h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Kidsturk,

I really like the idea of writing an entry about Good Omens together!

Can you give me your EMail-Address so we can plan what to write? Should be easier via EMail than in a forum... .

CU!

Aurora

HI Aurora,

Sorry for jumping in on this coversation, but I followed a link about your place of work in another forum, and then followed this one because I just finished reeading Good Omens for the 3rd time. It is one of my favourite Pratchett books, and I just wanted to add my voice. Every characterisation in it is wonderful, and the humour is nicely darkened by Neil Gamain's involvement.

Dave

Yeah, okay...but I'll delete this thread of conversation after about a week and a half...you seem to pop in quite regularly.

WARNING!
Use this email address without my consent and I will not react pleasantly.
Just a quick dissuader to anyone that finds my address and decides to do nasty things to it!

[email protected]

Not complicated...!
Speak to you soon, Aurora!
Dave- you're more than welcome to chip in on the article!
Maybe we should try and find out how the multi-author thing works in here? I have no idea!
Kidsturk

Hi Kidsturk,

I got your E-Mail address you can delete your posting if you like.
I know how it is: I wouldn't want to post my address here - you can't really reach me on my home address and I CERTAINLY don't give away my office address!

Dave - always nice to get to know more fans! Most of my friends don't read english books (that is: books written in the english language) and if they do they find Pratchett OK - but that's it.
They don't really understand that look of bliss on my face when I talk 'bout Good Omens!
On the other hand I'm not into real Pterry fan-activity. I like to read his books (a lot!) but I don't wear Discworld T-Shirts or anything like that so I don't really fit into the "official" fanclubs.

But it's so nice to just talk to people who like the books as well!!!

Aurora

Hi Kidsturk,

Thanks for the reply, and the nice welcome. Let's find out about multi-authoring. Sounds fun!

Hi Aurora,

I'm not a Pterry fanatic either, I just love his books. The fact that you know him as Pterry, though, suggests that perhaps you read alt.fan.pratcherr? I certainly don't wear t-shirts, although I do have the Ankh-Morpork map framed and hanging on the wall. It's too good to just leave folded up.

One reason you can read and enjoy Pratchett is because your command of English is phenomenal (that's if you're not a native English speaker). I am seriously impressed!

Both: I've got some favourite passages from Omens. They typify, for me, the wonderful style of the writing. One example:

"Shadwell hated all southerners and was, by inference, standing on the North Pole."

and the bit about Bishop Usher being wrong. By fifteen minutes.

Thank you very much Dave!
I'm quite happy with my English but I still think a lot of jokes escape me (cultural references...). (Did I already post this in this forum??? I'm not sure where but I had this conversation before!)And no: I'm no native-speaker. I'm german. But the german translator basically sucks, so I don't read the translations.

Of course I search for annotations for the books! And sooner or later you're bound to find "Pterry". And it's just so easy to type, that's why I use it!

I was at a Pterry reading about two month ago and met some "real" fans there! All in discworld-shirts and I'm sorry to say: they all looked a bit nerdy... . I felt a bit out of place.

My favourite passage (the first that comes to mind that is...) is: you could see the armies of heaven and hell and if you looked very closely and had been specially trained you could even tell the difference.
(Right! Of course the original passage was...different! I can't recall the precise words. Sorry for that...).

Hey, I think I can make you guys envious: I even got my copy of "Good Omens" signed by Pterry a few years back. Since that time nobody was allowed to touch the book instead of me!

So much for me and my English!
That should of course read: nobody was allowed to touch it APART from me!

Aurora

Pterry comes to Cambridge to do book signings on a fairly regular basis, and in fact was here a few weeks ago signing 'The Truth'. I've got a number of signed copies, but I wished I'd taken Good Omens along with me to get it signed. Damn good idea.

I wonder if Pterry and Neil Gaiman are planning a follow up: Good Omens II - The Slackening.

