Northrup Frye (102) <strong>at</strong>tributes “to a n<strong>at</strong>ural anxiety to keep them as vers<strong>at</strong>ile as possible,” would put an omniscient transl<strong>at</strong>or <strong>at</strong> odds with the author. Not only can it be difficult for a reader to know exactly wh<strong>at</strong> an author’s words mean, but in the case <strong>of</strong> the foreign transl<strong>at</strong>or, there may be no m<strong>at</strong>ching words th<strong>at</strong> signify all <strong>of</strong> the same signifieds. However, there is also the possibility th<strong>at</strong> the foreign transl<strong>at</strong>or will facilit<strong>at</strong>e new signifieds from his own culture th<strong>at</strong> the author had not anticip<strong>at</strong>ed. Hans Pfitzinger, who has transl<strong>at</strong>ed four <strong>of</strong> Kotzwinkle’s novels, though not <strong>The</strong> Fan Man, into German, remarked to Lewis “th<strong>at</strong> a ‘fan’ in German is derived from fan<strong>at</strong>iker and ‘is widely used in connection with soccer enthusiasts, mostly in an appreci<strong>at</strong>ive, positive way’” (Lewis 167). By titling his transl<strong>at</strong>ion Fan Man, Mülder opened the rich possibility to his readers <strong>of</strong> identifying Horse with over-enthusiastic sports fans. I had not thought <strong>of</strong> this aspect <strong>of</strong> Badorties, and it does enrich the novel for me. Interestingly, the credit in the German edition was not the usual Aus dem Englischen von … but r<strong>at</strong>her Aus dem Amerikanischen von Dirk Mülder, which may partly explain why the German transl<strong>at</strong>ion has more <strong>of</strong> the original words <strong>of</strong> the English version and therefore left open the potential for Buddhist linguistic signs. Notes I would have written this essay sooner if I had found a new or used copy <strong>of</strong> the Spanish transl<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Fan Man on the internet. After six years, I concluded th<strong>at</strong> it had dropped out <strong>of</strong> sight and gave up trying. Serendipitously, my wife and I were recently on a tour <strong>of</strong> Argentina th<strong>at</strong> included a hosted dinner in Buenos Aires <strong>at</strong> the home <strong>of</strong> Ignacio Arnaudo. When I told him about my abandoned quest, he took it as a challenge to find the book for me. I urged him not to waste his time, but he persisted and six weeks l<strong>at</strong>er found an Argentine book seller who still had an unsold, new copy. For all his time and effort, he refused to even consider being reimbursed. This essay is dedic<strong>at</strong>ed to Ignacio Arnaudo and his lovely family. 1 <strong>The</strong> Tibetan Buddhist themes th<strong>at</strong> I have extracted from the <strong>The</strong> Fan Man, which are probably only the “tip <strong>of</strong> the iceberg,” are discussed in my essay “<strong>The</strong> Ambivalence in Kotzwinkle’s Be<strong>at</strong> and Bardo Ties” (College Liter<strong>at</strong>ure 27.2). For similar studies <strong>of</strong> other postmodern novels, see my “Seven Buddhist <strong>The</strong>mes in Pynchon’s <strong>The</strong> Crying <strong>of</strong> Lot 49” (Religion & Liter<strong>at</strong>ure 35.1), “Buddhist Duality in William Gaddis’s Carpenter’s Gothic” (Critique 45.4), “<strong>The</strong> Merging <strong>of</strong> Tantric Buddhism and L’Extase Tantrique in John Hawkes’s <strong>The</strong> Passion Artist” (Critique 47.2), “Parody, Heteroglossia and Chronotope in Don DeLillo’s Gre<strong>at</strong> Jones Street” (Style, 39.2), and “Ronald Sukenick’s Out” (<strong>The</strong> Explic<strong>at</strong>or, forthcoming). 2 <strong>The</strong>re are two German editions <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Fan Man. A l<strong>at</strong>er edition, published by Rowohlt in Reinbek, went through a number <strong>of</strong> printings and includes a photograph <strong>of</strong> Kotzwinkle and a zu diesem Buch. <strong>The</strong> transl<strong>at</strong>ion is Mülder’s, and although the type-set is different, the main text is identical in both editions. 3 <strong>The</strong> protagonist <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Fan Man is also based on the exploits <strong>of</strong> Chögyam Trungpa, who is still remembered for the “crazy wisdom” th<strong>at</strong> he preached. I did not know until six years after I published my Kotzwinkle essay th<strong>at</strong> my college classm<strong>at</strong>e, the playwright Richard Janaro, had known Trungpa. I was excited to learn from him th<strong>at</strong> the “Rinpoche always carried a fan — except when two young boys p<strong>at</strong>iently fanned him” (personal email, d<strong>at</strong>ed April 20, 2006). 4 In his book How to Medit<strong>at</strong>e, Paul Roland advises the beginner to cre<strong>at</strong>e a continuous loop with the word or phrase chosen as the medit<strong>at</strong>ion mantra. “Keep the inton<strong>at</strong>ion and rhythm even, synchronized with your bre<strong>at</strong>hing or heartbe<strong>at</strong> so th<strong>at</strong> the monotony <strong>of</strong> the sound becomes hypnotic. […] Try not to think about the meaning <strong>of</strong> the mantra but r<strong>at</strong>her let it become a meaningless sound in which you are absorbed” (99). Works Cited DeLillo, Don. Underworld. New York: Scribner’s, 1997. Eagleton, Terry. Literary <strong>The</strong>ory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1983. Evans-Wentz, W.Y. <strong>The</strong> Tibetan Book <strong>of</strong> the Gre<strong>at</strong> Liber<strong>at</strong>ion. London: Oxford UP, 1968. Frye, Northrup. An<strong>at</strong>omy <strong>of</strong> Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973. Kotzwinkle, William. <strong>The</strong> Fan Man. New York: Harmony, 1974. Kotzwinkle, William. <strong>The</strong> Fan Man: Aus dem Amerikanischen von Dirk Mülder. München: Rogner & Bernhard, 1978. Kotzwinkle, William. El Hombre del Ventilador: Traducción de Iris Menéndez. Barcelona: Tusquest, 1988. Lewis, Leon. Eccentric Individuality in William Kotzwinkle’s <strong>The</strong> Fan Man, E.T., Doctor R<strong>at</strong>, and Other Works <strong>of</strong> Fiction and Fantasy. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 2002. Roland, Paul. How to Medit<strong>at</strong>e. London: Hamlyn, 2000. de Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General St<strong>at</strong>istics. Edited by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye in Collabor<strong>at</strong>ion with Albert Riedlinger. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966. Schulte, Rainer. “Editorial: Charting the Future <strong>of</strong> <strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> Publishing.” <strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> <strong>Review</strong>, 69, 2005, 1–3. <strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> <strong>Review</strong> 17
18 <strong>Transl<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> <strong>Review</strong>
- Page 1 and 2: Translation Review Number Seventy-O
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BOOK REVIEWS A Tomb for Anatole, by
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purpose, that of transforming the s
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mythology. This way, the story is h
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Connecting Lines: New Poetry from M
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