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Re: Fw: teaching ideas for 20k

From: Walter J Miller <wjm2~at~nyu.edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 06:45:20 -0700
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>
Cc: wjm2~at~nyu.edu

Yes, Ms. Mary, you have been saddled with an incomplete translation, probably the Mercier Lewis, which is only 77% of the French original and full of technical errors, mistranslations, and missing passages of intellectual, scientific, and literary significance. The two editions you mention should help you yourself get the whole work. Once you see the damage that your abridged version has done, you could do us all a favor by complaining to the publisher that the "complete and unabridged" label is false. Entirely possible that reprint house editiors, in small presses especially, simply are not aware of the fraud they are helping to perpetrate. But if there's no translator's name on it, that means they've picked up a version in the public domain which has got to be one of the "standard" translations rushed out in the 1870's and characterized by Lewis' work. Public-domain editions pay no royalties, and they don't have to pay a living translator. By all means, send question!
s to me at any stage of your preparation or actual teaching. I have taught SF since the 1960's and have out four or five editions of Verne, publications on Wells & Bradbury, and teach two SF courses at NYU. I think I can offer you instantaneous help (except that one weekend a month when I'm on a poetry-reading trip). Cheers! Walter James Miller

----- Original Message -----
From: Krsmjrs~at~aol.com
Date: Monday, September 23, 2002 4:24 pm
Subject: Re: Fw: teaching ideas for 20k

> Thanks to ALL who have so far responded to my plea for help in
> teaching
> 20,000 Leagues.
> I fear I am saddled with an inadequate translation since it lists
> no
> translator anywhere that I can find - It is a Watermill Classic
> calling
> itself "complete and unabridged". But I have ordered the Signet
> and an
> annotated version that was recommended and these should be on
> their way to me
> by the end of the week.
> While I fear the difficulties and denseness of the text may
> overwhelm some of
> the students, the thought of combining geography, science,
> philosophy, etc.
> is too good to pass up!
> Thank you so much for all of your advice, encouragement and
> information! You
> are a fabulous group of folks!
> I will not begin teaching the novel until December or January so
> if you have
> any more suggestions, I am willing to accept them.>grin<
> Again, Thank you so very much, Mary Rose-Shaffer
>
Received on Tue 24 Sep 2002 - 16:46:28 IDT

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