Booby prize
Now, if you read this article which begins:
The Cinderellas of the literary world have been invited to the ball. Translators, those unsung, underpaid creatures who bring the riches of foreign-language literature to English readerships and help some authors amass fortunes, are to get their own slice of a major prize.
The Man Booker prize organisation yesterday unveiled a £15,000 special translation award as part of its international fiction prize, whose first winner is due to be announced early next month.
… you’d no doubt – well, if you’re a translator, anyway – say, hurray, and it’s about damn time. (And, maybe, once the thrill has worn off: hey, why does the translator – who rarely gets royalties – only get a quarter of what the author is awarded?)
But, mostly, it sounds like good news.
If, however, you go on to read this press release which specifies:
The translation prize will only be awarded where the winning author’s fiction has been translated into English. The new award could affect 10 of the 17 authors whose work has been translated from the original language. The winning author will choose who the translator’s prize should go to and whether it is to be awarded to one translator or divided between several. (My own, not remotely subtle italics.)
… your little balloon of joy will be out of air in no time. We can only hope that if there’s a ceremony, they’ll line all the translators up on stage like they did with the non-stars at the Oscars… then announce that there will be no winner this year.
Back to the bucket & mop, Cinderella.
And speaking of the Man Booker, its founder, Jonathan Cape’s former wunderkind Tom Maschler, recently published his autobiography, which unfortunately reads more like an outline than a full-fledged endeavour – making you wonder why he even bothered if he intended to be so stingy (Dirt! We want dirt!), and grateful he never gave up his day job.
But, still, Maschler does provide a glimpse of a publishing industry that is no more – one where books were chosen for the quality of the writing, and the sales & marketing department’s input was relegated to its rightful place at the end of the process. A time when book designers got due respect, and publishers actually put thought into which craftsmen (designers, illustrators, etc.) would best enhance an author’s work – in a bid to create something wonderful.
And, okay, he does share a few tidbits.
Here, on Kurt Vonnegut’s former wife, photographer Jill Kremetz:
Bob Gottlieb had an extremely pretty young daughter called Lizzie. Jill rang Bob to say she would very much like to photograph the child. Bob said he really didn’t want her to be photographed, but Jill wore him down, as she tends to, and he finally agreed but on one condition. This was that Jill should promise that the photograph would not be reproduced in any newspaper. Jill agreed.
Come the day, she turned up bringing with her a brand-new ravishing teddy bear. Lizzie played with the bear blissfully and Jill duly took her photographs. When she left, she carried the teddy bear away with her and Lizzie was of course distraught.
Two weeks later, a large photograph of Lizzie appeared in the New York Times. Then, shortly before Christmas, Jill rang Bob’s wife, the actress Maria Tucci, and suggested she might like to give Bob a print of one of her photographs of Lizzie as a Christmas present, adding that she was prepared to let her have it at a cost of a mere $200!
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Comment
- I appreciate translators who are talented beyond belief in bringing work to me from other cultures and languages that I’m hopeless in – French, German, Vietnamese, to name just a few. Translators’ skills allow me to read the experiences of the world beyond my immediate life, by authors who would otherwise be out of reach of my voracious reading habits.
And of course, much more should be done to recognize the work you do and be paid accordingly.
The Man Booker prize announcement? After reading it, the only thing comment I could make was a rather inelegant, if accurate, one (then again, I’m a crash American)...
Assmonkeys.
— roggey May 11, 5:14pm # - Er, I don’t get the Lizzie story. Is a part missing?
— listless May 11, 10:27pm # - Listless, I think the part that’s missing is the part where everyone I know who has ever met Jill Kremetz says, “And that’s why she’s a flaming bitch.”
— Ben May 12, 3:30pm # - Ah. Thanks, Ben!
— listless May 12, 9:05pm # - Maybe followed with a, “Why did that nice Kurt Vonnegut marry her?”
— Amy May 17, 11:21pm #
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