|
Post by BungalowDweller on Jun 2, 2005 15:45:32 GMT -5
Thanks luvarchfiend! You've saved me so much time!!! And Moreshige, your comments about finding quality books and the book biz are so right! We all know that the mainline American bookstores sell what "the market"will bear and have no interest in educating their readers or carrying one extra item that will not sell immediately. And it certainly is economics--big time. My husband published the first part of a 4 part book, (literature) known all over the world except in the U.S. because the English translation is so bad. He translated the book and approached the conventional "Literary" publishers for publication. Not one would give it what is called the "big book" treatment so he backed off and self-published. We get e-mails from all over the world asking when the rest is to be published. (It's being edited now.)
I mention all this because literary translating is so thankless and prohibitive that one either must love the work or be nuts. I'm sure that they're gems in the Korean language that will be known only to Korean readers.
Even in bookstores that specialize in history, I agree that the Asian sections are poor to non-existant. I think the future of such "niche" reading will be to obtain such books on-line or thru the mail buying from small publishing/acquisition houses.
Your recounting of the Olympian Sohn Kee Chung and the even more telling story of the courage of the newspaper is food for thought. In addition, I think that these "typos"occur because people are just too damn lazy to check their sources. Once an innaccuracy is printed, it is almost impossible to "kill".
An aside---There is an urban myth here in Chicago about Martin Luther King holding a march in a particular town outside of Chicago and facing bottles, mobs, and violence. The story has been repeated every MLK Day for over a decade. The problem with this story is that it Never happened in that town! The ugly incident actually happened in a neighborhood in Chicago! The last straw was when my husband and his colleague saw the myth printed in USA Today. Now the lie was national! MDH and his friend, (both international radio reporters) had access to other colleagues at USA Today and read themn the riot act. A retraction was printed. Then the lie was repeated on the local news. The news anchor told my husband, "I'm not responsible for the content--I just read it!!!" We haven't seen that story reported on again as a fact for at least 5 years so we think it's dead. But that's just print and radio media. Once these lies are in books, they just get printed over and over again.
And I agree with your political analysis. In the former Warsaw Pact countries, everything is seen thru the lense of Russia.
|
|
|
Post by Alexa on Jun 23, 2005 12:08:27 GMT -5
1. "Nanjung Ilgi".....this is his personal war diary. 2. "Imjin Changch'o".....this is a book of 'memorials' to the court, his formal reports of the war. i ordered these from hanbooks.com. I also want to order the personal war diary of YSS. My question is, has anybody else ordered from hanbooks.com before? and how safe is it?
|
|
|
Post by chigirl68 on Jun 23, 2005 12:17:32 GMT -5
I have not ordered from this site before but it looks like a lot of good books. Now there are 2 war diaries. I was wondering if there is more a a difference except the page count and the translator:
Imjin Changch'o: Admiral Yi Sun-Sin's Memorials to Court and Nanjung Ilgi: War Diary of Admiral Yi Sun-sin
|
|
|
Post by Alexa on Jun 23, 2005 12:47:20 GMT -5
I emailed them to ask about the security on this website and this was their respond:
Hello, We are a Yahoo store, which means our website is being hosted by Yahoo. We have not experienced any sercurity breach. Thank you!
|
|
|
Post by Kimchee755 on Jun 27, 2005 0:41:48 GMT -5
im reading "the art of war" by Sun Tzu, its really intresting. the last book i read was "monster: an autobiography of an la gang member" that was a pretty crazy book but it was good.
|
|
|
Post by Kimchee755 on Jun 27, 2005 0:45:15 GMT -5
hanbooks is safe, i actually ordered "Nanjung Ilgi: War Diary of Admiral Yi Sun-sin" from them and a couple other books.
|
|
|
Post by TheBo on Jun 27, 2005 9:56:29 GMT -5
Thanks, kimchee. That's good to know.
How do you like the Yi Sun-sin diary? Does it look good?
Bo
|
|
|
Post by skinz on Jun 28, 2005 8:56:03 GMT -5
im reading "the art of war" by Sun Tzu, its really intresting. I read that last year. I also recommend The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi if your interested about Tactics.
|
|
|
Post by MaaliiHT on Jun 29, 2005 0:54:05 GMT -5
The last book other than RTK or Outlaws of the Marsh I've read was the Aeneid of Virgil (Mandelbaum, translator). I'm currently finishing up another Outlaws read. I think I can finally keep track of everyone. Given the stress of moving from my beloved home area of 45 years I have been quick to turn to my old favorites for comfort--hence the moving process was facilitated by my umpteenth read of my favorite of all favorites (RTK) and my ongoing 3rd read of Outlaws. They just keep getting better. I hope someday that my all time favorites will be TBOD and TSOJ (sorry can't give away the titles, yet), but that will be many years from now. I suspect you already know who my favorite character (from the standpoint of being the writer) is in TBOD.
|
|
|
Post by Eowyn on Jun 29, 2005 10:03:09 GMT -5
MaaliiHachimanTaro, I've read a prose version of the Aeneid and it was well-done and intensely moving (David West, Penguin Classics).
I'm reading ROTK now (Brewitt-Taylor). Am on page 134, Chapter 13: Great Battle Between Li Ts'ui and Kuo Ssu: The Emperor rescued. Have some trouble keeping all the unfamiliar Chinese names straight, but am doing alright.
