　宇宙は生命の数だけ存在するわ。見えるもの、さわれるものだけが本当と思っちゃダメよ。[END] アタシはドリーン。閉ざされた道をもとめなさい。じゅんじょよく、ちしきの扉を開けてね。[END]

Let's take a look at how approach one handles these two characters:

[Young Man] Welcome to Enharsa. Enharsa is the Magic Kingdom Zeal's dreaming city. We are searching for truth within the joy of sleep. Hmm......? But, you people are...... [Doreen] This is the eternal Magic Kingdom Zeal. The place where all desires come true...... However, there's no telling how high the price for that will reach...... The world that you see with your eyes and the world that I see with my eyes may be completely different things. Listening? All that exists in the universe are the destinies of lives. Don't think that only what you can see and touch are reality. I'm Doreen. Seek the way that was shut. Get the order correct and open the door of knowledge.

First--and this does not matter much in the grand scheme of things--I find the choice to render エンハーサ as "Enharsa" a little off-putting. The older 1995 translation uses "Enhasa," meaning the change here was deliberate. Yes, there is a long vowel on the "a" sound which can represent an "ar" but...was it necessary? Native English speakers naturally elongate the the first "a" due to the perceived syllable break on the Romantic language looking en-hasa. I don't know. The "hars" quite literally produces a harsh sound inappropriate for a dreamy magical kingdom. In a game with such thoughtful naming decisions, this seems like an odd one.

That aside, this text is riddled with unnecessary ambiguities. What does "Magic Kingdom Zeal's dreaming city" mean? Why does the young man trail off? Why does Doreen say "Listening?" (Was there not enough space for "Are you listening?" But then, why not "Hear me?" or "Listen."?)

We also have two mistranslations; unfortunately, it appears that this translator struggles more in non-concrete text. "All that exists in the universe are the destinies of lives." is a very odd way to render "宇宙は生命の数だけ存在するわ" (There are as many universes as living beings--from the full context of her speech, we can tell she means that every person has their own personal universe of whatever they observance.) I'm not sure where "destinies of lives" came from--perhaps the word 生命 was split in half and treated as two agrammatical words? "the way that was shut" is also incorrect and a much more basic error. While it's true that "shut" is past tense, this is due to a grammatical function that is largely identical to the corresponding English rule. Because the action of "shutting" happened in the past, the path is now currently "shut" or blocked off. This is especially odd, as this translator--who seems to know the game quite well--should recognize the currently sealed path this character is talking about.

Finally, we simply have a variety of clunky wordings to contend with. Ending "there's no telling..." on "reach" is a tad awkward, and the repetitive sentence structure of "The world you see with your eyes and the world I see with my eyes" is clunky. "Get the order correct" doesn't match the rest of Doreen's speech style. A stronger verb would have been more appropriate.

Altogether, rather disappointing! We come away with the impression that everyone in Enharsa/Enhasa talks confusing nonsense.

Let's see how approach two handles it:

[Young Man] Welcome to Enhasa, in the magical kingdom of Zeal. We find truth in the bliss of sleep. Dear me! And who might you be? [Doreen] This is the eternal kingdom of Zeal, where dreams can come true. But at what price? Am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man... Or a bowling ball dreaming I'm a plate of sashimi? Never assume that what you see and feel is real! I'm Doreen. Seek the hidden path, and open the doors of knowledge, each in turn.

Ohh, so much better. This is understandable! Now, let's pick it apart.

It appears that "searching for truth" has become "find truth." I am almost certain this is due to space, because "the city of dreams" has also vanished. However, this isn't a bad thing! This small passage immediately ties Enhasa to dreaming/sleep and establishes that this is a city (or other small geographical unit) in a larger kingdom. The phrase "bliss of sleep" is elegant and establishes the fantasy tone well. This is an example of great NPC dialogue! Finally, Woolsey correctly recognizes that the young man is surprised to see the main characters (who are very visibly not residents of Enhasa) and renders this in an unambiguous fashion. Bravo!

