Definitely still winter

[missizzy]

Up until a few minutes ago it was snowing outside, and now it's turned to rain, with maybe some snow still mixed in. My throat is still mildly sore, though after the temperature drop, I'm just relieved it didn't get worse overnight.
I finished The Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation last week. In translation, at least, it had the odd feel of being like a fanfic, which stands as proof that said genre has really developed its own prose style. Of course, I can really only confirm that for English-language fic, and the translator for this book, who has gone at least one of MXTX's other novels, might have simply known who the target audience was. It also made the episodes of The Untamed I've seen so far make a lot more sense, establishing the world the story takes place in and its rules much more clear, although that may be because the translation's also aimed at readers who might not be too familiar with Xianxia/Danmei and its tropes.
Since then I've also read most of John Preston's The Dig,, which mom gave to me after I mentioned watching the Netflix movie. Though honestly, I think the movie might be better, even if some might criticize it having more dramatics than the book.
Though things have gotten to the point where when while watching said movie, there was a scene featuring a character on a crowded English train, and I had a moment where I briefly wondered why noone was masked, before remembering this took place in 1939.

Comments

[sallymn]

I've started reading it :) The translation feels workmanlike rather than expert (it's hard to tell when I know nothing of the original language, but I do read quite a bit for my course in highly praised translations, and they do feel different...) I like the worldbuilding, some of which I've got from Untamed meta but some of which does confuse me a bit.

[missizzy]

Thanks for the observation; I don't know much about translations at all.

[sallymn]

I don't know enough to rule, but - for someone like me, who will never be able to read in the original language - it comes down to if the translated work feels like a well-written work in its own right. The Grandmaster feels competent rather than really skilful, and I feel sure a lot of the deeper text that the Chinese-speaking fans talk about hasn't been able to be brought across (this takes a translater of unique skill, and I increasingly think a brilliant translator is nearly as rare as a brilliant writer. Umberto Eco wrote a fascinating book on the subject, I must dig it out :)

But I'm enjoying it! Certainly it makes it easier to steer past and mentally refigure some of the "whatthehelldotheymeanbythat???" subtitles in the drama, which up till now I've used the actors'... acting to help me ignore {g}