"Edited for the Modern Reader"

erilar <drache.TakeThisOut@chibardun.net.invalid> wrote in news:drache-
CB1E6A.11532204042008.TakeThisOut@news.airstreamcomm.net:

> And I shudder to think how you want Shakespeare rewritten.

Here's something from Timon of Athens translated into Zemblan
and back again:

The sun is a thief: she lures the sea
and robs it. The moon is a thief:
he steals his silvery light from the sun.
The sea is a thief: it dissolves the moon.
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Velvet Underground Lyric: Heroin

I dont know just where Im going
But Im gonna try for the kingdom, if I can
cause it makes me feel like Im a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And Ill tell ya, things arent quite the same
When Im rushing on my run
And I feel just like jesus son
And I guess that I just dont know
And I guess that I just dont know

I have made the big decision
Im gonna try to nullify my life
cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the droppers neck
When Im closing in on death
And you cant help me not, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet silly talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess that I just dont know
And I guess that I just dont know

I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that Id sail the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
In a sailors suit and cap
Away from the big city
Where a man can not be free
Of all of the evils of this town
And of himself, and those around
Oh, and I guess that I just dont know
Oh, and I guess that I just dont know

Heroin, be the death of me
Heroin, its my wife and its my life
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then Im better off and dead
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really dont care anymore
About all the jim-jims in this town
And all the politicians makin crazy sounds
And everybody puttin everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

cause when the smack begins to flow
Then I really dont care anymore
Ah, when the heroin is in my blood
And that blood is in my head
Then thank God that Im as good as dead
Then thank your God that Im not aware
And thank God that I just dont care
And I guess I just dont know
And I guess I just dont know

---------------------------------------
Heroin: For The Modern Reader

I dont know just where Im going
But Im gonna try to feel good, like a man who feels good
When I put a needle into my vein
This changes things.
When Im intoxicated with opiate
I feel well-connected, theologically speaking
But this does not represent hard data

I have decided I will try to render my existence neutral
Because when the blood begins to flow
Up my carotid artery, simulating the experience of death, as I imagine
it
And I am alienated from both male and female members of my peer group
But this does not represent hard data

I hate modern cities and would rather have been a sailor on a ship a
long time ago
Even though the food was probably not so good and I'd probably have
syphilis and scurvy
And get whipped for insubordination maybe
But that would still be better than the Lower East Side, I think
Oh, on second thought, that is not hard data

Heroin might kill me or even interfere with intimate relationships
Because the drug interfaces with my higher thought centers,
No, it disconnects those,
And I'm dead and that's a big improvement
Because when the the drug stimulates my pleasure centers
I really dont care about all the jim-jims in this town,
And although I'm not sure what a jim-jim is, New York is a big place
and there must be a lot of jim-jims in it
Or about politicians speaking insincerely
Or about zero-sum transactional speech and behavior
Or all the dead bodies piled up in mounds
On television, that is, because if I'm honest I never actually saw
enough dead bodies to make a decent pile
Not even in the Lower East Side

Because when the period of intoxication begins, I really dont care
anymore
When the heroin, which is in my blood, is therefore also in my head
Which contains my brain, which is as fully functional as a busted
radio at such times
Then I am grateful for my lassitude, apathy, disequilibrium, and
overall torpor.
This, however, is not hard data.
These must be regarded as preliminary results:
This is not hard data.

Tom Buckner
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

On Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:50:28 -0500, erilar wrote:

