I want to share with you a neat find, whose subject matter sparks a lot of interesting ideas [in my opinion]. I've come across a book titled, "Alice in Many Tongues: The translations of Alice in Wonderland". It is exactly what it says, no tricks.
How strange it is, though, to contemplate a translation of a translation--especially of Carroll's work. So much culture and linguistic history informs his narrative, his playful twists of the tongue, that it seems impossible that it could ever be translated. And there's the rub--it can't. It isn't "Alice in Wonderland" anymore once it's translated, but a parallel--a "looking glass" approximation, if you like, set in a world quite different from the one in which Carroll wrote and thought. The great Richard Mitchell, the Underground Grammarian, once remarked that language is the platform of thought [I'm paraphrasing]. If language is as deeply informed by history and culture as a book like "Alice" makes apparent, then, by extension, history and culture are also the basis of thought. Perhaps I'm rambling, now, and certainly my ideas are not original, but the gears are going and my coffee is still hot.
For your entertainment, here is a brief list/description of some of our regulars:
-Old Skinny Spanish man who wears a beret, reeks of mothballs and won't leave until he has loudly farted in every aisle
-Varicose Creeper dude who brings in books to trade from dead people's estate sales, hits on our male employees and will engage in endless small talk if permitted
-Coolest Little Old Asian Dude Ever who walks around with headphones on, buys techno CDs and brings us homemade pastries
-Very Shy Illustrator guy with mutton chops who buys graphic novels, talks in hushed tones and always wears black
-Hyperactive Photographer Lady who has/had a sideline Amazon store which supplies her with obscure books that she couldn't sell because she overpriced so she brings them to us by the box-full which is okay because she sometimes buys us coffee or pizza or leaves a tip [seriously?] yes, seriously, she'll give us a fiver and be like "You guys are awesome"
-Little Old Irish Woman who wears a visible layer of sunscreen on her face and a scarf on her head that makes us feel like we're on the set of "Angela's Ashes"
-Dude Who Looks Like Eric Clapton and gives us knowing smiles
-Really Tall Skinny Guy With a Funny Beard who looks like he should participate in Civil War reenactments
-Law Researcher/Philosophy Buff dude who buys big stacks of philosophy books all at once and seems mellow but will talk excitedly if engaged using words like "ossified", "paradigm" and "epistemology" every other sentence
-Scientology Lady who once brought in a Dianetics book to trade, so maybe she's a reformed cult member? but anyways she's kind of rude and smells like old lady perfume
-Guy of Indiscriminate Origin whose accent I can't place and who always ALWAYS bitches about how much store credit we offer in trade for his books and even tried to bribe me into giving him better deals by giving me a ring
Maybe I should print up playing cards with their faces/specs on them? There are more, but I've got to get back to cataloging. Stay tuned for the next episode!
*Edited to add: I think I might start recommending books once in a while. I don't read fiction very much these days, but once in a while something grabs my attention. If you haven't yet heard of it, check out "Gould's Book of Fish" by Richard Flanagan. It's a novel, but not by any small measure. I find myself wanting to quote long passages from it, the writing is immensely good.
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