Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

aljazeera.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–59 of 59 posts

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#51

Post by pests »

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.

I feel like someone who wasn't familar with Chinese history or culture would miss a lot of what was happening in that book. A lot happens that isn't directly explained.

Also depends if you read the version with the cultural revolution scenes in the beginning or in the middle.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#52

Post by lifthrasiir »

limitedfrom wrote: post #47
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)

It's not like that Han Kang doesn't speak English and Smith butchered her works in secrecy. Han Kang has even explicitly supported the English translation so the "controversy" should be considered ungrounded.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#53

Post by hulitu »

summerlight wrote: post #40
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a better, and actually insightful quote from her that we should know about? Because this is the sort of writing you'd expect from an emo 6th grader, not a Nobel prize winner. "Life isn't fair, nothing lasts forever" isn't exactly genius level stuff.

I don't think she is best known for a beautiful, insightful writing styles. To understand this case better, you probably want to understand the modern history of S. Korea, especially the connection between her book "Human acts" and the Gwangju massacre. EDIT: Actually Nobel Committee's bibliography does a good job on her works. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2024/bio-biblio...

> you probably want to understand the modern history of S. Korea,

"The uprising was violently suppressed by the South Korean military with the approval and logistical support of the United States under Carter administration, which feared the uprising might spread to other cities and tempt North Korea to interfere.

So normal democracy at work. Nothing to see here. /s

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#54

Post by hulitu »

yongjik wrote: post #35
asdasdsddd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its very sad that asian prose translates so terribly into english

And vice versa. So many English works translated to Korean read like chewing sand. It doesn't help that books don't sell well in Korea and translators are poorly paid. Often you can literally see "Oh the original English word must be X, because it doesn't make sense and the translator just used the more popular meaning of the word!"

> It doesn't help that books don't sell well in Korea and translators are poorly paid.

Maybe that's the problem.

I've seen translated books where you could identify the birth region of the translator based on the words used.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#55

Post by hulitu »

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.

> Shallow characters, very pro-china and anti-whole-western-world black&white mindset that modern free world grew away long time ago.

I think you missed the latest news.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#56

Post by simplegeek »

limitedfrom wrote: post #47
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)

Thank you!

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#57

Post by jajko »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #48
jajko wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Whoa I never said Chinese culture is worse and I certainly dont think that, why the needless fabulated attack?

I just didnt like the books apart from technological aspects that much, is it that hard to understand and accept that some folks look for more than just wow-what-a-cool-description-of-4D-in-3D?

It was pushed from all directions as something spectacular and well, that bar lies much higher for some, thats all.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#58

Post by limitedfrom »

lifthrasiir wrote: post #52
limitedfrom wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

It's not like that Han Kang doesn't speak English and Smith butchered her works in secrecy. Han Kang has even explicitly supported the English translation so the "controversy" should be considered ungrounded.

The flip side is that she might not want to criticize the translator (and translations) that brought her the biggest amount of success & fame. Plus, it's possible that the author herself is more comfortable with the amount of "deviation" than some readers and that's a personal preference thing at the end of the day.

Re: South Korean Author Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize

#59

Post by lifthrasiir »

limitedfrom wrote: post #58
lifthrasiir wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like that Han Kang doesn't speak English and Smith butchered her works in secrecy. Han Kang has even explicitly supported the English translation so the "controversy" should be considered ungrounded.

The flip side is that she might not want to criticize the translator (and translations) that brought her the biggest amount of success & fame. Plus, it's possible that the author herself is more comfortable with the amount of "deviation" than some readers and that's a personal preference thing at the end of the day.

It's definitely possible and happened many times for other cases, but she actively worked with the translator in this case and had a good understanding of the resulting English text. Quoting a recent interview [1]:

스미스는 소설을 번역하면서 한강 작가와 계속 의견을 주고 받았다고 전했다. 특히 소설 마지막 부분에 주인공 영혜의 언니 인혜가 한 말, “꿈속에선, 꿈이 전부인 것 같잖아. 하지만 깨고 나면 그게 전부가 아닌 거란 걸 알지…(후략)” 번역을 두고 가장 오랜 시간 의견을 주고 받았다. 스미스는 이를 “surely the dream isn’t all there is?…”로 번역했다.

“‘surely the dream isn’t all there is?’ 하고 영혜에게 말하는 대목에서 (한강) 작가는 인혜의 확신 없는 머뭇거림이 영어권 독자들에게 전달되지 않을 것을 우려했고, 이에 나는 영어의 ‘surely’란 단어가 어째서 확신을 의미하기보다는 오히려 화자가 스스로를 설득하고자 노력하는 인상을 주기 마련인지 설명해야 했다.”

Or in my rough translation:

Smith stated that she kept discussing with Han Kang over the course of translation process. It particularly took the longest amount of time to settle on the translation of words from Inhye, an elder sister of Younghye the protagonist; she translated that as "surely the dream isn’t all there is? [...]".

"Han Kang worried that English readers might not get a hint of Inhye's inconclusive hesitation from that line, so I had to explain her how 'surely' in English rather often conveys sort of self-delusion instead of confidence."

[1] https://www.khan.co.kr/culture/culture-general/article/20241...

Post reply on HN