> In article <47F5BF42.5090201.RemoveThis@columbia-center.org>,
> Dan Clore <clore.RemoveThis@columbia-center.org> wrote:
>
>> I recently purchased a volume purporting to contain three novels by
>> George MacDonald. They turned out to be "edited for today's reader". Out
>> of curiosity, I checked a sample passage that caught my interest against
>> the original text via Google Books. Here is the result:
>>
>> Thomas Wingfold, Curate
>>
>> pp. 226-27
>>
>> From a sad accident of his childhood, he had become acquainted with
>> something of the influences of a certain baneful drug, to the use of
>> which one of his attendants was addicted, and now at college, partly
>> from curiosity, partly from a desire to undergo its effects, but chiefly
>> in order to escape from ever-gnawing and passionate thought, he began to
>> make _experiments_ in its use. Experiment called for repetition--in
>> order to verification, said the fiend,--and repetition led first to a
>> longing after its effects, and next to a mad appetite for the thing
>> itself; so that, by the time of which my narrative treats, he was on the
>> verge of absolute slavery to its use, and in imminent peril of having to
>> pass the rest of his life in alternations of ecstasy and agony, divided
>> by dull spaces of misery, the ecstasies growing rarer and rarer, and the
>> agonies more and more frequent, intense and lasting; until at length the
>> dethroned Apollo found himself chained to a pillar of his own ruined
>> temple, which the sirocco was fast filling with desert sand.
>>
>> Retitled and "edited for today's reader":
>>
>> The Curate of Glaston
>>
>> pp. 60-61
>>
>> From a tragic accident of his childhood, he had become acquainted with
>> the influences of a certain baneful drug, to which one of his Indian
>> attendants was addicted. Now at college, partly from curiosity but
>> chiefly to escape from gnawing and passionate thought about Emmeline, he
>> began to experiment with it. Experiment called for repetition, and
>> repetition led first to a longing after its effects, and next to a mad
>> appetite for the thing itself. By the time of my narrative he was on the
>> verge of absolute slavery to its use.
>>
>> *****
>>
>> I open the field for comment as to what this implies about "today's reader".
>
> Presumably that "today's reader" needs everything dumbed down, I'd say.

Yep, _MacDonald for Dummies_ . . . .

--

This is part of the eternal wonder of the universe
as man forages out to discover in the womb of time
the nascence of his individuality in the motherhood of possibility.

< Malzberg
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

erilar wrote:
> In article <47F5BF42.5090201.DeleteThis@columbia-center.org>,
> Dan Clore <clore.DeleteThis@columbia-center.org> wrote:
>
>
>>I recently purchased a volume purporting to contain three novels by
>>George MacDonald. They turned out to be "edited for today's reader". Out
>>of curiosity, I checked a sample passage that caught my interest against
>>the original text via Google Books. Here is the result:
>>
>>Thomas Wingfold, Curate
>>
>>pp. 226-27
>>
>> From a sad accident of his childhood, he had become acquainted with
>>something of the influences of a certain baneful drug, to the use of
>>which one of his attendants was addicted, and now at college, partly
>>from curiosity, partly from a desire to undergo its effects, but chiefly
>>in order to escape from ever-gnawing and passionate thought, he began to
>>make _experiments_ in its use. Experiment called for repetition--in
>>order to verification, said the fiend,--and repetition led first to a
>>longing after its effects, and next to a mad appetite for the thing
>>itself; so that, by the time of which my narrative treats, he was on the
>>verge of absolute slavery to its use, and in imminent peril of having to
>>pass the rest of his life in alternations of ecstasy and agony, divided
>>by dull spaces of misery, the ecstasies growing rarer and rarer, and the
>>agonies more and more frequent, intense and lasting; until at length the
>>dethroned Apollo found himself chained to a pillar of his own ruined
>>temple, which the sirocco was fast filling with desert sand.
>>
>>Retitled and "edited for today's reader":
>>
>>The Curate of Glaston
>>
>>pp. 60-61
>>
>> From a tragic accident of his childhood, he had become acquainted with
>>the influences of a certain baneful drug, to which one of his Indian
>>attendants was addicted. Now at college, partly from curiosity but
>>chiefly to escape from gnawing and passionate thought about Emmeline, he
>>began to experiment with it. Experiment called for repetition, and
>>repetition led first to a longing after its effects, and next to a mad
>>appetite for the thing itself. By the time of my narrative he was on the
>>verge of absolute slavery to its use.
>>
>>*****
>>
>>I open the field for comment as to what this implies about "today's reader".
>
>
> Presumably that "today's reader" needs everything dumbed down, I'd say.

"Today's reader" does not need things dumbed down. Publishing companies
run by advertising people rather than literature people are likely to
think the dumbing down is needed, however.


--
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
-- Galileo Galilei
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Mike Schilling wrote:
> Dan Clore wrote:
>> Mike Schilling wrote:
>>> Most of it is simplication and toning down of what today might seem
>>> over-dramatic, but WTF is :"Indian attendent" about? Did the
>>> translator used to have a beter-paying job that got offshored?
>> The character had had servants in India.
>
> But only the "modern" version feels the need to emphasize their
> nationality.
>

Probably to make it clear that the drug is an opiate,
probably hashish.

