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South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

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Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#41

Post by Jtsummers »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #38
Jtsummers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "There is none of us whom life regards with any partiality." That means the opposite of "Life isn't fair". Partiality - unfair bias in favor of one thing or person compared with another; favoritism. She's written, in that quote, that life is fair.

Life is inherently unfair because you don't get to choose the circumstances in which you are born. Sure, you can argue that after that point the universe doesn't give a crap about you, but the starting point matters more than anything else. That's why I regard her quote as surface level and childish.

> Life is inherently unfair

If you want to complain about life being unfair like "an emo 6th grader" that's your choice, I was just pointing out that she wrote the opposite of that. Your original comment appeared to equate her statement with "life is unfair" when that was the opposite of what she wrote (as it was translated, at least). Critique her writing all you want, but critique what she wrote, not what she didn't.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#42

Post by ojl »

carabiner wrote: post #28
locuscoeruleus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We now know they're from a select group (of Norwegians in this case) with certain tastes no more noteworthy or transcendent than any of ours. Only the nobel peace prize is handed out by Norway. What would you consider an example of nobel bait?

Ok, the physics prize is given by swedes. The overall point stands though; there's a massive nationalist bias to the Nobels that is well known: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Sweden-have-so-many-Nobel-lau... I used to think that Nobel committee was made up of researchers around the world, and the Nobel dudes would just present it for a ceremony. Nope, it's really just people from one college who are picking these pri…

No, it’s not people from one college. The members of the different committees are professors or scientists from various Swedish universities, and the Royal Swedish Academy which gives the awards doesn’t not only have Swedish members as far as I know.

Edit: It seems the committee for physiology and medicine is actually at Karolinska institutet, so in this case it was one college.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#43

Post by kelipso »

jajko wrote: post #33
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read both and the style is tedious, especially the dialogues, and I can only assume it's a translation thing.

Have to agree, 3 body problem is fascinating from technological future fantasy perspective, but high quality reading overall in English it was not. Shallow characters, very pro-china and anti-whole-western-world black&white mindset that modern free world grew away long time ago. Had to force myself reading to the end of trilogy, above goes into overdrive.

> black&white mindset that modern free world grew away long time ago

Don't even know what to say. I am not sure we live in the same world lol.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#44

Post by rlpb »

kijin wrote: post #30
throw_pm23 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It probably has to do with linguistic distance though. It is safe to assume that Dutch to English translation loses much less in nuance than Korean to English.

It's not just linguistic distance. A good literary translator needs to really understand of the source material, with all of its cultural context and multiple possible interpretations, and somehow recreate the same effect in the target language. This requires not only linguistic fluency but also a deep understanding of both cultures, as well as the literary traditions of both. If an English author makes a subtle allu…

You've hit the nail on the head and I wish I could give you ten upvotes.

A different example I sometimes use is the task of translating a children's book that has "busy bees" in it. The illustrations show bees being busy. The story might even resolve around that to some extent. But another reason the bees are busy is that "busy" sounds like the buzzing sound they make. So what does one do when translating this into a language where the word for the regular meaning of "busy" does not sound like "buzz"? Whatever one does, something must be lost in the translation.

I have tried and failed to translate into my ancestral language the books I read to my children for exactly this reason. Another issue is that the specific choices of foods, animals and so forth are awkward to translate smoothly, but they are pictured so I cannot change them.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#45

Post by parodysbird »

esjeon wrote: post #27
parodysbird wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoy Oscar bait films and Michelin star restaurants. Oscar bait film season (winter) is the main season I look forward to going to to the movies, not summer (blockbuster season). But it's not some attack on mainstream culture just because there are awards for niche/elite/artsy/etc culture. Similarly, just because the Nobel for literature goes to a niche literary author you don't know/like doesn't demean whatever y…

> Similarly, just because the Nobel for literature goes to a niche literary author you don't know/like doesn't demean whatever your reading preferences are. You know how things work. The media starts to chant about how great those winners are, with only a few seriously digging into the actual works. They are quickly followed by internet trolls who derail every discussion by insisting that these are masterpieces certi…

> They are quickly followed by internet trolls who derail every discussion by insisting that these are masterpieces certified by big-name committees, claiming that we, the lowly masses, must accept the decisions of the great authority as the absolute truth of our lives.

Who does this with the Nobel Prize on literature? I've not even heard of any of the previous winners on until Bob Dylan in 2016.

Even with the Oscars, like who is demeaning the lowly masses that they must view as absolute truth that e.g. CODA or The Whale or The Power of the Dog etc are masterpieces?

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#46

Post by MisterBastahrd »

Jtsummers wrote: post #41
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is inherently unfair because you don't get to choose the circumstances in which you are born. Sure, you can argue that after that point the universe doesn't give a crap about you, but the starting point matters more than anything else. That's why I regard her quote as surface level and childish.

> Life is inherently unfair If you want to complain about life being unfair like "an emo 6th grader" that's your choice, I was just pointing out that she wrote the opposite of that. Your original comment appeared to equate her statement with "life is unfair" when that was the opposite of what she wrote (as it was translated, at least). Critique her writing all you want, but critique what she wrote, not what she didn'…

Life is the full encompassing situation you are in. Living is what happens while you're alive. This isn't hard, and that prose is banal regardless of how you want to argue.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#47

Post by limitedfrom »

simplegeek wrote: post #34

Is good English translation of her works available? If so, please share. I like good prose and want to read and understand how is her prose different. Thanks.

Deborah Smith translated her biggest works (The Vegetarian & Human Acts). In fact, her translation arguably single-handedly led to Han Kang winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, which then made her popular outside Korea. The translations have been quite popular, but a bit controversial as well[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Smith_(translator)

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#48

Post by HDThoreaun »

jajko wrote: post #33
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read both and the style is tedious, especially the dialogues, and I can only assume it's a translation thing.

Have to agree, 3 body problem is fascinating from technological future fantasy perspective, but high quality reading overall in English it was not. Shallow characters, very pro-china and anti-whole-western-world black&white mindset that modern free world grew away long time ago. Had to force myself reading to the end of trilogy, above goes into overdrive.

You read a pop sci fi book and are surprised when you get pop sci fi? Chinese culture tends to place much more emphasis on prose in general in pop books in my experience but you picked one of the worst examples of that. That series is very strongly influenced by western sci fi culture so I find it really funny that you use it as an example of chinese culture being worse.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#49

Post by pie420 »

mongol wrote: post #26
locuscoeruleus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We now know they're from a select group (of Norwegians in this case) with certain tastes no more noteworthy or transcendent than any of ours. Only the nobel peace prize is handed out by Norway. What would you consider an example of nobel bait?

Obama getting the peace prize after less than a year as president. He had not done anything extraordinary related to peacse and he seemed mostly embarassed to receive it given that

what did obama do that was considered nobel bait? he had no idea they were about to give it to him. And really, him getting the nobel is probably more for signifying the end of racism since america finally elected a black president, but we all know how that turned out.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#50

Post by pie420 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23
carabiner wrote: post #8

I think the Nobels, especially in the arts, have lost their relevance, similar to the Michelin restaurant awards and the Oscars for film. We now know they're from a select group (of Norwegians in this case) with certain tastes no more noteworthy or transcendent than any of ours. The world has too much culture and achievement today to be marked by one group of awards like this per year. We have "Oscar bait," but I thi…

> similar to the Michelin restaurant awards Michelin stars remain coveted and are a sure-fire way for fine-dining restaurants to fill their seats.

name a more prestigious/better guide (marketing tool) for restaurants?
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