4 ms·

I found the list fascinating - though in a bad way, as it impressively shows how little Americans seem to be exposed to non-anglosaxon literature. That's a loss

by sveme 13y ago

I found the list fascinating - though in a bad way, as it impressively shows how little Americans seem to be exposed to non-anglosaxon literature. That's a loss, really.

RBerenguel 13y ago
Well, I'm not American, and I am also exposed to lots of anglosaxon literature. The thing is, the market for translations is very limited, and usually larger for English->Spanish (or Catalan) than in reverse. My all-time favourite book was by a Catalan writer, homaging Hammett by writing a crime novel set in the Barcelona of the late 60s (IIRC, maybe it was early 70s) where the dictatorship was still in full swing and illegal goods were still a good deal (much like Hammett's setting during the Prohibition.) In case you can find an English edition, it's called "De mica en mica s'omple la pica," in Catalan (Drop by drop the sink fills up would be a rough translation, it's a typical Catalan saying.) A quick googling and amazon didn't turn up any translation, though.
- sveme 13y ago
  By Jaume Fuster? Yes, I just checked and there don't seem to be any German or English translations available. That's a shame, would have liked to read it. Coming back to the original topic, it is slightly weird that the market for translations is so small despite English probably being one of the most-read languages in the world. German, for example, is apparently the language that has the largest number of foreign language books translations despite being a comparatively small market. Maybe it is simply in a sweet spot with respect to size of market (large enough for translators to make a living) and number of domestic offerings (the supply is not so massive that it blocks all non-domestic offerings).
ekianjo 13y ago
Well, I don't mean to sound derogatory, but Americans tend to know little about stuff happening outside of their own country (or the anglo-saxon world), except for a number of well-travelled people. There are reasons for that: having a 300 million+ people strong country where lots of stuff gets created and sold in a single language makes it a sufficient market for most people to focus on, plus as a culture the US is strong on the market worldwide: it has appeal beyond its borders, so you'd expect it to be particularly strong on its own territory as well.

by sveme 13y ago

I found the list fascinating - though in a bad way, as it impressively shows how little Americans seem to be exposed to non-anglosaxon literature. That's a loss, really.

RBerenguel 13y ago

Well, I'm not American, and I am also exposed to lots of anglosaxon literature. The thing is, the market for translations is very limited, and usually larger for English->Spanish (or Catalan) than in reverse. My all-time favourite book was by a Catalan writer, homaging Hammett by writing a crime novel set in the Barcelona of the late 60s (IIRC, maybe it was early 70s) where the dictatorship was still in full swing and illegal goods were still a good deal (much like Hammett's setting during the Prohibition.) In case you can find an English edition, it's called "De mica en mica s'omple la pica," in Catalan (Drop by drop the sink fills up would be a rough translation, it's a typical Catalan saying.) A quick googling and amazon didn't turn up any translation, though.

sveme 13y ago
By Jaume Fuster? Yes, I just checked and there don't seem to be any German or English translations available. That's a shame, would have liked to read it. Coming back to the original topic, it is slightly weird that the market for translations is so small despite English probably being one of the most-read languages in the world. German, for example, is apparently the language that has the largest number of foreign language books translations despite being a comparatively small market. Maybe it is simply in a sweet spot with respect to size of market (large enough for translators to make a living) and number of domestic offerings (the supply is not so massive that it blocks all non-domestic offerings).

ekianjo 13y ago

Well, I don't mean to sound derogatory, but Americans tend to know little about stuff happening outside of their own country (or the anglo-saxon world), except for a number of well-travelled people. There are reasons for that: having a 300 million+ people strong country where lots of stuff gets created and sold in a single language makes it a sufficient market for most people to focus on, plus as a culture the US is strong on the market worldwide: it has appeal beyond its borders, so you'd expect it to be particularly strong on its own territory as well.