Terry Pratchett

[shilsen]

It seems like you'd have to toss out the idea of translating them directly, and go with finding an idiom in the target language that approximates ones like what you mentioned above -- complete with target language cultural references. The product wouldn't be an "exact" translation by any means, but it would have a similar feel, and ideally get a similar point across -- but most importantly, it would hopefully still be funny!

From the bit of translation theory I studied in college, I came away preferring that approach. Much like turning a great book into a great movie, not everything can make the transition -- but if you can preserve the heart of it, and enough of the trappings, you wind up with something like Jackon's LotR trilogy: not exact, but faithful and just as good in a different way.

I think you nailed it perfectly. I've done some translation work myself, and I did my best work when I avoided direct translation but instead focused on trying to get the spirit of the text into the idiom of the language I was translating it into. I've never done anything like Pratchett, but I have done nonsense verse, and that's a genre where you seriously have to work with feel, as you put it, and try to retain the humour of it. Direct translation would have sucked royally.

 

[LordVyreth]

Of course you'd have to ask the man to be sure, but considering his writing style and general philosophy (sure, I read Pratchett for philosophy), I always thought that was a stylistic choice. Endings, realistically, are not about climaxes or neat wrap-ups, and Pratchett is just about the most realistic writer I've ever read, so I always figured that the kind of endings he has are a direct result of that.

P.S. Any examples of endings which you found anticlimactic and/or incomprehensible?

Well, to be fair, keep in mind that I'm still only in the first half of his novels, so he probably improves in the later books. Well, let's go through the endings that I read so far, just to speed things up.

The Colour of Magic: This one barely counts, since it's really more a collection of short stories than a full novel.

The Light Fantastic: This is a pretty good example, honestly. I didn't entire understand what the red star was, and any story that ends with too heavy a focus on the Dungeon Dimension tends to get too esoteric for me.

Equal Rites: Another good example. It started out as an interesting tale about gender relations in the magic industry, but it just got weird when the main character (who's name I can't even remember any more,) got sucked into the Dungeon Dimension. Plus, it was annoying that she never got used again and had no seeming effect on Discworld.

Mort: This was more like it. I liked the final battle in the sand room between Death and Mort, but it was a little too "happy" an ending for me, with everyone getting married an all.

Sourcery: Despite my normal Dungeon Dimension aversion, this one worked for me more. Probably my favorite ending so far.

Wyrd Sisters: This one was okay, but like I mentioned before, Granny-centric plots just don't work for me.

Pyramids: One of my favorites. I don't see any real problems with it.

Guards, Guards: This is a good example of the 'anticlimatic' endings. The little dragon essentially defeated the novel's villain by altering its body to fart at super-sonic speed, and then the two went off to mate. I thought Carrot ended up being underused as a result.

Eric: Another short-stories collection, but I liked the ending despite. It was about as positive as a Rincewind story gets, and I like how the "evil" devil lord was promoted out of power.

Moving Pictures: This one's mixed for me. I liked the climatic battle in Ankh-Morpok quite a bit, especially the King Kong parody, but I didn't really get the whole "Oswald" bit at the end.

Reaper Man: I didn't really get this book, to be honest. So the abundance of life force creates snow globes out of now where, which hatch into shopping carts that form a parasitic shopping mall? Disturbing, but didn't feel as appropriate as most Practhett stories. And the new death was defeated too easily, in both its original and mechanical forms.

Witches Abroad: Another overly Granny plot, though the mirror magic element at the end was cool, especially with Lily's final fate.

I'm working on Small Gods now, so I'll just stop here, and won't comment on Lords and Ladies or Men at Arms until after I finish that one.

 

[Umbra]

Everything the man writes is gold. Recently he's been knocking out 2 books a year, which worried me somewhat - I was concerned that the quality of his writing would suffer.

Actually, the publisher is releasing ONLY two books a year, so Terry curtailed his writing in the series.

Terry comes out to Australia on a fairly regular basis and he has explained during radio interviews that the publisher will not release more than two books a year due to a combination of fear of diluting the fans wanting more and them having time to sell hardcovers before the paperback comes out. At some point he had (IIRC) three Discworld maniscripts waiting for publication.

