“Arguably versioning is a practice reserved for when a literary translator isn’t available or perhaps doesn’t actually exist who can bridge both languages. At worst, it has and can be done by colonisers or writers from major languages mangling minor literatures for sport and without care from a position of imbedded prejudice, power and authority.” Jen Calleja on the difference between translating and versioning of an original text, over at The Quietus.
Version Control
New JJS on the Way
Ever since Pulphead, we can't get enough of John Jeremiah Sullivan, so we're happy to hear he's at work on his next book, The Prime Minister of Paradise. Sullivan will tell the story of Christian Priber, a German American who tried to establish a utopia in 18th century South Carolina. "This man, he really represented the height of the enlightenment at the time," Sullivan said during a recent interview at Notre Dame. No word on an official release date yet, but it's already being optioned for film by Scott Rudin.
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Speaking of diaries…
Vanity Fair has published Christopher Hitchens's introduction to George Orwell's Diaries, which will be published for the first time next month.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Book Learnin’
“This is the first time that the college has embarked on such a robust process for measuring Core Educational Competency In Reading Things In Books And Writing About Them, and we really can’t do it without your mandated participation. We have devised this rubric in consultation with the Office of Institutional Research About the Institution, which tirelessly gathers data and then enters it into spreadsheets. Please see their Statement of Very Worthy Goals in attachment 6.”
The Tables Have Turned
First humans wrote poems made of computer code, and now computers are writing poems made of English words.
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