Ancillary Mercy: completed

[asakiyume]

I adored the book. My review is here. The one thing I'll add here is this: In Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, there's some urgency about making sure that the Presger translators understand that organs, viscera, blood, etc., are supposed to be kept *inside* the body--sometimes with humorous effect, sometimes with pathos (and always with a hint of anxiety: this is a basic fact of how humans need to operate that we'd like others to understand about us).

That got me thinking about imagination. Imagination is something that's inside us--like (ideally) blood. But imagination works best (or at least, most generously) if we don't leave it there: if we get it outside us and into the world. We're all translators of our imaginations, struggling to find a language that will make it intelligible to others. When someone manages this, when they share their marvelous interior worlds with us, what a fabulous thing that is. Translator Leckie has done this. Well done, Translator Leckie--your imagination does belong outside your head, shared with the world.

Comments

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I saw Ancillary Justice at a local bookstore. I may have to pick up a copy. The problem here is getting the sequels.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

You remind me of this wonderful whirling talk on translation (http://amaebi.livejournal.com/833420.html) I attended when I was in Hebrew class. I was particularly struck by the aptness of Nathan Englander's remark that all writing is an attempt at translation from the writer's head to the reader's-- and that our contexts infest our writing and our reading, invisibly to us.

[syomsong.livejournal.com]

"We're all translators of our imaginations, struggling to find a language that will make it intelligible to others." - This is so wonderful a thought. How hard job it is time to time!