Rebecca
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

On Apr 3, 10:40 pm, Dan Clore <cl....RemoveThis@columbia-center.org> wrote:


FROM THIS

> ... he was on the
> verge of absolute slavery to its use, and in imminent peril of having to
> pass the rest of his life in alternations of ecstasy and agony, divided
> by dull spaces of misery, the ecstasies growing rarer and rarer, and the
> agonies more and more frequent, intense and lasting; until at length the
> dethroned Apollo found himself chained to a pillar of his own ruined
> temple, which the sirocco was fast filling with desert sand.


TO THIS?
>
By the time of my narrative he was on the
> verge of absolute slavery to its use.
>

I find it to be unacceptable that both the 'ecstacy/misery' comparison
and the lovely "dethroned Apollo" metaphor, with its beautiful and
complex image of a dethroned Apollo chained to a pillar in his own
ruined temple, which the sirocco was "fast filling with desert sand",
were so rudely and crudely excised. And the mention of 'dull spaces'
was removed as well: Remember, the ecstacies and agonies are
interspersed with dull spaces of misery. The complexity of these
repeating highs and lows is what is of essence in the man's life at
that time, the life the author was describing very capably, before his
book, long after his passing, fell into the hands of book-hating,
image-stealing, text-defrauding, crudely semi-literate barbarians.

I could dwell a space on just the lovely word 'sirocco', an import
from the Sahara, a word deposited in England from afar, just as
southern Europe gets clouded with dust and sand sometimes from these
same siroccos. Why should the modern reader not get to imbibe from a
variety of wines? Why not let the artist use all the possible color-
combinations on his or her pallette? Why limit the artist to sepia
tones by taking away the vividness of a colorful description?

By the way, it seems to me that it is not plot and rapid movement
that makes a good book, not at all! It is complex allusions and
beautiful images that can sometimes verge on the poetic, as well as
reach back to the vanished world of antiquity that we still can form a
bond with, an understanding of, with just the slightest attempt at
understanding. But the editor you're mentioning was not interested in
crafting a good book, he was pruning away at the limbs and branches of
something perceived to be overgrown, an object densely thick with a
life the editor couldn't understand, and therefore wished to
destroy.

Wouldn't a person be bordering on insanity if he took Proust's magnum
opus and tried to edit Proust, and his work, which are
indistinguishable, down into what sounds like the length and breadth
and insight of a Stephen King's fourteenth novel? And he'd be even
more nuts if he calls what he has left, after he cleans up all the
blood on the floor, a book by Proust. Proust would have died all over
again in the bloody editing.

The editor of THIS horrible attempt at adapting a text for the modern
reader, should just put HIS name on the new, edited book, with a
"...suggested by the work of..." below. That way the responsibility
for all the bare limbs of trees, denuded of their supple, wind-rustled
leaves, that is to say, their beautiful images and allusions, is ON
HIM and doesn't try to insult the original author by associating him
with any of it.

Best wishes, ----Ed Augusts
Please visit my 28 books & E-Books, at: www.edaugusts.com


.
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Francis A. Miniter wrote:
> Barb wrote:
>> "Dan Clore" <clore DeleteThis @columbia-center.org> wrote in message
>> news:47F5BF42.5090201@columbia-center.org...
>>> I recently purchased a volume purporting to contain three novels by
>>> George MacDonald. They turned out to be "edited for today's reader".
>>> Out of curiosity, I checked a sample passage that caught my interest
>>> against the original text via Google Books. Here is the result:
>>
>>
>> My opinion - it's simply because most people are more familiar with
>> the course of events of addiction these days, whereas it didn't even
>> appear on the radar of the "great unwashed" ?
>>
>> Barb UK
>>
>
> The original text was not intended to be instructive. What it was doing
> was depicting the self-justifications the character employed at each
> stage. The text is concerned with the ease with which the character
> slipped into self-deception.
>

It is? I didn't get that at all. I don't see him
justifying why he's doing it... just describing the affect
that using it has had on him. After all, the largest part
that got chopped was the description of the highs
alternating with the lows and the mundane, which is pretty
well known to anyone now.

Rebecca
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Joseph Nebus wrote:
> Dan Clore <clore DeleteThis @columbia-center.org> writes:
>
>
>> Thomas Wingfold, Curate
>
>> pp. 226-27
>
>> Experiment called for repetition--in
>> order to verification, said the fiend,--and repetition led first to a
>> longing after its effects, and next to a mad appetite for the thing
>> itself; ...
> ----
>
>> I open the field for comment as to what this implies about "today's reader".
>
> I'm still hung up on ``in order to verification'', actually.
>

And who the "fiend" is... the drug? But drugs don't talk.
Or is that a misspelling of "friend"?