I'd buy it!

Dave

We seem to have a lot in common, Dave.

I think Pterry has only twice been to Cologne and I was there both times.
The first time something funny had happened to me before: I was on holiday in Scotland and bought a copy of "Soul Music" there. And only on the way home I discovered that the copy had already been signed by Pterry ("I'm a lot madder than you")! I have NO idea what happened that the book was sold after it had already been signed.
Well, when I first met Pterry on the first reading I showed him the book but he couldn't remember that particular book (not that I thought he would remember...).
Pterry suggested to just change the name in the dedication, but I asked him to sign "Good Omens" instead. As we both didn't know how this whole thing had happened he wrote "We made the devil do it".

You can imagine how precious that book is to me! I even got a second copy to take it on holidays or to give it to friends.

Last time I didn't get a book signed. It was already quite late and there was a long queue. Besides, when he was answering questions I asked him to get another German translator and I think he was a bit pissed about me asking that!

On the last reading he said, they didn't want to write a sequel. They both already knew how the story for the sequel was going to be, but they didn't want to write it... .
I'm not even sure if a sequel would be such a good idea. I'd buy it nevertheless!!!!!!

Aurora

I think I'm a bit tired!!! There is a whole sentence missing in the beginning! "We have a lot in common: I just answered your posting in the forum about female masturbation".

I NEED MORE SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Aurora,

If you read Pterry writing about translators, he's aware that translation into other languages is a very difficult thing, and, as he says, some of his translators work more closely with him, and get more of the sense of what he writes, than others. His Dutch translator is the one he is most impressed with. He translated Granny Weatherwax into Granny Widderschmeer, because it has a similar sort of connotation in Dutch, and has a double meaning (don't recall what the other meaning is!) that makes people think it's a funny name, just like Weatherwax. Pterry is very impressed with people who take the time to consider all the aspects of his work while translating, including the names of people!

I seem to recall that he said he'd been told more than once that his German translations weren't as impressive.

Dave

Do you guys mind if I delete thid thread of conversation? I'll start another one called Good Omens first, it's just that I don't like having my email address hanging around my page...

I'll give you a couple of days to switch to 'Good Omens 2'!

See you all soon, when i get beack to university and a free internet connection!
Kidsturk

Hi Dave,

Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't want to have to translate Pterrys books!!! There are so many things you just CAN'T translate (Of course I can't think of a nice example now...) - they just don't work in another language.

BUT (HUGE but!!!) the German translator simply messes thinks up (in my opinion!)!
For one thing he sometimes just changes the meaning of a sentence so that the characters end up saying the opposite from the English text.

Another thing is that AB (Andreas Brandhorst is the name of the translator) changes Pterrys style of writing very much. I'm not sure I can explain this correctly but the characters talk different in the translation. More "complicated"... .
I'm well aware that German IS more complicated than English (that is: German is not as snappy! You always end up with longer and more complicated sentences when you translate into German!) but AB uses a style that even Germans think is unreasonable complicated.

But what gets me most: AB simply gets things wrong! TOTALLY wrong!!! I even have an example: in "The last continent" the wizards meet the god of evolution. And the god talks about his "job" saying something like "I've mainly been doing bills. Big bills, long bills, short bills...".
OK, so there are to meanings for the word "bill":
a) the thing in the face of a bird
b) the piece of paper you get when you buy something

GUESS how the word was translated! And these things happen all the time! On www.scheibenwelt.de there's a whole list of wrong translations... .

BTW when I ask Pterry about AB at his reading he said: "That guy has a hard job. He tries to translate English - which is mostly curly bits you can't really get a grip on - into German - which is mostly straight edges."
And again: I know this is a hard job! But on the whole I think AB just doesn't pay enough attention to what he does. I always had the impression that he was translating the books while reading them for the first time. Without really understanding everything... .

I just hope there aren't too many AB fans out there who want to kill me now... .

Aurora