And for those of you who missed my post in the off-topic forum.
Greebo Lives!!

 

[FireLance]

Well, I'm a pretty big Pratchett fan, and I do agree that his later books have been much better than his earlier ones. If I had to pick favorites, I'd have to go with Hogfather, Small Gods, Feet of Clay and Carpe Jugulum.

 

[Wombat]

Joining in late to the fray, let me say that I was a very late convert to Terry Pratchett, but I have been steadily making up for lost time.

I prefer the Watch series most of all, but that is like saying I prefer chocolate to vanilla -- both are excellent under the right circumstances. I also love the Witches books and most of the Death books.

As for Rincewind, well, he's more or less a one-trick-pony -- he runs away. What parts of his books I enjoy tend to be because of other characters (yeah, Cohen and the Silver Horde!), not Rincewind himself (who I find rather annoying).

And then there is Death. He's just cool

Probably my fave books (for obscure reasons) are Carpe Jugulum, The Fifth Elephant, and Soul Music, but I'll read almost any of them. And I am still impressed by the seriousness of Night Watch.

 

[demiurge1138]

Although I really like the Death series and the Watch books, and am pleased about the more serious turn the Watch series took with Night Watch (which was a classic), I really do like Rincewind. More so than all the rest of the books, Rincewind-centric books tend to be overtly comic. And I like that. And his philosophy on running and heroism strikes a wierd chord in my cowardly soul. No, I don't know why.

Personally, just going off of Lord Vyreth's list, Reaper Man was one of my favorites. The parasitic shopping mall was disturbing, but the main focus of the book is on Death, which really shines. And of course the New Death goes down a bit easily; Death has a lot more experience at the whole Death bit.

Demiurge out.

PS: Which book do you think is the weakest of the Discworld series? Personally, my money's on Pyramids (one of the few I haven't reread) or Eric (it was enjoyable, but just way too short)

 

[Tonguez]

PS: Which book do you think is the weakest of the Discworld series? Personally, my money's on Pyramids (one of the few I haven't reread) or Eric (it was enjoyable, but just way too short)

I liked Pyramids

I'd say Colour of Magic (which I forgive for being PTerry's 'practice' Discworld novel) and Eric are my least favourite. Actually I too think Rincewind is just a bit boring as a character (the real stars being the Librarian and the Luggage) - although I did like Interesting Times and the XXXX 'jokes' in Last Continent.

 

[haiiro]

PS: Which book do you think is the weakest of the Discworld series? Personally, my money's on Pyramids (one of the few I haven't reread) or Eric (it was enjoyable, but just way too short)

Maskerade. It's one of the few I haven't re-read more than once -- Agnes/Perdita is an interesting enough character, but the stories involvig her seem to be so heavy-handed by comparison to the others. Same goes for Carpe Jugulum, to a lesser extent (Igor and Granny Weatherwax go a long way to making that one more enjoyable).

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Not to brag, but I was the Assistant Editor at HarperCollins Publishers on all TP's books that were released between Maskerade and Last Continent.

Great writer and a very nice guy. Some of his correspondance was very funny, and he was one of the few authors who always made his due dates for corrections. I just wish I had been able to meet him, but he didn't tour in the US for any of the books I worked on. It figures that HarperCollins brought him here right after I left the company.

 

[Aesmael]

I, too, would like to express my fondness for that particular author.

"Stercus, stercus, stercus!"

I had to go look it up -- it's Latin for, "Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!" That man has style.

"O Excrement, I am going to die," indeed. One of my very favourite books. Love the horde.

And now it is time for a little parable. A few weeks ago Pratchett was doing a signing for Going Postal, but on that particular day I had an exam. So I gave my sister some money to get it done for me, very nice of her. Alas, she went to the wrong store (Borders, five minutes walk away from Galaxy where the signing was at) and spent the whole afternoon not buying the book and getting it signed.
The moral of this story is that americans, being responsible for Borders, do not deserve Pratchett books.