читательское

[bbgon]

1) Интересно, сколько переводчиков скончалось на посту в ходе работы над книгами Дугласа Адамса?))) Нет, правда? Потому что это невозможное великолепие языка, я читаю и тащусь. Взять хотя бы главу 15 из The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, про грамматику путешествий во времени. Хорошо англичанам с их will have been, а как быть простым смертным?)
Вот она, эта ужасно-прекрасная глава почти целиком, она коротенькая:

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire
history of catering. It has been built on the fragmented remains of ... it will be built on the fragmented
... that is to say it will have been built by this time, and indeed has been -
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your
own father or mother. ... The major problem is quite simply one of grammar

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire
history of catering. It has been built on the fragmented remains of ... it will be built on the fragmented
... that is to say it will have been built by this time, and indeed has been -
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your
own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a
broadminded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is also no problem about changing the
course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All
the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts
itself out in the end.
The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is
Dr Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for
instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by
time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be described differently
according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a
time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of
conducting conversations whilst you are actually travelling from one time to another with the
intention of becoming your own father or mother.
Most readers get as far as the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past
Subjunctive Intentional before giving up:
and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save
on printing costs.
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction,
pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to
be.
To resume:
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire
history of catering.
It is built on the fragmented remains of an eventually ruined planet which is (wioll haven be)
enclosed in a vast time bubble and projected forward in time to the precise moment of the End of the
Universe.
This is, many would say, impossible.
In it, guests take (willan on-take) their places at table and eat (willan on-eat) sumptuous meals whilst
watching (willing watchen) the whole of creation explode around them.
This is, many would say, equally impossible.
You can arrive (mayan arivan on-when) for any sitting you like without prior (late fore-when)
reservation because you can book retrospectively, as it were when you return to your own time. (you
can have on-book haventa forewhen presooning returningwenta retrohome.)
This is, many would now insist, absolutely impossible.
At the Restaurant you can meet and dine with (mayan meetan con with dinan on when) a
fascinating cross-section of the entire population of space and time.
This, it can be explained patiently, is also impossible.
You can visit it as many times as you like (mayan on-visit re-onvisiting ... and so on - for further
tense-corrections consult Dr Streetmentioner's book) and be sure of never meeting yourself, because of
the embarrassment this usually causes.
This, even if the rest were true, which it isn't, is patently impossible, say the doubters.
All you have to do is deposit one penny in a savings account in your own era, and when you
arrive at the End of Time the operation of compound interest means that the fabulous cost of your
meal has been paid for.
This, many claim, is not merely impossible but clearly insane, which is why the advertising
executives of the star system of Bastablon came up with this slogan: "If you've done six
impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant
at the End of the Universe?"

2) Читаю пока предисловие к своему драгоценному шекспировскому кирпичу. Длинное предисловие, больше ста страниц мелким шрифтом в крупноформатной книге. Вот не зря люблю Нортона! Информации много, изложена кратко, интресно и структурированно, просто душа мозг радуется. Узнала много нового про театр елизаветинских времен, тогдашние обычаи и прочее, так что захотелось новым взглядом пересмотреть "Анонима". Надо будет скачать и кого-нибудь (соседа, гыгыгы) усадить смотреть. Он вроде как не против слушать потом мои излияния на тему шекспиров-гамлетов-теорий относительности и прочей хрени, которую обычно со мной никто обсуждать не хочет.

Когда читаю про тогдашний быт (чума, медицина, положение женщин и другое, что сегодня кажется невыносимым, и думаю: интересно, что спустя пару сотен лет будет считаться невыносимым в нашем времени? Вот как мы сейчас думаем: "Ужас, как они жили без антибиотиков, скоростных средств связи и т.п.?"
Как вы считаете?
Мои кандидатуры на роль самого ужасного в начале 21 века для развитых стран: медленный транспорт, пробки, невозможность "сесть и поехать", пограничный контроль; уровень развития медицины (это вообще вечная тема); национальные конфликты в нынешней форме, особенно проблема мигрантов из мусульманских стран; серьезное обсуждение различий по гендерным признакам и сексуальной ориентации (примерно как мы сейчас воспринимаем "научные" рассуждения о том, относятся ли негры и пигмеи к виду гомо сапиенс или нет).

@темы: Литература, Мысли вслух

Comments

[Verit]

1. боги, это восхитительно *_______* ааааа. щас все брошу и продолжу Адамса читать ))) я только первую, но у меня есть все дальнейшие.

2. ага, согласна.
я тоже периодическио б этом думаю. )

[bbgon]

Verit,
читай-читай, это лингвистический оргазм))) а ещё в третьей книге есть рассуждения про придуманные глаголы и прилагательные типа to flollop, ооо! это нечто вроде глокой куздры - вроде слова ненастоящие, но всё понятно)) *рекламирует*

[Артеника]

Мои кандидатуры на роль самого ужасного в начале 21 века для развитых стран

Консерванты, красители и прочая дрянь в еде. Двигатели внутреннего сгорания, вонючие и медлительные. Внутренняя отделка помещений горючими пластиковыми панелями.

[Мэлис Крэш]

Необходимость работы в офисах!