5 ms·

IMHO, there is a particular clarity of thought in Bastiat's writing that makes him superior to Anglosphere classical liberal authors, at least as far as economi

IMHO, there is a particular clarity of thought in Bastiat's writing that makes him superior to Anglosphere classical liberal authors, at least as far as economics is concerned.

tomcam 5y ago
This prose is incredibly good in its English form. Is it due to an excellent translator, or Bastiat's clarity that made the translation easy?
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  There's a third option, at least, that the translator has not translated the nuance of the French and so [inadvertently?] simplified the writing. My French isn't really good enough to tell, but the semi-gratuité appeared to me as if it's probably an untranslated pun. Thankfully they link the source which says "you'll get a demi-gratuitë". My best guess is that a gratuité is a reference to schooling as it may be from a period where schooling was starting to be given for free. So it's a burn, "you'll get a half-free/be half educated". After in brackets it says something like "pardon pour le mot", but I suspect this is read in the French as "sorry for the pun" (motte-juste sp? = pun??) and the meaning in vernacular English is then [if I'm right!] definitely "shall I call you an ambulance for that burn". As a UK-ian I enjoyed the reference to Perfidious Albion (though note the capitalisation, as it's all a name in UK we capitalise it all but that's not French practice for such a term; this is changing in UK English though). So, yeah, great read though, either way. (FWIW I don't think any of this catches much light on the implicit question of my first paragraph.)
  - Zababa 5y ago
    As a French native, I don't see any pun in "demi-gratuité", but I may be missing some context. "you'll get a half-free/be half educated" seems like a stretch. > As a UK-ian I enjoyed the reference to Perfidious Albion (though note the capitalisation, as it's all a name in UK we capitalise it all but that's not French practice for such a term; this is changing in UK English though). The name is just "Albion", "perfidious" here is just an adjective like any other. We use "Grande Bretagne" for Great Britain. Notice the two capital letters.
    - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
      No, Perfidious Albion is the whole name, my French teacher said such capitalisation of adjectives wasn't done in French. Country names are a special case. It's certainly true that geonyms don't use capitals, in French: you'd say, I think, voitures français whilst we say French cars. (True?) If I referenced the Scottish Alliance [with France] (the Auld Alliance) then it's capitalised to show it's a specific reference, not just any old alliance. Bastiat isn't [just] calling Britain perfidious he's referencing a specific term (or I guess he's ignorant and this is a massive coincidence!?). I can't really add anything further. I'm open to being wrong.
      - Zababa 5y ago
        The thing is that Albion alone is also a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion. Most of the references in the French wikipedia article on Perfidious Albion don't capitalize "Perfidious" either: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfide_Albion https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfide_Albion. > It's certainly true that geonyms don't use capitals, in French: you'd say, I think, voitures français whilst we say French cars. (True?) That's how it works I think (although we would say "voitures françaises" because "une voiture" is feminine but that's a detail). > If I referenced the Scottish Alliance [with France] (the Auld Alliance) then it's capitalised to show it's a specific reference, not just any old alliance. Bastiat isn't [just] calling Britain perfidious he's referencing a specific term (or I guess he's ignorant and this is a massive coincidence!?). That's true, but Albion by itself is also a reference, while Alliance by itself is not. For example, we also have the "Triple Alliance", which is another alliance, but we don't have another Albion. The perfidious Albion and Albion both refer to the same thing. I'm far from being an expert in French though, I'm only a native speaker, so I might be totally wrong about specific points like this.
- Zababa 5y ago
  It is great in French too. The style is a bit dated, but the thought is very clear and easy to understand, and it's a fun read.

IMHO, there is a particular clarity of thought in Bastiat's writing that makes him superior to Anglosphere classical liberal authors, at least as far as economics is concerned.

tomcam 5y ago

This prose is incredibly good in its English form. Is it due to an excellent translator, or Bastiat's clarity that made the translation easy?

pbhjpbhj 5y ago
There's a third option, at least, that the translator has not translated the nuance of the French and so [inadvertently?] simplified the writing. My French isn't really good enough to tell, but the semi-gratuité appeared to me as if it's probably an untranslated pun. Thankfully they link the source which says "you'll get a demi-gratuitë". My best guess is that a gratuité is a reference to schooling as it may be from a period where schooling was starting to be given for free. So it's a burn, "you'll get a half-free/be half educated". After in brackets it says something like "pardon pour le mot", but I suspect this is read in the French as "sorry for the pun" (motte-juste sp? = pun??) and the meaning in vernacular English is then [if I'm right!] definitely "shall I call you an ambulance for that burn". As a UK-ian I enjoyed the reference to Perfidious Albion (though note the capitalisation, as it's all a name in UK we capitalise it all but that's not French practice for such a term; this is changing in UK English though). So, yeah, great read though, either way. (FWIW I don't think any of this catches much light on the implicit question of my first paragraph.)
- Zababa 5y ago
  As a French native, I don't see any pun in "demi-gratuité", but I may be missing some context. "you'll get a half-free/be half educated" seems like a stretch. > As a UK-ian I enjoyed the reference to Perfidious Albion (though note the capitalisation, as it's all a name in UK we capitalise it all but that's not French practice for such a term; this is changing in UK English though). The name is just "Albion", "perfidious" here is just an adjective like any other. We use "Grande Bretagne" for Great Britain. Notice the two capital letters.
  - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
    No, Perfidious Albion is the whole name, my French teacher said such capitalisation of adjectives wasn't done in French. Country names are a special case. It's certainly true that geonyms don't use capitals, in French: you'd say, I think, voitures français whilst we say French cars. (True?) If I referenced the Scottish Alliance [with France] (the Auld Alliance) then it's capitalised to show it's a specific reference, not just any old alliance. Bastiat isn't [just] calling Britain perfidious he's referencing a specific term (or I guess he's ignorant and this is a massive coincidence!?). I can't really add anything further. I'm open to being wrong.
    - Zababa 5y ago
      The thing is that Albion alone is also a name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion. Most of the references in the French wikipedia article on Perfidious Albion don't capitalize "Perfidious" either: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfide_Albion https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfide_Albion. > It's certainly true that geonyms don't use capitals, in French: you'd say, I think, voitures français whilst we say French cars. (True?) That's how it works I think (although we would say "voitures françaises" because "une voiture" is feminine but that's a detail). > If I referenced the Scottish Alliance [with France] (the Auld Alliance) then it's capitalised to show it's a specific reference, not just any old alliance. Bastiat isn't [just] calling Britain perfidious he's referencing a specific term (or I guess he's ignorant and this is a massive coincidence!?). That's true, but Albion by itself is also a reference, while Alliance by itself is not. For example, we also have the "Triple Alliance", which is another alliance, but we don't have another Albion. The perfidious Albion and Albion both refer to the same thing. I'm far from being an expert in French though, I'm only a native speaker, so I might be totally wrong about specific points like this.
Zababa 5y ago
It is great in French too. The style is a bit dated, but the thought is very clear and easy to understand, and it's a fun read.