Keskustelujen arkisto

To the best of my knowledge, Unca Carl says that
Donald's car, 313, is a 1934 Belchfire Runabout.

-Rich (xephyr)
http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/disney.html

When I subscribed my 1st issue was just ending the 'Donald's marriage'
topic. What was it about?

Nick Kosarin

DON ROSA:

I'm right here :) In fact, I thought about just posting the original
unedited text, until I discovered that I didn't have it anymore. If you do,
please post it.

>Anders (whose name always looks so weird in the Digest) posted his
>translation of that Norewegian article about me. I just need to say that,
>though it is *not* in the slightest his fault, and I thank him for the=
great
>translation effort, nevertheless when you take such a conversation,
>translate it into Norwegian and then *back* into English with no way to
>refer to the original text, it's gonna come out pretty darn weird. There=
was
>a lot in there that is not what was exactly said or meant, and a lot that=
is
>worded not remotely as I wrote it in the original Internet interview....=
but
>I can see how it lost its way in the double translation route.
>The author could have provided Anders with the original English version and
>saved him lots of work -- I wonder why that didn't happen? In fact, I just
>checked, and *I* have the text of the original interview on a=
computer-file.
>But it's 16 KB. I think it would be too long to post to the ML, eh?

Eirik - d=E5rlig l=F8ytnant
(Email removed)

-- takeyourbraintoanotherdimension --

Nick Kosarin:

> When I subscribed my 1st issue was just ending the 'Donald's marriage'
> topic. What was it about?

Look for it in the archives! You can do that by e-mail, sending a
message to the request address.
The subject should be "archive", and the content can be
get volume98/xxx
where xxx is the number of the digest you want.

This is all described (in a much better way) in the welcome message
(which you got when you subscribed).

--Harry.
Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, The Netherlands
http://home.wxs.nl/~fluks4
http://members.xoom.com/bolderbast

Anders:
> Let's say I know some Diney-charecter-names (translations)
> that aren't in the ftp-archieve under names? Who should I tell
> them to?

I suppose to Per Starback. Long ago, Fredrik Ekman maintained that
character-name-list, but I think Per later took over.

--Harry.

FRANK

>Leonardo GORI - Francesco STAJANO
>Il Mago di Topolino: FLOYD GOTTFREDSON fra Walt Disney e Ub Iwerks
>Editrice Comic Art

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Am I GLAD about that... :-))))))))))))))))

BROR

>I REALLY don't think that any translator IGNORED that song since
>it's widely known even outside the U.S.

Yes and no.

Yes : they did IGNORE it, which means they recognized the reference,
and purposedly avoided to use it in the translation, for reasons that
are technically sensible but, IMO, thus spoiling the fun of it.

No : the song is NOT widely known outside USA, and it will never be,
if treated this way.

>BUT the song and the jokes around it are virtually unstranslatable,
>and to leave the lyrics unchanged or try some obscure translation of
>the lyrics would make a story literally unreadable.

Totally disagree, sorry. What's the difference between "Lydia the
tattooed lady" and "dance, Lydia dance" (an old, silly Italian song,
where the original actually said "dance, LINDA, dance") to the reader
UNAWARE of EITHER songs, which is very likely, *especially* the
younger readers ?

>As in the case of "Mark Twain" references, I don't think a translator
>can be so close to the original and still produce a good and redable
>comic in another language.

Disagree, again. You seem to join the league of "It's just entertainment"
fans, here, while I'm totally with the various folks that pointed out,
while discussing matters like the "workers' paradise" case, that one can
actually LEARN something new, while entertaining oneself reading comics.

Again, there's quite a few possibilities here, like

1. somebody KNOWING of the Marx Bros. would enjoy the gag A LOT
(I, for one, ROTFL for days after reading that... :-)
2. somebody NOT KNOWING of the Marx, but interested in classic
comedy could investigate the matter further.
3. somebody NOT KNOWING of the Marx and UNINTERESTED in comedy could
just go "oh, DD sings a silly song", and keep reading the rest
unaffected by the incident.

Being things as they are, the situation is actually

1. somebody KNOWING of the Marx Bros. could NOT enjoy the gag because
it's not there.
2. somebody NOT KNOWING of the Marx, but interested in classic
comedy could NOT investigate the matter further, because he/she
wouldn't know there's anything to investigate.
3. somebody NOT KNOWING of the Marx and UNINTERESTED in comedy
just goes "oh, DD sings a silly song", and keeps reading the rest
unaffected by the incident.

So, where's the good in all that? OK, the gag itself remains (Donald
*obviously knowing* of Lydia, and singing the song), but it's not
THAT song, so at least HALF of the fun is lost...
And, before you or somebody else would point out that again, NO! I don't
think that a note (or leaving the text in English) would spoil the
"entertainment" for the non-English-literate reader.
It would ADD to it, IMHO, and HELP them better understand Rosa's ways of
wit.
And, I'd like to point out also that on "Zio Paperone", probably prompted
by fans (not me, though :-), they have recently started to put footnotes
in Rosa stories, after receiving an avalanche of disappointed letters
about
an incorrect translation of "Prestor John" ("Prete Gianni" in Italian)
as...
"Prestor John" (name & surname) in the Xanadu story.

Besides, I really hope Don Rosa himself wouldn't grow tired of putting
his learned and witty references in his stories, seeing as they are
wasted in some European publications...

