Comments on: Translating Books Into Pictures http://chronolect.com/archives/771 writes, reads history, listens to hip hop, never gets enough sleep Fri, 18 May 2012 10:53:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: joseph baron-pravda http://chronolect.com/archives/771#comment-1310 joseph baron-pravda Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:59:23 +0000 http://chronolect.com/?p=771#comment-1310 and, now, for something different...........very discerning (don't you love how it's pronounced 'dizzerning'? Right, now then, what's all this (Python Bobbie); we're in a post-verbal place----he observed, channeling Baudrillard........in a McLuhanesque sense, we're returning to the auditory/visual modalities of survival sapiens, so, um, you're spot on; well done, not at all silly. Love, Joey, aka Monty2 and, now, for something different………..very discerning (don’t you love how it’s pronounced ‘dizzerning’? Right, now then, what’s all this (Python Bobbie); we’re in a post-verbal place—-he observed, channeling Baudrillard……..in a McLuhanesque sense, we’re returning to the auditory/visual modalities of survival sapiens, so, um, you’re spot on; well done, not at all silly.

Love, Joey, aka Monty2

]]> By: admin http://chronolect.com/archives/771#comment-1235 admin Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:55:57 +0000 http://chronolect.com/?p=771#comment-1235 Word, good distinction. For me, adaptation implies translation in the literal sense ("moving over"), or re-writing within the same language, the same literary stratum (discrete time, linearity). This is probably because for years I wanted to be a screenwriter and partially or fully adapted various stories and news articles and books for the screen or, rarely, the stage. With the adaptation of a story into a movie, for example, both proceed linearly. They unfold moment by moment, detail by detail. It's true that the ultimate product (the movie) is translated out of the textual realm and into the imagistic one. But the screenplay is another version of the story, moved over, given a pragmatic exoskeleton (put image here; fade here; insert BANG! here, &c.). Of course, adaptation can involve language as well. You can adapt a Spanish story into an English movie. Or you can go the other way, and adapt an English story into a different English story. Musicians do this all the time, covering classics and recent hits. Writers don't do this, feeling they somehow own what they write completely, totally, impossibly. Perhaps with the Web we'll see not only more translation-through-media (*transmediation*, really, to your point), but also translation-within-same-language-and-medium. Why not? Cover War and Peace via Twitter.... Cover Pale Fire on a blog formatted to look like a cascade of index cards... Word, good distinction. For me, adaptation implies translation in the literal sense (”moving over”), or re-writing within the same language, the same literary stratum (discrete time, linearity).

This is probably because for years I wanted to be a screenwriter and partially or fully adapted various stories and news articles and books for the screen or, rarely, the stage.

With the adaptation of a story into a movie, for example, both proceed linearly. They unfold moment by moment, detail by detail. It’s true that the ultimate product (the movie) is translated out of the textual realm and into the imagistic one. But the screenplay is another version of the story, moved over, given a pragmatic exoskeleton (put image here; fade here; insert BANG! here, &c.).

Of course, adaptation can involve language as well. You can adapt a Spanish story into an English movie.

Or you can go the other way, and adapt an English story into a different English story. Musicians do this all the time, covering classics and recent hits. Writers don’t do this, feeling they somehow own what they write completely, totally, impossibly.

Perhaps with the Web we’ll see not only more translation-through-media (*transmediation*, really, to your point), but also translation-within-same-language-and-medium. Why not?

Cover War and Peace via Twitter…. Cover Pale Fire on a blog formatted to look like a cascade of index cards…

]]> By: Junio http://chronolect.com/archives/771#comment-1234 Junio Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:42:17 +0000 http://chronolect.com/?p=771#comment-1234 I love that you've focused on the idea of "translation" rather than adaptation when approaching these visual works. Though it is a very interesting question of where adaptation and translation meet. I love that you’ve focused on the idea of “translation” rather than adaptation when approaching these visual works. Though it is a very interesting question of where adaptation and translation meet.

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