This was critical time to work on the final project and I find this horrible timing for an assignment.
The Paradox of Foreign-Soundingness - Bellos
Interesting to learn that “barbarians” comes from Greeks calling non-Greek speakers varvaros or “blah-blah-ers.”
Bellos says "To sound foreign is to mouth gibberish, to be dim, to be dumb..." I remember years ago a friend saying that if a character in a movie is foreign the writers sometimes give them broken English and equate that with the character being a little dumb. Sometimes this is to make them comedic or innocent and naive. Sometimes the love interest in particular is presented this way, which is perhaps a fantasy that entertains a certain paranoia around romance with someone who's too smart and therefore conniving, sees through you, etc., whereas a nice foreigner will only see your good side. Highly suspect.
The Clothing of Books - Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri says "A bad cover is like an enemy; I find it hateful." How true. Everyone judges a book by its cover—it's the first information we have about it! I find it personally horrible to imagine writing a book and then hating the cover the publisher chose, and in a just world authors would have to approve the cover.
I agree with Lahiri that a cover is like a translation, especially in that it can't be too literal. I thought about that a lot while working on the Poets-Painters project, where every poet is matched with a student in the grad painting program to make a collaborative art book. My artist and I agreed it can be hokey when a visual interpretation of writing is just an on-the-nose picture.
The hilarious art of book design - Kidd
Boy I hate TED talks. Remember when they came out and we were all blown away? A big problem with them is the ethos of perfection (when you submit a TED talk you have to show them, down to every small movement, exactly how you will perform the talk). Something creepy about it. Kidd probably did that wiggle a hundred times.
The apple lesson is funny—just like Lahiri saying a cover can't be too literal. Another issue with TED talks is the crowd just hooting and clapping at everything and falling out of their chairs in admiration. I would be offended if a crowd pandered to me this much. You get the sense they've never left their house or heard a joke before.
Murakami! Love that Kidd describes the materials and process (vellum paper, and for Crichton the photostat machine). Whoever made that original dinosaur diagram that Kidd traced for Jurassic Park didn't get any credit or royalties huh...a shame.
"Great art can be great business too." Blah. I find it depressing when people are passionate about marketing.
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