nika on edit ness
nika dubrovsky on edit/curate ness
via nika fb post:
Thinking about editing and the role of editor. I started writing and generally doing my projects again after a five-year break. And I very much hope that it will continue. During that time, automatic translators have emerged which certainly rule, and now it is time to re-establish relationships with editors who are an essential part of writing text. It’s like curators in art who are more important than artists. The right editor is a friend, a partner, this is more than a translator, because the translator, as in the case with Dostoevsky and Platonov, has to rewrite the entire text in his own way in order to really translate the twisted and unique one that is fit in the innermost national culture and specific context – to move it into an unfamiliar foreign territory. And the editor is dealing with a living author. He can’t quite do what he sets his mind to. He has to – and then he is closer to the curator – to establish relations and help. Curator from the word “help”, by the way, happens. But helping out, if it is a foreign language, as in my case, you need to translate it. This is almost impossible… But I’m looking for an editor of course.
same via bsky [https://bsky.app/profile/nikadubrovsky.bsky.social/post/3mc2tybw6zc2h]:
I am thinking about editing and translating: The thing is, a translator working with someone like Platonov or Dostoevsky has to rewrite the entire text in their own voice to actually translate something so twisted and unique, 1/
embedded in the very guts of a national culture and specific context—to carry it into unfamiliar territory. But an editor works with a living author. They can’t just do whatever they want. They have to build a relationship, help, and in my case, translate too. 2/
Platonov “Котлован”: “Без думы люди действуют по инстинкту, а инстинкт есть сознание жизни.” Robert Chandler: “Without thought, people act by instinct, and instinct is an awareness of life.” Thomas Whitney: “Without thinking, men act instinctively, and instinct is consciousness of life.” 3/
The problem is: in Platonov, consciousness is an organ. In translation, it becomes a concept—whether “awareness” or “consciousness,” it’s abstract, loaded, philosophical. 5/
The translations give you a completely different text, a different meaning. They can’t help it—English doesn’t let them break grammar the way Platonov does. 6/
language as control/enclosure et al
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be you. 