Rebecca
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

In article <drache-CB1E6A.11532204042008 RemoveThis @news.airstreamcomm.net>,
erilar <drache RemoveThis @chibardun.net.invalid> wrote:

> AHA ! A "modern reader", obviously. You like your Mark Twain abridged,
> I take it? And I shudder to think how you want Shakespeare rewritten.

Basho,
six syllables

--
David M. Palmer dmpalmer RemoveThis @email.com (formerly @clark.net, @ematic.com)
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Rebecca Rice <philospher77.DeleteThis@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> Dan Clore <clore.DeleteThis@columbia-center.org> writes:
>>> Experiment called for repetition--in
>>> order to verification, said the fiend,--and repetition led first to a
>>> longing after its effects, and next to a mad appetite for the thing
>>> itself; ...
>
>And who the "fiend" is... the drug? But drugs don't talk.
>Or is that a misspelling of "friend"?

It's short for "drug fiend", the addicted friend.

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd.DeleteThis@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Francis A. Miniter wrote:
> Barb wrote:

>
> The modern editors (1) had no appreciation for that
> subtlety, and (2) figured that the "modern reader" had no
> appreciation or patience for leisurely narrative. The
> latter is unfortunately probably true. We see it in the
> pace of movies as well. Young people find the pace of older
> movies far too slow.

And yet, it seems to me that old movies had more plot. There were subplots,
diversions, characters were more well, characterized. The modern movie has
replaced most of that with extended and less and less believable action
sequences
--
Regards,

Cosmin Corbea
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

Cosmin Corbea wrote:
> Francis A. Miniter wrote:
>
>>Barb wrote:
>
>
>>The modern editors (1) had no appreciation for that
>>subtlety, and (2) figured that the "modern reader" had no
>>appreciation or patience for leisurely narrative. The
>>latter is unfortunately probably true. We see it in the
>>pace of movies as well. Young people find the pace of older
>>movies far too slow.
>
>
> And yet, it seems to me that old movies had more plot. There were subplots,
> diversions, characters were more well, characterized. The modern movie has
> replaced most of that with extended and less and less believable action
> sequences



MacDonald, when he wrote his historical novels, was not really
setting out to -entertain-. Remember he was a clergyman; the
books are more like embodied metaphors or sermons. (Denizens of
rec.arts are most likely to have read his fantasy work, the
CURDIE books or the fantasies.) Another thing that works heavily
against them for the American reader is that they are set in
Britain, Scotland mostly, in the 19th century, which means they
might as well be set in Mesopotamia.

Since they are out of copyright, and the author's descendants if
any didn't retain trademarks, the current publisher apparently
felt the books could essentially be cut apart and restitched,
ditching all the sermonizing and sexing up what plot and
character remains.

Whether the revamped novels are good fiction is a quite open
question. I tried one and found it unreadable, but I am
famously picky and have written proof that I am out of touch
with the common taste. What is certainly true is that George
MacDonald himself would not have approved.

Brenda

--
---------
Brenda W. Clough
http://www.sff.net/people/Brenda/

Recent short fiction:
"A Mighty Fortress"
http://www.helixsf.com/archives/Jul07/index.htm
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader" 

In article <slrnfve35r.qbd.dbd.TakeThisOut@gatekeeper.vic.com>,
David DeLaney <dbd.TakeThisOut@gatekeeper.vic.com> wrote:
>Rebecca Rice <philospher77.TakeThisOut@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>> Dan Clore <clore.TakeThisOut@columbia-center.org> writes:
>>>> Experiment called for repetition--in
>>>> order to verification, said the fiend,--and repetition led first to a
>>>> longing after its effects, and next to a mad appetite for the thing
>>>> itself; ...
>>
>>And who the "fiend" is... the drug? But drugs don't talk.
>>Or is that a misspelling of "friend"?
>
>It's short for "drug fiend", the addicted friend.

Or else the fiend is the devil, tempting the guy to do more
drugs. MacDonald was a very religious writer, who influenced C.
S. Lewis quite a lot.

Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt.TakeThisOut@kithrup.com
 >> Stay informed about: "Edited for the Modern Reader"