“As a journalist, he knew the value of concise speech. Every word counted, as each one had to be paid for when telegraphed to the news desk. Every decorative, non-informative adjective should be axed.” If you want proof, read newspaper columns from before the advent of the telegraph, and from just after. Before, the writing was expansive, a bit rambling, almost poetic. After, they are barely longer than a tweet in some cases. There are online examples of these, but the real paper copies cost less (per unit in quantity) than an expensive coffee drink.
Malcolm Cowley remarked that writers who began as compositors, e.g. Mark Twain, learned concision simply because making up a page of type was so much work.
You make an interesting point--on the other hand, the telegraph brought a tremendous amount of news within reach of a newspaper: there was then more to fit in.
I didn’t understand Borges’ point here. That the translations seem completely disconnected from the source text, and only provide the general tone of it?
> Or take the explanation Borges gave for abandoning the Oriental studies he had begun around 1916:
> Working with enthusiasm and credulity through the English version of a certain Chinese philosopher, I came across this memorable passage: ‘A man condemned to death doesn’t care that he is standing at the edge of a precipice, for he has already renounced life.’ Here the translator attached an asterisk, and his note informed me that this interpretation was preferable to that of a rival Sinologist, who had translated the passage thus: ‘The servants destroy the works of art, so that they will not have to judge their beauties and defects.’ Then, like Paolo and Francesca, I read no more. A mysterious scepticism had slipped into my soul.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 20.1 ms ] threadYou make an interesting point--on the other hand, the telegraph brought a tremendous amount of news within reach of a newspaper: there was then more to fit in.
Take a sea kayak out in your favorite river-mouth when there's a storm coming.
I guess Hemingway might have written "waves crashed over the deck and stung my face".
Homer would have written "the wine dark sea rumbled at grey-eyed Athena's anger."
But the Nabokov version is better. Homer? Best, maybe.
> Or take the explanation Borges gave for abandoning the Oriental studies he had begun around 1916:
> Working with enthusiasm and credulity through the English version of a certain Chinese philosopher, I came across this memorable passage: ‘A man condemned to death doesn’t care that he is standing at the edge of a precipice, for he has already renounced life.’ Here the translator attached an asterisk, and his note informed me that this interpretation was preferable to that of a rival Sinologist, who had translated the passage thus: ‘The servants destroy the works of art, so that they will not have to judge their beauties and defects.’ Then, like Paolo and Francesca, I read no more. A mysterious scepticism had slipped into my soul.