4 ms·

> My Struggle That's going to be a doozy to try to market in Germany

dagw 8y ago
This book's title actually got changed to My Struggle or "Sterben" Germany. The other book you're thinking of is called My Fight or "Mein Kampf". In the original Norwegian though this book shares its title with that other book.
- niklasd 8y ago
  No, it got changed from My Struggle (the English translation of the original title) to "Sterben", which means "dying". The correct German translation of My Struggle would have been "Mein Kampf", and this is why they choose to change the title in German. I somehow would have liked the actual translation better. Sure, it would have been strange that it would share the title with such an infamous book, and I think that the similarity was not intended by the author. But I don't really like the German titles (they have individual ones for every book, Sterben is just for the last one) and I just like the intellectual honesty of a literal translation. [Edit] Correction: Sterben is the first volumne, not the last.
  - Theizestooke 8y ago
    I'd have thought "Mein Streben" would be a suitable alternative. Weird choice with "Sterben", although I don't know anything about the book.
  - kpil 8y ago
    The similarity is obviously intented. The "original" titles in Norwegian are "Min Kamp" and "Min Kamp: 1" respectively, since Knausgård planned it to be a hexalogy. (Or at least more than one book.) I suppose it's a slightly controversial title in Norway, but I guess it's too much in Germany.
    - niklasd 8y ago
      You're right, that seems correct. The Wikipedia [0] article also points in that direction. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_novels) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_no...
    - jacobush 8y ago
      More than slightly, in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
  - wodenokoto 8y ago
    > I just like the intellectual honesty of a literal translation. If a literal translation has a completely different meaning or connotation in the target language, then it is not an "honest" translation, since you are implicitly (but knowingly) telling the reader in the target language something that isn't in the source language.
- nasredin 8y ago
  All the stuff I know always translated the AH one as "My Struggle". Never heard of "My Fight". Still, that is just a dumb name for a book.
Mane 8y ago
The sixth book actually contains hundreds of pages about Hitler.
crazygringo 8y ago
The allusion was intentional. > The title of the series, of both the English translation and the original Norwegian, is a translation of "Mein Kampf" and is thus a clear reference to Hitler. In an essay for the New Yorker's website, Evan Hughes explains how Knausgård, in interviews, "has argued that a frightening characteristic that connects Mein Kampf to the writings of Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Utøya massacre, is that in the mind behind both texts there seems to be an 'I' and a 'we' but no 'you,' reflecting a dangerous blindness that allowed an otherwise impossible evil."[2] The sixth book of the series includes a meditation on the Breivik attacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_novels) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_no...
dang 8y ago
By posting literally the most obvious point about a famous book as a snarky one-liner, this comment breaks the site guidelines. They ask: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- thedaemon 8y ago
  But can you stop going around acting like the police? I have seen you call people out for breaking the rules on many occasions. Please follow the rules yourself and stay on topic. I know my post is also wrong, but I feel you need to be called out on this.
  - grzm 8y ago
    'dang is an HN mod: one of his tasks is to call people out for breaking the rules.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - dang 8y ago
    (I'm an admin; sorry that wasn't clear.) It's true that those comments are annoying. They're even more annoying to write than they are to read. But we don't know a better way to semi-preserve the quality of the forum. I wish we did.
- M_Bakhtiari 8y ago
  I have nothing against Knausgaard's work. I think it would be better if they actually did name it "Mein Kampf" in Germany, as well as started naming their kids "Adolf" again, because all these dead Nazis currently exert far more control over German people's minds than they deserve.

dagw 8y ago

This book's title actually got changed to My Struggle or "Sterben" Germany. The other book you're thinking of is called My Fight or "Mein Kampf". In the original Norwegian though this book shares its title with that other book.

niklasd 8y ago
No, it got changed from My Struggle (the English translation of the original title) to "Sterben", which means "dying". The correct German translation of My Struggle would have been "Mein Kampf", and this is why they choose to change the title in German. I somehow would have liked the actual translation better. Sure, it would have been strange that it would share the title with such an infamous book, and I think that the similarity was not intended by the author. But I don't really like the German titles (they have individual ones for every book, Sterben is just for the last one) and I just like the intellectual honesty of a literal translation. [Edit] Correction: Sterben is the first volumne, not the last.
- Theizestooke 8y ago
  I'd have thought "Mein Streben" would be a suitable alternative. Weird choice with "Sterben", although I don't know anything about the book.
- kpil 8y ago
  The similarity is obviously intented. The "original" titles in Norwegian are "Min Kamp" and "Min Kamp: 1" respectively, since Knausgård planned it to be a hexalogy. (Or at least more than one book.) I suppose it's a slightly controversial title in Norway, but I guess it's too much in Germany.
  - niklasd 8y ago
    You're right, that seems correct. The Wikipedia [0] article also points in that direction. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_novels) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_no...
  - jacobush 8y ago
    More than slightly, in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
- wodenokoto 8y ago
  > I just like the intellectual honesty of a literal translation. If a literal translation has a completely different meaning or connotation in the target language, then it is not an "honest" translation, since you are implicitly (but knowingly) telling the reader in the target language something that isn't in the source language.
nasredin 8y ago
All the stuff I know always translated the AH one as "My Struggle". Never heard of "My Fight". Still, that is just a dumb name for a book.

Mane 8y ago

The sixth book actually contains hundreds of pages about Hitler.

crazygringo 8y ago

The allusion was intentional. > The title of the series, of both the English translation and the original Norwegian, is a translation of "Mein Kampf" and is thus a clear reference to Hitler. In an essay for the New Yorker's website, Evan Hughes explains how Knausgård, in interviews, "has argued that a frightening characteristic that connects Mein Kampf to the writings of Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Utøya massacre, is that in the mind behind both texts there seems to be an 'I' and a 'we' but no 'you,' reflecting a dangerous blindness that allowed an otherwise impossible evil."[2] The sixth book of the series includes a meditation on the Breivik attacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_novels) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_no...

dang 8y ago

By posting literally the most obvious point about a famous book as a snarky one-liner, this comment breaks the site guidelines. They ask: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

thedaemon 8y ago
But can you stop going around acting like the police? I have seen you call people out for breaking the rules on many occasions. Please follow the rules yourself and stay on topic. I know my post is also wrong, but I feel you need to be called out on this.
- grzm 8y ago
  'dang is an HN mod: one of his tasks is to call people out for breaking the rules.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- dang 8y ago
  (I'm an admin; sorry that wasn't clear.) It's true that those comments are annoying. They're even more annoying to write than they are to read. But we don't know a better way to semi-preserve the quality of the forum. I wish we did.
M_Bakhtiari 8y ago
I have nothing against Knausgaard's work. I think it would be better if they actually did name it "Mein Kampf" in Germany, as well as started naming their kids "Adolf" again, because all these dead Nazis currently exert far more control over German people's minds than they deserve.