Edwin Turner writes:
Arno Schmidt’s 1970 novel Bottom’s Dream is finally available in English translation by John E. Woods. The book has been published by the Dalkey Archive.
It is enormous. […]
Look, I know that dwelling on a book’s size probably has nothing to do with literary criticism, but Bottom’s Dream poses something of a special case. As an article on Bottom’s Dream at The Wall Street Journal points out, Schmidt’s opus is 1,496 pages long, contains over 1.3 million words, and weighs 13 pounds. […]
The obvious easy reference point here is Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, which indeed Schmidt was actively following, both in form and style: competing columns, a fragmentary and elusive/allusive style, collage-like metacommentary, an etymological explosion—words as paint, text as meaning. Etc.
Turner has screenshots which will give you an idea of what the book is like, both externally (it’s enormous!) and on the inside. As I wrote on MetaFilter (where I learned about it):
Sounds really interesting, in the way that the Wake is interesting, but I still haven’t gotten very far into the Wake after decades of off-and-on trying, so I’m not about to tackle a book based on it that’s 1,496 pages long, contains over 1.3 million words, and weighs 13 pounds. But much respect to the translator, and to readers younger and gutsier than I who plunge into it!
It seems to me considerably less dense and easier than the Wake, more like the “Circe” and “Penelope” chapters of Ulysses.
“Screenshots”?
Checked Wikipedia article on this book and learned that one of the novel’s main themes is the alleged coprophilia of Edgar Allan Poe.
I wonder if the novel’s title refers to this allegation…
I think I’ll pass on this one, thanks.
“Screenshots”?
Sorry, whatever they are. Images. I am immigrant in your century!
I was just curious about why you used that word, rather than just “photos” or something. “Screenshots” are normally images captured from a computer screen, without the involvement of a camera, and usually show parts of a computer interface of some sort (like a website). Those are just ordinary photos of books, with nothing screen-related.
Yeah, I realize that now, but last night, as I was making myself post before tottering off to bed, my brain was fuddled and not coming up with the right words. Just wait a few years, and this blog will read like late Joyce!
I am immigrant in your century!
That brings to mind: http://xkcd.com/630/
I’d love to read more about the practical side of Woods’ translation. How did he even format his manuscript? Were editors involved? What did the stylesheet look like? Can it even be viewed directly without precipitating madness? Is smoked glass sufficient to protect a proofreader, or is it best to use a bronze mirror while three interns recite the Lament for Ur from within a protective circle of chalk?
Not available on Kindle.
Even my Kindle for PC crashes trying to open files with over 1 million words.
Is smoked glass sufficient to protect a proofreader, or is it best to use a bronze mirror while three interns recite the Lament for Ur from within a protective circle of chalk?
If a man hacking in fury at a block of wood make there an image of a cow (say) has he made a work of art? […] What impeded Bloom from giving Stephen counsels of hygiene and prophylactic to which should be added suggestions concerning a preliminary wetting of the head and contraction of the muscles with rapid splashing of the face and neck and thoracic and epigastric region in case of sea or river bathing, the parts of the human anatomy most sensitive to cold being the nape, stomach, and thenar or sole of foot? […] Positing what protasis would the contraction for such several schemes become a natural and necessary apodosis? […] What past consecutive causes, before rising preapprehended, of accumulated fatigue did Bloom, before rising, silently recapitulate? […] Womb? Weary? […] With? […] When? […] Where?
Has no body pointed it out because it’s just too obvious, that it’s called Bottom’s Dream because it hath no bottom?
Actually, all the bottom-related speculations are beside the point. The German title is Zettels Traum, with Zettel “slip of paper” being the German name of the character “Bottom” from Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
From wikipedia:
“His weaver Bottom (bottom = ball of yarn) bears accordingly a German term of weaving as his name, Zettel, which was apt for a translation of the last line [because it hath no bottom] (to “weil darin alles verzettelt ist”, roughly ‘because in it all is mixed up’) Hence “Zettels Traum” is German for Bottom’s Dream.”
My point was that German Zettel (and also verzettelt) have very different associations compared to “bottom” and “bottomless”, so while bottom puns are always welcome, they don’t really explain why Schmidt chose that title.
I didn’t even know (or had forgotten) that bottom = ‘ball of yarn,’ so I’ve learned several things here — thanks to both of you!
OED s.v. bottom:
24.b., in case you were wondering, is “The cocoon of a silkworm. Obsolete“:
@hans
OK, the word bottom in English is not relevant to the author’s choice of title. But the last line (weil Alles drin verzettelt ist”) of the play is very relevant. The author may have also known the English name for Bottom and wanted to write a bodenloses Buch, to go with another german-speaking author’s unendliche Geschichte☺
Not the last line of the play, but of Bottom’s soliloquy; very confusing. (What is the last line of the play is a hard question: there is a bit of dialogue after the play-within-the-play ends, telling us that it will have a dance (which we don’t see) rather than an epilogue, then the play itself has an epilogue, in which Puck makes a speech and then sings, and then addresses the audience directly.)
GT by the way translates as “Because everything is bogged down in it”, which is rather more poetic, in its un-Shakespearean way, than anything I’d expect, although I am not a native user of bog in this sense.
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
This is noteworthy for tongue/long probably having been a (very steep) slant rhyme even when the play was written.
