Author: issandr

Links for January 8th

Links from my del.icio.us account for January 8th:

Jon Stewart on America, the media, and Gaza

Perhaps the most balanced, incisive, and interesting commentary on how the Gaza crisis has been handled in the US:

Links January 7th to January 8th

Links from my del.icio.us account for January 7th through January 8th:

Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language

My interest has been very piqued by references on several lit blogs to Moroccan author/public intellectual AbdelFattah Kilito’s new book  “Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language,” on the vagaries and challenges of translating from Arabic. There’s a good review at The National but the University of Syracuse’s own press release seems to be unavailable and I couldn’t find much other coverage online.

The book is a series of historical anecdotes and ruminations on the translation process and the politics that surround it. Kilito’s observation that “the process of reading and writing [in Arabic today] is always attended with potential translation” is true not only of the Middle East but of all national literatures. Yet reviewer Kanishk Tharoor gently questions the “whiff of the parochial” in Kilito’s view that one can only be loyal to a single language (a view he ascribes to the politicization of the French-Arabic divide in the Maghreb). 

My own view is that translation is always an imperfect process-you strive toward an ideal, the perfect translation, which can never be reached. And of course it’s deeply inflected with the cultural, historical and political relations between the two languages and countries across which this imperfect transfer of meaning is taking place. But it’s a nonetheless a worthwhile and often fascinating activity. A great translation of a great book is a gift to the world–a kind of gift I’ve been thankful for many times.

Links for January 6th

Links from my del.icio.us account for January 6th:

Links for January 5th

Links from my del.icio.us account for January 5th:

US coverage of Gaza War

Industry watchdog Editor & Publisher:

NEW YORK (Commentary) Israel launched its much-anticipated invasion of Gaza on Saturday. For over a week, U.S. media had provided largely one-sided coverage of the conflict, with little editorializing or commentary arguing against broader Israeli actions.

Most notably, after more than eight days of Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket launching in Gaza, The New York Times had produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists, and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere). The editorial, several days ago, did argue against the wisdom of a ground invasion – – but even though that invasion had become ever more likely all week the paper did not return to this subject.

Amazingly, the paper has kept that silence going in Sunday’s paper, with no editorial or columnist comment on the Israeli invasion. The Washington Post did manage to work up an editorial for Sunday which, in the usual contortionist manner, found the invasion “justified” but also highly “risky.”

[From UPDATED: Media Commentary Muted as Israel Invades]

Links January 2nd to January 5th

Links from my del.icio.us account for January 2nd through January 5th: