Status Updates From The Philosophy of Translation

A lil' bit of Schleiermacher, but only the good bit

he’s not a dork I’m sorry I said that

I agree that the domesticating/foreignizing/exoticizing trichotomy is moralizing, but you cant argue that language is not intrinsically tied to culture. Arguing against SapirWhorf isn’t sufficient to prove that language and culture are in some way distinct. Give me a single example of a cultural form that is not bound up in language! All engagement between people is filtered through language. Fuckin dork.

This has been an absolute delight so far, causing me to laugh out loud multiple times -- and also calling to mind Chesterton and Tolkien. I brought out a copy of the Lord of the Rings at one point to double-check a description of hobbits value ("short and obvious") as compared with the sometimes-arresting strangeness Searle sees as characteristic of good art.

Eye-opening. Enlightening! It’s transforming the way I engage with all sorts of media—not just translated-language books. Searles pulls from philosophy and natural sciences to form a cogent and sensitive argument—all while being super entertaining and readable.

Saving the rest of this to read at the airport; in the meantime, I am excitedly staring at it like a pug eyeing at that plate of pasta you just drunkenly dropped on the carpet.