@Paddy: Schmidt certainly knew both English and the original Shakespeare, so I can’t say that “bottom” or “bottomless” were not on his mind at all, but in my view, verzettelt “bogged down, lost in details and side-projects” is a better description for the kind of book he wrote than “bottomless”; after all, it’s finite, so you can get to the bottom of it, so to speak.
PlasticPaddy: From wikipedia:
“His weaver Bottom (bottom = ball of yarn) …
This adds another layer to the Norw. Harry Potter translation’s Nigel Longbottom -> Nilus Langballe. The surname Langballe exists in the wild (it’s the name of a Danish parish). It sounds a little more naughty to adolescents than ‘bottom’ does in English (balle f. “male genitalia”, probably through reinterpretation of the Eastern dialect m.pl. def. form balla “the balls” as a f.sing. def.), but what can you do? The new layer (to me) is that balle “bale” (høyballe = “bale of hay”) corresponds to bottom “ball of yarn”.
@Trond Engen: Longbottom’s first name is Neville, not Nigel. The name Neville is transparently Norman “new village.” It was the surname of the earls of Warwick, among the greatest English magnates during the Wars of the Roses; Richard III’s queen consort was Anne Neville. Longbottom is a old English name, but it seems to appear in literature nowadays mostly for it’s humor value. In Harry Potter it is probably an allusion to Tolkien; Longbottom Leaf was a major tobacco brand in the Shire.
Zettel’s Traum is primarily something to gape at, no matter where the title comes from. There is much more interesting work by Schmidt, in particular the two-part series “essays for radio” on German and other writers (Nachrichten von Büchern und Menschen, available on audio CDs and in print). The bookseller woman I knew at the Ludwig bookstore in the Cologne main train station lent me her copy of the two paperbacks. They are entertaining, enlightening essays on 18C+ writers such as Wieland, Klopstock, Dickens, the Brontës, Karl May, Joyce and even Bulwer-Lytton.
Brett: Neville, not Nigel
D’oh.
In Harry Potter it is probably an allusion to Tolkien; Longbottom Leaf was a major tobacco brand in the Shire
Heh. Now I have to look up Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s translation of Ringenes herre. He also translated the Harry Potter series. Though if I’d noticed it (and my inner adolescent surely might have), I don’t think I’d have caught the allusion, but rather have given Høverstad a point for recycling.
@Stu: I second your recommendation of Schmidt’s essays, they acquainted me with many writers and literary works and also some historical facts I didn’t know about, and they’re usually also good entertainment value. I like snarky when it’s coupled with actual knowledge.
Now I have to look up Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s translation of Ringenes herre.
Three years have passed. As I said on an earlier occasion: Trond, report!
I realized that we don’t own Høverstad’s Bokmål translation, only Eilev Groven Myhren’s Nynorsk, and before I got anywhere near one, I forgot. But we’ll have a family friend over tonight, who I think might have it, so I’ll ask her to bring it along.
And did she?
Another three years! No, she didn’t. If I remember correctly, she had the 1973 Riksmål translation by Nils Werenskiold (Krigen om ringen).
You need to stare at dead trees to find the answer for some reason?
something mumble mumble something dragging mumble something kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century something mumble
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 7:
Harry Potter og de Vises Stein (Oversatt fra engelsk av Torstein Bugge Høverstad), Chapter 7
(I look with a certain suspicion at the substitution of one Scottish name with a slightly different Scottish name. Maybe there was an inconsistency in the original that Høverstad had to cope with?)
=======================
The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, “Concerning Pipe-weed”:
Ringenes herre 1 : Ringens brorskap (til norsk ved Torstein Bugge Høverstad), Fortale, “Vedrørende pipeurt”
(Pretty sure there’s supposed to be a period after HT and before Den, but the text is as I found it in the file that I found. There may be other errors in there, although I did make an effort to check.)
Thanks for that; Trond is now officially off the hook.
A long time ago (in the early 2000s) I stumbled across a website listing the differences between the British and American editions of the first Harry Potter book — and there were a lot of differences, most of them (as far as I can remember) concerning the stylistic and grammatical prejudices of American editors. I have no idea if this website still exists and whether current editions reflect the British or the American text.
Thanks, Owl! I saw this question coming back to haunt me, and my descendants after me, every three years for eternity.
I think I tried googling for it six years ago, but probably not in 2022, and certainly not yesterday.
Yes, there’s a period lacking after HT.
A long time ago (in the early 2000s) I stumbled across a website listing the differences between the British and American editions of the first Harry Potter book
Was it by any chance Harry Potter: British/American text comparison?
I saw this question coming back to haunt me, and my descendants after me, every three years for eternity.
There’s a saga in it: There was a man named Trond whose surname was Engen…
Yes, that looks like the site. I’m surprised it still exists.
Some twenty years ago, a smartass columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle solicited from her readers questions contrived to show cluelessness. One entry was, “So what other books did Henry Porter write?”
The “cucumbers” – translation howlers in two successive German editions of Harry Potter – are still online despite the last update being from 2016.
Harry Potter: British/American text comparison
It turns out that the pupil/student confusion I’ve mentioned previously on LH was unaffected between the versions; the listing has just one instance each [technically two – one in each column] of “pupil” and “student”, and both are unchanged (the differences are elsewhere in the phrases).