[to Anders]
>perhaps you can translate that into "single-minded" or
>"simple-minded" persons....

Which is exactly how I DON'T LIKE to be treated by the publishers of
my favourite comics. I've always thought that a comic for "the family"
means that adults and children could both enjoy the stuff, at different
levels of course, and that more "complicated" matters should be
discussed with, and explained to the kids. Who will, eventually, grow
up themselves, too, and I have a strong suspicion that they won't
re-read the "simple-minded" stories, when they do grow up, as we
do with, say, the Gottfredson stuff... (which we don't get reprinted
because it is "complicated", un-PC and could "disturb" the young readers'
fragile minds....) but they most likely *will* re-read the Rosa
stories... missing the gags again, unless the publishers' attitude
on the subject would change. Three Cheers for Disney Italia, here.

Again, sorry for bringing up an old polemic again, I won't insist on
the subject. Not too often, at least...:-)

CLAUDIA

[O'Hara's wife]
>Can anyone tell me who this Petulia is, who invented her, and similar
>things?

As far as I know she just popped out of the blue one day, as if she'd
always been there...

I'm not certain that's the actual first appearance (MARCO?), but the
only story featuring her that I have is "Basettoni e la dieta da fame",
TL 2109 (30/4/96), written by Giorgio Pezzin and drawn by... guess... ?
Yes, ROMANO SCARPA :-)
I reckon they're also the creators of the character.

HALSTEN

>I've asked a friend of mine to bring me this book about the car [313]
>so that I can bring you some more technical datas, if you are interested....

YES, please do... :-)

Cheers

Eta Beta

=================================================
"Lydia oh! Lydia, say have you met Lydia, oh!
Lydia the tattooed lady!
She has eyes that folks adore so
and her torso even more so."
- Groucho Marx, 1939 Donald Duck, 1994 -
=================================================

Don Rosa:

My intention was **not** to search errors, I was just curious about that
horse and as Geronimo died first in 1909 it might have happen. In the
Duck universe anything is possible......

Kalle

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

From: "Kalle Hermansson"
>>>>Don Rosa:
My intention was **not** to search errors, I was just curious about that
horse and as Geronimo died first in 1909 it might have happen. In the
Duck universe anything is possible......

Oh, I didn't think you were being captious... not at all! I actually enjoy
it when readers try to find such goofs! First, that shows that they are
paying close and kindly attention -- I know that they would never try that
with any of the other writers who create their entire background-history
superstructures from scratch, and I like the fact that readers know that my
stories (simply because they are of a different style) are based in true
history. Second, sometimes a reader *does* find a bonehead error, and I can
change the error in future reprintings and prevent the goof from making me
look bad again -- such a error was found by Mattias Hallin in "Guardians of
the Lost Library" where I had Marco Polo doing something 50 years before he
was born... and I did new art, changing several pages of the story,
correcting the error... and I see that that story was just used in the 50th
anniversary edition of Sweden's KALLE ANKA *in the corrected version*.
Great!
But I disagree that "in the Duck universe anything is possible"... at least
that is not true in my stories. For instance, Barnum was on his death-bed,
so the world thought, throughout 1889... if that had still been true in
1890, even if he were still alive and recovered in 1891, I could not have
used him in my 1890 story. And if Buffalo Bill and Annie had still been in
Europe in 1890, I could not have used them in my story since their presence
in Europe would have been undeniable, and too long an ocean-voyage and
train-trip away from Arizona. But Geronimo was simply, reportedly, on a
reservation in Florida in 1890, and might have slipped away if I needed him
to.

From: "Dan Shane"
>>>>To disable HTML in Outlook (97 or 98 -- it doesn't matter), add the
email
address for the Disney Comics Mailing List to your Personal Address Book
(choose NEW ENTRY | INTERNET ADDRESS in your........

And so on and so forth, yattata yattata.... Folks, THIS is the guy whom you
can thank (or cuss?) for me even being here. He is my local Computer Guru
who tells my computer how to do its tricks and tells me which buttons to
push to make me feel like I'm its master.

And to "Eta Beta": thank you for an argument in favor of translators *not*
pointlessly sabotaging humor that might (or might not?) be over the heads of
a few readers... an argument so scintillating and indisputable that I'm
placing it in a "Keeper" file (yeah, one set up by Dan Shane!). I wish every
editor and translator could read it (but I still don't think some of them
would "get" it). I especially would like to show it to those
editors/translators who took my homage-references to Osbourne and
Talliaferro in "WHADDALOTTAJARGON" and replaced O & T's names with
cutie-nonsense names, or, unbelievably, their *own* names!
No, I'll never tire of putting obscure gags or historical references into my
stories, but you're right --it grows frustrating how little (well, *none*)
influence I have over the fidelity of the translations. All I can do now is
what I just did when sending in my "Lost Dutchman's Mine" story final-script
today -- I write on the first page "TRANSLATORS: change no character or
place names! They are all researched and authentic! Please don't sabotage my
story!" But I never know how far that instruction will go or who will care
about it. Some editors care a lot, like my immediate editor Byron, or the
Gladstone folks or... well, I shan't make a list... but other editors have
their own ideas about what is proper for their perception of their readers,
and it's their ballgame. As a lawyer once said somewhere: "fickus fackus
fumdeedledum... to the landlord belong the doorknobs".