>always read victorian era translations on my kindle since they were out of copyright and the easiest to find online for free>finally try reading a penguin classic of nevsky prospekt since I couldn't find anything else>have to put it down after reading a single page because the level of english is so badJust more evidence that the idea of progress is a complete article of faith when even the standards of our own language have degenerated so much. This is the world's most popular translator for classics, and the one most commonly used in universities. Their entire effort is to take the good translations from the past and dumb them down. And they get to be a publishing house? What a sick joke!
>>25631291Enshitification. Appeal to function over form in translation, make the functional translation the standard, and then make the book in general out of print in service of low quality contemporary works. The old ceases to be appealing because it’s made to be like the new, and the new will always excel at being itself in a competition with the old being updated
>>25631291i have the feeling you're mistaking contemporary for dumbed down. what do you mean the level of english is bad? could you give an example?>Just more evidence that the idea of progress is a complete article of faith when even the standards of our own language have degenerated so much.i would call this a badly conposed sentence, so i don't know how much i trust your sense for prose.
>>25631310composed.... ack!
>i have the feeling you're mistaking contemporary for dumbed down.
>>25631316what does this post mean?! i do indeed have the strong suspicion that op simply fetishises archaic syntax and diction, which, as someone who genuinely enjoys the history of english literature, pisses me off to no end.
>>25631330and let me preempt you by saying that i realise my post contains a misplaced modifier and i now feel very remorseful about it.
>>25631330so you're so much of a language hipster that you despise people who you perceive as themselves being language hipsters, the horse shoe theory so powerfully at work here that now you're defending dumbed down contemporary prose?you need to get beat up or something irl and have a road to damascus moment fr. need a course correct bigly in your life.
I sympathize with your distress at the undeniable shittiness of modern language, but I have also found that a lot of these Victorian translators are way too free in their renditions, really distorting the meaning of the text (at least in Greek texts). The worst is when they render poetry into rhyming English verse and basically make a new composition.
>>25631291it's one thing to be mad, but not mentioning which translator you read makes you look mad and insecure. OP is definitely trying to hide something
>>25631330>claims to "genuinely enjoy the history of english literature">calls victorian english "archaic"holy fuck this place is infested with pajeets or bots or somethingarchaic is shakespeare, spenser, chaucer and earlier. no one has ever referred to charles dickens or moby dick as having "archaic" language. holy fuck
>>25631352The Diary of a Madman, the Government Inspector, and Selected Stories translated by Ronald Wilks
>>25631291A penguin is much to specific of a symbol.It evokes the north, coldness and ice. I don't want that shit on my Dune Cover.
>>25631291I dunno I like them. They're easy to find.