The majority of Doreen's text is stellar. The correct tone is established throughout, and perhaps as a byproduct of the spacing limits, we receive some lovely pithy lines. "But at what price?" is so elegant; compare that to "However, there's no telling how high the price will reach..."

However, I have a major problem with this infamous line "Am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man... Or a bowling ball dreaming I'm a plate of sashimi?" I honestly wonder if Woolsey didn't understand what was being said and wrote this to hide his confusion. Is it the だけ tripping everyone up? Guys, this is not that difficult!

The allusion to the Zhuangzi butterfly story is not inappropriate to Enhasa's motifs and setting, but mentioning a "bowling ball" and a "plate of sashimi" is an inappropriately anachronistic and tongue-in-cheek joke. Outside of the medieval-period characters named after condiments, the Japanese text of Chrono Trigger rarely breaks its own setting for humor. This is particularly jarring as this location is bookended between two serious scenes. From this point on, much of the game retains this serious tone. Adding humor can be excellent if the client allows it, but it's crucial to know when and where to place the jokes.

Finally, the juxtaposition of a fairly banal object with a specifically Asian food dish--especially to the target audience of 90s America--casts the rest of Doreen's monologue in the light of psuedo-mysticism wrapped in ostensibly Asian trappings. It's an unfortunate addition to an otherwise lovely bit of setting work.

This is cleaned up a bit in approach three:

[Young Man] Welcome to Enhasa, Zeal's City of Dreams. We seek enlightenment within the bliss of sleep. Hmm... You are...not one of us, are you? [Doreen] This is the Magic Kingdom of Zeal, where dreams can be made reality. But nothing in this world comes free. There is always a price to be paid. The world you see with your eyes may well differ completely from the one I see with mine. There are as many different worlds as there are observers. Never assume that only those things which you can see or touch are real. I am Doreen. Seek the hidden path, and open the doors of knowledge, each in turn.

Slattery's version borrows segments of the text from Woolsey with a few noticeable changes--not all of which I agree with.

Most pressingly, the "There as many..." line has finally been translated accurately and tonally appropriately. Slattery has also toned down some of the enthusiasm in Woolsey's (at times overly) hyper script; this is a recurring theme in the Slattery script and a common problem among approach 2 translators who are being too literal with their punctuation. Lest anyone accuse me of being unfair, I'm aware that I have a horrible case of this problem.

With that said, while these complaints are minor, I am not altogether fond of other tweaks Slattery made. Slattery removed the "eternal" kingdom and gave the phrase "Magic Kingdom of Zeal" to Doreen. I don't mind dropping "eternal," which means very little in the long run, but it's unfortunate that the young man now introduces "Zeal" without any explanation of what that is. NPC dialogue doesn't need to proceed in a fixed order, but because this young man is standing closer to the door, it's likely the player will talk to him first. Being bombarded immediately with two unknown names decreases the player's chance of remembering both and their relation to each other, the key information of that NPC's speech.

I also like Woolsey's tidy collocation "where dreams can come true," perhaps only because I'm sensitive to the phrase "made reality." A dictionary-level corresponding phrase (現実になる) appears with much greater frequency in Japanese than Eng's "made reality" so I'm used to trimming it out of my own and others' work. This is something that would probably only bug a fellow translator; still, I think the lack of spacing constrictions did not help this passage.

Conclusion

Apart from a fresh understanding of my ability to belabor a point, I hope you come away from this meandering essay with a mind ready to ask questions. What sorts of translations do you like to see, and why? What translated stories have you fallen in love with, and how has the storytelling method of the translation shaped that?

I don't think there's a single right answer, but I love discovering new ways to tell stories and translations whose skillful handling of the text lets me appreciate tales I might not have enjoyed otherwise. If others can experience even a fraction of that excitement, I will be very happy.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Keep it real.

#not a translation #translation essay

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