The Art of Translation

September 21 was a field day at my school. Classes were fit into the first half of the day; during the second, my grade led games and teams of all varieties. I myself designed a complicated game called "Primadonna", a lip-singing / dance competition inspired by the Marina & the Diamonds song.

The funny thing about it, though, is that it didn't occur to me just how complex my plan was. In my head, everything made sense - the different positions, the point system, everything. I assumed that, the game properly set up, everything ought to work smoothly.

In hindsight...

The game definitely didn't go as expected. There were mix-ups with team members' tasks, and my friend & I had to cut out the entire relay race portion. I was dying for the first 15 minutes, yelling directions and running from spot to spot, trying to devise instant solutions.

Field Day was on Friday. But over the weekend, I began to think about just where my painstakingly-planned out game had gone wrong. The fault wasn't inherent; I probably would've understood the directions just fine if I'd explained them to myself.

Hence lies the issue. I wasn't explaining the directions to a group of clones. I was speaking to groups of kids, who didn't have the patience or strict enough attention to follow my speech. And that's what every writer has to remember, while writing anything.

You have a human audience - don't make communication confusing! After all, the primary reason why people read is for entertainment. In our modern age, the public's attention span is short, and entertainment is largely visceral. Intelligent humor and irony are great, but not all writers can afford to go Infinite Jest on their readers.

So. Next time I have a grand creative vision, I'm going to try to remember the Field Day fiasco. A writer can never underestimate the power of clear, concise prose.

Another facet of the issue? Mastering voice, Often, a strong voice is crucial to a work's success - just take young adult fiction. I've put down many a YA novel because the voice was grating, a poor imitation of teen-speak by a middle-aged author.

It's never an easy task translating a vision onto the page. But writers have to do it everyday. We have to practice focus on the most minute details, to search for just the right word to describe an action or attribute. As Franz Kafka once said, "all language is but a poor translation." But it's the job of a writer to compose her own best translation... just so it can be translated, infinitely, by her readers.

How Much Does Prose Matter?

Hemingway in 1939

How much does prose matter?

It's a question I've been thinking about lately. How important is the actual writing of your story - not simply the plot, characters, et cetera... but the words?

I was thinking about this largely because of Hemingway and what I've been reading of him. He hated Jews, gays, probably women... - and it did tend to seep into his writing. But he's nearly always ranked as one of the greatest American writers out there!

Why? Well, he could definitely tell a story! But he became great because of his clean, understated prose - a style he developed as a journalist during WW1. You may have heard of his "iceberg principle" - writing a piece but taking out all unnecessary detail. The effect is an iceberg - only a little is visible (read), but a whole lot hangs under the water (is implied and understood.)

I was thinking of this, additionally, because of Milan Kundera's novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." I've been reading it quickly and quite a bit. Kundera's complex characters have won my heart, as well as the work's style. It's a "novel of ideas", presenting existential notions to explain its characters pasts and how their histories affect their actions.

So how much does prose matter? I've been learning that a strong voice and style can definitely influence the power of a work. It can make a serious subject seem silly, or the reverse. It can make an irritatingly quirky character curious. It can make a scene heartbreaking beautiful or sickeningly melodramatic.

What are your thoughts on the power of prose?