A personal note on constructive criticism

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asphodel
A personal note on constructive criticism

tl;dr: I always welcome constructive criticism.

I once sent some unsolicited beta'ing, including grammar and typo corrections and some suggestions for phrasing, to a fanfic author whose work I enjoyed. His/her stinging rebuke of my presumption made me aware that not everyone welcomes criticism, however constructive or well-intentioned it may be. I admit that up until that point I had thought that all writers would welcome suggestions they might use to make their work better. For me, it feels pretty neat that someone cared enough to spend their own time going through my work with a fine-toothed comb, though I suppose to others it might feel like nitpicking.

My translation process goes like this:

rough draft > re-write / research > glossary construction / linking > upload to website > final read-through > publish

Sometimes, I might go through one of those processes faster than I should. Last weekend, a family friend who had recently taken up (academic) translation insisted on reading one of my translations. After gently trying to dissuade her, I shrugged internally and gave her "Rebels of the River-Edge: Prologue." I think, despite reassurances to the contrary, that she was expecting "The Tale of Genji." She handed it back without a word. Through no fault of its own, I'm still cringing a little when I go back to that translation because the awkwardness of that interaction still haunts me--which probably led to a less thorough last read-through than usual.

All this to say that nobody's work is perfect, and my stance on constructive criticism remains unchanged: yes please!

labingi
Thanks for sharing your thoughts

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I'll certainly bear it in mind if I notice typos, etc. I really am in awe of your translations. They have such care and nuance.

asphodel
I always value your

I always value your thoughtful responses, so thank you!

Katinka
Katinka's picture
Don't feel bad about yourself because of that interaction

It's very hard to impress academic people with translations of Kuwabara, because 90% of her writing is, hm, poor to put it mildly. The rest is, of course, genious :) So, if you show that (well-translated) 10%, people will be impressed. 

One suggestion, or just a thought - about things like these in between paragraphs:

Blahblahblah

"..."

Blahblahblah

"..?"

Blahblahblah

"..!"

Doesn't it look awkward in English? In Russian it's just terrible and makes the whole thing look like it was written by a 6 year old, so one of the first liberties I took was to eliminate these altogether. If I feel it conveys some important meaning, I use substitutes ("he said after a pause" "he was startled" "he was surprised" etc.), other times I just delete. Reads much better this way.

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asphodel
Oh, definitely

It's very hard to impress academic people with translations of Kuwabara, because 90% of her writing is, hm, poor to put it mildly. The rest is, of course, genious :) So, if you show that (well-translated) 10%, people will be impressed.

Oh, definitely. I knew that she wouldn't be impressed, especially coming into the middle of a story like that, but there's still a difference between knowing it intellectually and knowing it emotionally. Heh.

The funny thing is, I thought the "..." looked a little weird at first, but they've gotten more commonplace in the English fandom mainstream due to the influence of the anime and video games influx. I kinda like it now--I feel like I'm importing a bit of Japanese writing style in a rather insidious way, like using a odd word (avoy!) often enough so that my friends pick it up. ...Or it could be just me. Hmm. Maybe I should take a poll. XD

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