One of the best translations of The Odyssey, I think, was done by T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). It's definitely worth checking out; is extraordinary!
Have you read the Robert Fagles Iliad? I have actually listened to a reading of his translation from an audio book, to get the feel of how the tale must have been heard originally.
How about Beowulf? there was a Seamus Heaney translation done not too long ago.
There's also a new Gilgamesh out, more like an interpretation, not a translation (Stephen Mitchell).
Another good tale is The Song of Roland.
|
|
|
Post by MaaliiHT on Jun 30, 2005 1:04:31 GMT -5
MaaliiHachimanTaro, I've read a prose version of the Aeneid and it was well-done and intensely moving (David West, Penguin Classics). I'm reading ROTK now (Brewitt-Taylor). Am on page 134, Chapter 13: Great Battle Between Li Ts'ui and Kuo Ssu: The Emperor rescued. Have some trouble keeping all the unfamiliar Chinese names straight, but am doing alright. One of the best translations of The Odyssey, I think, was done by T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). It's definitely worth checking out; is extraordinary! Have you read the Robert Fagles Iliad? I have actually listened to a reading of his translation from an audio book, to get the feel of how the tale must have been heard originally. How about Beowulf? there was a Seamus Heaney translation done not too long ago. There's also a new Gilgamesh out, more like an interpretation, not a translation (Stephen Mitchell). Another good tale is The Song of Roland. I have read Fagles Iliad (my last read was fairly recent, because I reread it to recall how Aeneus is portrayed, as a prelude to my reading the Aeneid) and I really enjoyed it. I'll have to find that Aeneid version you mention; that sounds really interesting, as well as the others you mention. Shifting back to Asian military romances (ie Asian historical military novels), the Heike Monogatari is a very good read. There is more poetry and such than battles (much less combat than ROTK), but it is a very beautifully done story. The translation I've read is called the Tale of the Heike by Helen McCullough. That book is about the fall of the Taira, including the Gempei war. The one I've read about (but haven't snagged an English translation yet) that is supposed to be really good (and considering the incredibly complex history it covers I can see why) is the Taiheiki, that follows the the rise of Ashikaga Takauji who establishes the Ashikaga shogunate. McCullough has translated this book, but by the time I looked for it, the book was out of print. Returning to ROTK, I would guess that when you say "unfamiliar Chinese names" it is because you read the Moss Roberts translation earlier? If so, I think you will find the difference in the translations quite interesting. There is no question that Roberts seems to have put together a more thorough and smoother-reading translation (with the more modern romanization of the names), but I think Brewitt-Taylor's translation conveys so much more emotional range and power.
|
|
|
Post by Eowyn on Jun 30, 2005 6:57:35 GMT -5
Shifting back to Asian military romances (ie Asian historical military novels), the Heike Monogatari is a very good read. There is more poetry and such than battles (much less combat than ROTK), but it is a very beautifully done story. The translation I've read is called the Tale of the Heike by Helen McCullough. That book is about the fall of the Taira, including the Gempei war. The one I've read about (but haven't snagged an English translation yet) that is supposed to be really good (and considering the incredibly complex history it covers I can see why) is the Taiheiki, that follows the the rise of Ashikaga Takauji who establishes the Ashikaga shogunate. McCullough has translated this book, but by the time I looked for it, the book was out of print. Hey MaaliiHK, look what's new at Barnes and Nobles: Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval JapanYeah, thanks to an earlier post of yours I added the Heike Monogatari and the Taiheiki to my list of future books to read. Also added Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey To The West, and the Seven Military Classics! [modified to shorten URL]
|
|
|
Post by ginnycat5 on Jul 12, 2005 12:45:04 GMT -5
My preference is for historical fiction that is so well researched and written that I feel like I'm in its midst. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, is set in Scotland, begins in 1946 and moves to 1742. By the 5th book we are in colonial North Carolina. Lots of background on Scots-English conflict, with the Revolutionary War to come in her next book. Too graphic for children, tho. (I recommend Googling Diana Gabaldon if you want the flavor of her books-much fan writing, humor,gifts to the author etc) Conrad Richter wrote of settling USA in The Trees, followed by The Fields, and The Town(It was a mini-series:The Awakening Land)
|
|
|
Post by Skinz UL on Jul 17, 2005 17:40:21 GMT -5
So, I went to my local Barnes & Nobles to get something on the military achievements by the Caribbean island of Haiti,which was the first successful slave revolt and fought against France and Spain in the late 1700s, and all I have to say is that I'm just disgusted on the selections they carry. I went to the world history aisle and all I saw was just the same old books on WW2 and Great Britain, and don't get me started on the military history selections. Ugh!!
Enough was enough so I went to a clerk to ask about these horrendous choices for people that are interested in something more global. After she gave me the "I think the customer is crazy" look, she said the general public just are not interested on them and there mostly their for high schoolers.
All I have to say is thank goodness for the internet.
Anyway, have anyone read Tales of Genji? I'm told its the first fiction novel in history.
|
|
|
Post by Eowyn on Jul 17, 2005 20:43:29 GMT -5
Anyyway, have anyone read Tales of Genji? I'm told its the first fiction novel in history. I've read an abridged version of The Tale of Genji. That Genji, he sure did love the ladies!
|
|