Digest whorl.v009.n005

Alex David Groce · 01 Nov 1998, 10:50 · from whorl-v0009.mbox · original

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From: "Alex David Groce" <adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v009.n005
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 10:50:03
Message-ID: <whorl-v0009-0022 at digest.urth.net>
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Greg Neyman wrote:
> Thanks everyone for responding to my questions ... here goes ...
>=20
> Rostrum -
>     Chems must be able to access this information ... it's not like they
> shove the raw material in one end of them, and little chems come out (like
> bios) ... they've gotta assemble all the stuff themselves, by hand ... it=
's
> true that each has only half the plans, but if a rich person wanted fusion
> packs, all he'd have to do is take a male and female chem, and ask them to
> build fusion packs for him.  If they were building a child, they'd get to
> that step eventually.
>     Hey, something just occurred to me ... Hammerstone mentions on many
> occasions that chems don't eat at all ... even potto says that, when
> alluding to the fact that his tunnel army can go a long time on little
> supplies cuz most of them are chems ...  but even fusion packs don't run
> forever ... energy has to be input at some time ... I refuse to believe t=
hat
> Maytera Marble, of Moly, or whatever her name is, who's lived for 300 yea=
rs,
> is still running on original fuel.  Thoughts?
>     Thank you Keiran for replying to my question bout Hy ... as for Engli=
sh,
> two things ... first of all, as Ranjit points out, French and  Latin are
> mentioned BY name .. second, poetic effects like puns and deliberate
> alliteration (Overseeing Outsider, marvelous molpe, etc) are bound to the
> language they originated in, and would be lost in translation.  Plus note
> the use of shag as their "f" word, a throwback of British English.
>     that's it for now ...

	Hmmm...  But, unless we assume that the people of the future are ALSO
speaking British slang that's no longer used in 1999, we have to assume that
the whole thing is a translation, and that slang terms, puns, etc. are
analagous to the original (although, of course, really non-existent because
Wolfe wrote it in English, but means it to be a translation of a fictional
book) ones.  This can be done, although it's very hard (see Douglas
Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau de Marot for a beautiful book on translation issue=
s,
such as these, although I don't recall him really getting into the issue of
translations of fictional books...)
--=20
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)
Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

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