You should buy my translation of Botchan for Kindle

2009-12-07

You should buy my translation of Botchan for Kindle

As the title suggests, while I don't mean to intrude, I really think that you should buy the updated, improved edition of my translation of Natsume Sōseki's Botchan in e-book form. The Kindle version is out now, and others should follow soon. And there's a sample chapter up at the revamped Botchan page and everything.

In preparing this edition, I walked the line between sanding down the rougher, oh-yeah-I-did-this-in-a-hurry edges and retaining the profane, rollicking atmosphere which is the whole point of my translation in the first place. But don't worry: when in doubt, I came down on the side of profanity and slapstick.

Within this book — nay, this translation of this book — lies the entire story of imported teachers in Japan: a century of culture clashes condensed into eleven unsentimental, dry, and hilarious chapters. If you have a Kindle, you know what to do. Thanks!

Popularity factor: 13

Beholdmyswarthyface:

Hee-haw, buck b'cawk!!

language hat:

What if we not only don't have a "Kindle," we still think of kindle as a verb?

Carl:

Comic Sans MS?

Carl:

Comic Sans MS?

george:

Woah. I am, like, so lucky that I read your Botchan over the weekend, when it was still free.

Peter:

Carl took the words out of my mouth...Comic Sans? What happened to Dejima?

Matt:

George: Indeed, you are the online-literature equivalent of Indiana Jones pulling his hat through just as the temple door slams shut. I do urge you to buy a copy anyway, though. For the children.

LanguageHat: I encourage you to start a grass-roots movement among Kindle-less folk agitating for a print version! (I'll join.)

Carl + Peter: Yeah, yeah. I'm still negotiating the font. Still, I urge you, in the most literal sense, not to judge the book by its cover. (Actually the cover IMAGE is pretty badass, I think.)

BMSF: Thanks! Please pass my regards on to the town musicians of Bremen, too.

Claire:

I'll join that grass-roots movement for a print version! Where do I sign up?

Matt:

The first step is a letter-writing campaign. I suggest opening with catchy demagoguery like "LACK OF A PRINT VERSION OF MATT'S BOTCHAN IS A WEAKENED TIGER PREYING ON THE VULNERABLE; LET THE GLORIOUS FIST OF PUBLICATION SMASH THE TIGERIST CADRES."

zusty:

Hoy, yeah, Comic Sans is not making it. Additionally, the tracking is appalling. Look at the space between the Ts! Horrid. If they have to use something that comes default on Windows, let it be Georgia or Trebuchet or something.
However, as you say, the image is super cool, and I want to purchase this item.

aragoto:

May be worth noting here, for prospective Japan-located purchasers, that a surreptitious switch of one's location to "US" (via the entry of a US address--any will do--in one's Kindle settings) will at a stroke eliminate the $2 download surcharge, while leaving unaffected the flow of spondulicks to Mr. Treyvaud. At least, it should do, as long as Amazon hasn't plugged this loophole yet.

Alex:

I’ve been meaning to get round to reading Botchan again, might give this a look.

My faith in the translation I read previously wasn't helped by the point at which the translator gave up and included a footnote reading, 'Here is a play on words, namoshi and nameshi. It is entirely beyond my power to render them into appropriate English.'

Crusoe:

Comic sans in its own profane, rollicking defense:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html

2009-12-07