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This and that in English

Aloittaja Norma Bates, helmikuu 11, 2019, 11:28:40

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0 Jäsenet ja 1 Vieras katselee tätä aihetta.

Topi

Lainaus käyttäjältä: Tiistai - helmikuu 18, 2019, 10:16:31
I have no clear memory of the storyline anymore other than it was extremely captivating, wondering how anyone could create a mystery like that. Exceptional background work for sure.

I was trying to say in what way I felt the book was a little disappointing for me personally. But maybe I came across as too harsh on it, since we agree that it was exciting and captivating.

A lot of more snobbish readers, or people with cultivated tastes and so on, would perhaps be put off by it in terms of the quality of writing. Lots of short sentences, and characterisations in terms of superficial, easily imagined things. I can't remember now how Landgon was first portrayed, but it's stuff like he has a Mickey Mouse watch, a swimmer's physique, a deep resonating voice and is attractive and convincing without being too annoyingly hunkish or sexy, a bit of grey in his hair and whatnot :D Then these emblematic descriptions for characters get repeated over and over in different contexts, so you start to feel that they are more and more familiar, even though there's no added depth and you're not learning anything new about them.

The same thing applies to mentioning products by name. He drinks this or he smokes that or he this that and the other.

I know that sort of thing annoys the heck out of some people, but I don't mind so much :D All of this is very common in fantasy novels and detective stories, which I would still read for entertainment gladly.

kertsi

#16
Have you read Arundhati Roy? Her first book, The God of Small Things, I have read translated to Finnish, and I liked it a lot. *) Roys language is so captivating and creative that her prose sounds like poetry at least in this book of hers. I assume that it would be a challenging book to read it in English, but I surely would try a lot, before (probably) giving up.

Here is a review on the Finnish translation, and a short description of the book:
https://kiiltomato.net/arundhati-roy-joutavuuksien-jumala-the-god-of-small-things/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_of_Small_Things#Techniques

*) I guess there are two commas too much in that sentence? I've forgotten all the comma rules in English.
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Magdaleena

#17
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Topi - helmikuu 18, 2019, 11:56:19
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Tiistai - helmikuu 18, 2019, 10:16:31
I have no clear memory of the storyline anymore other than it was extremely captivating, wondering how anyone could create a mystery like that. Exceptional background work for sure.
.
A lot of more snobbish readers, or people with cultivated tastes and so on, would perhaps be put off by it in terms of the quality of writing. Lots of short sentences, and ..


This Dan Brown has hit on gold vein, I bet none of his critics have :)

He knows what he is writing about in The Da Vinci Code and it was for me enough for me then.
I will see if the book is still in my daughter's bookshelves to check out the length of his sentences, I am looking after their apartment right know (out of the country). I don't have read other books from him.

Maybe he is writing his books too quickly with no time to polish expressions.
Thrillers usually are not high literature anyway.

"Live from the heart of yourself. Seek to be whole, not perfect." - Oprah Winfrey

Topi

No, I haven't but sounds promising :) Thanks.

In general I think punctuation rules are a bit more flexible in English than in Finnish. Swedish probably even more so, but I've never really gotten the hang of them.

LainaaHer first book, The God of Small Things, I have read translated to Finnish, and I liked it a lot.

Nothing's grammatically wrong and no punctuation errors either. I think you just felt dissatisfied because it felt a little clunky or unnatural. It would be more idiomatic to say "I read her debut The God of Small Things in Finnish translation and liked it a lot".  There's something better about "in Finnish translation" and there's something a bit tricky in starting with "Her first book... I've read". But none of it was wrong and it's not primarily to do with the commas.

Topi

Lainaus käyttäjältä: Tiistai - helmikuu 18, 2019, 12:53:53
This Dan Brown has hit on gold vein, I bet none of his critics have :)


He knows what he is writing about in The Da Vinci Code and it was for me enough for me then.

If somebody writes a book, it gets published and becomes a huge hit or best-seller, that's obviously brilliant. It's not an easy thing to write a book, let alone a successful one.

I would still say that when Dan Brown writes stuff and it's good, it's a group effort with publishing editors and other folks of that kind involved. So it's not like everything in the DaVinci code including the fact-checking came straight from his massive genius.

This point about "Dan Brown struck gold but I doubt if his critics have" is a bit... well, it's not the job of critics really to say nice things about Brown or just admire how rich and well off and talented he is and what wonderful ideas and research and whatnot went into his novel.  You can do that as a reader and are welcome to it, but it would be a strange world indeed if that's what his critics understood themselves to be doing.

It's a bit shit in that critics write stuff which is sometimes mean or hurtful, and about the best thing any artist can do is never to read any of it. But it's not for the artist's benefit anyway that people write what they write, and it's okay for critics to say what they feel and the artist to just ignore it and keep doing their thing.

Magdaleena

#20
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Topi - helmikuu 18, 2019, 13:03:06
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Tiistai - helmikuu 18, 2019, 12:53:53
This Dan Brown has hit on gold vein, I bet none of his critics have :)


He knows what he is writing about in The Da Vinci Code and it was for me enough for me then.

If somebody writes a book, it gets published and becomes a huge hit or best-seller, that's obviously brilliant. It's not an easy thing to write a book, let alone a successful one.

I would still say that when Dan Brown writes stuff and it's good, it's a group effort with publishing editors and other folks of that kind involved. 


Could be so!!
Have no idea and too lazy to google, don.t read so much in English anymore, more Finnish books from our own little library, we get yearly newer ones for free by being member in the Suomi seura.

Edit,
there is a difference between good and could, sorry  8)

"Live from the heart of yourself. Seek to be whole, not perfect." - Oprah Winfrey

Renttu

#21
Sana weird on merkinnyt alun perin valtaa/kykyä ohjata kohtaloa. Samasta syystä Shakespeare yhteisnimesi Machbetissä kolme noitaa käyttäen heistä ilmaisua "The weird sisters". Myöhemmin sanamerkitys muuttui tarkoittamaan outoa (Noitien outoa pukeutumista?)...

Kirjasarjassaan Dyyni (Alkaen 1965) Brian Herbert kirjoittaa "Weirding modules/ the weirding way". Sanavalinta vaikutti niin omituiselle (Pun intended), että sanan etymologia oli pakko tarkistaa. Herbert käytti sanaa sen alkuperäismerkityksessä!

Weird, strange, peculiar... Outoja, kummallisia, erikoisia nämä engelsmannit. Mutta eivät eriskummallisia!