Re: Douglas Adams, was RE: Fruitcakes was Re: Kentum/satem

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan van Steenbergen [mailto:ijzeren_jan@YAHOO.CO.UK]
> Sent: 02 May 2002 08:42
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: [Chat] Douglas Adams, was RE: Fruitcakes was Re:
> Kentum/satem
>
>
>  --- Keith Gaughan wrote:
>
> > From: Maarten van Beek [mailto:dungeonmaster@ALMARAN.NET]
> >
> > > > ... "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy by
> Douglas Adams.
> > > > It's a book every geek in the US and UK has read.)
> > >
> > > And in The Netherlands too... I know people who printed
> the whole damns
> > > series off of the internet on the university computers
> (even though it
> > > can be purchased, both in English and Dutch, at every
> decent bookstore
> > > in the country).
>
> ... Though I wouldn't recommend the Dutch translation. It
> admit, that the
> book is almost intranslatable, but this is really a classical
> example of
> how it should not be done: translating not only the story,
> but also the
> names and even the locations (Tricia McMillan becomes Trees
> Jansma, Ford
> Prefect becomes Amro Bank, London becomes Amsterdam, cricket
> becomes hockey,
> etc. This translation makes it look like an extraordinary silly book,
> missing the point that it tries to catch by translating everything.
>
> > Which reminds me - has anybody got the new book? I saw it in
> > a display in Waterstones on the way to work this morning. Must
> > get it myself.
>
> You mean the fifth part of what was originally "A trilogy in
> four parts", called "Mostly Harmless"? I finished reading it
> a few weeks ago.
Nope, there's a new one out called "A Salmon of Doubt". He was
working on it before he died.

> The fifth book has more or less the same level as the fourth, or
> worse. It doesn't add anything new to the story; it is rather a
> continuation (not to use the word repetition) of the preceding
> stories, with one big difference: almost every unresolved
> question of the earlier parts is solved at the end. Where
> almost every preceding book has sort of an open end, this is
> definitely the end of everything.
That, and Marvin is happy for the first time in his life.

K.