> “There is none of us whom life regards with any partiality. Sleet falls as she walks these streets, holding this knowledge inside her. Sleet that leaves cheeks and eyebrows heavy with moisture. Everything passes.” - Han Kang
That means the opposite of "Life isn't fair". Partiality - unfair bias in favor of one thing or person compared with another; favoritism.
She's written, in that quote, that life is fair.
If you want to complain about life being unfair like "an emo 6th grader" that's your choice, I was just pointing out that she wrote the opposite of that. Your original comment appeared to equate her statement with "life is unfair" when that was the opposite of what she wrote (as it was translated, at least). Critique her writing all you want, but critique what she wrote, not what she didn't.
EDIT: Actually Nobel Committee's bibliography does a good job on her works.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2024/bio-biblio...
"The uprising was violently suppressed by the South Korean military with the approval and logistical support of the United States under Carter administration, which feared the uprising might spread to other cities and tempt North Korea to interfere.
So normal democracy at work. Nothing to see here. /s
It doesn't help that books don't sell well in Korea and translators are poorly paid. Often you can literally see "Oh the original English word must be X, because it doesn't make sense and the translator just used the more popular meaning of the word!"
Maybe that's the problem.
I've seen translated books where you could identify the birth region of the translator based on the words used.
This requires not only linguistic fluency but also a deep understanding of both cultures, as well as the literary traditions of both. If an English author makes a subtle allusion to a passage from Shakespeare, for example, how do you translate that nuance to a language that hasn't had Shakespeare?
I suppose it's much easier to achieve this between Dutch and English, than between Korean and English. The pool of people who move about freely between the latter is much smaller, for both geographical and historical reasons.
A different example I sometimes use is the task of translating a children's book that has "busy bees" in it. The illustrations show bees being busy. The story might even resolve around that to some extent. But another reason the bees are busy is that "busy" sounds like the buzzing sound they make. So what does one do when translating this into a language where the word for the regular meaning of "busy" does not sound like "buzz"? Whatever one does, something must be lost in the translation.
I have tried and failed to translate into my ancestral language the books I read to my children for exactly this reason. Another issue is that the specific choices of foods, animals and so forth are awkward to translate smoothly, but they are pictured so I cannot change them.
Had to force myself reading to the end of trilogy, above goes into overdrive.
Also depends if you read the version with the cultural revolution scenes in the beginning or in the middle.
Don't even know what to say. I am not sure we live in the same world lol.
I just didnt like the books apart from technological aspects that much, is it that hard to understand and accept that some folks look for more than just wow-what-a-cool-description-of-4D-in-3D?
It was pushed from all directions as something spectacular and well, that bar lies much higher for some, thats all.
I think you missed the latest news.
Definitely well-deserved!
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Smith_(translator)
스미스는 소설을 번역하면서 한강 작가와 계속 의견을 주고 받았다고 전했다. 특히 소설 마지막 부분에 주인공 영혜의 언니 인혜가 한 말, “꿈속에선, 꿈이 전부인 것 같잖아. 하지만 깨고 나면 그게 전부가 아닌 거란 걸 알지…(후략)” 번역을 두고 가장 오랜 시간 의견을 주고 받았다. 스미스는 이를 “surely the dream isn’t all there is?…”로 번역했다.
“‘surely the dream isn’t all there is?’ 하고 영혜에게 말하는 대목에서 (한강) 작가는 인혜의 확신 없는 머뭇거림이 영어권 독자들에게 전달되지 않을 것을 우려했고, 이에 나는 영어의 ‘surely’란 단어가 어째서 확신을 의미하기보다는 오히려 화자가 스스로를 설득하고자 노력하는 인상을 주기 마련인지 설명해야 했다.”
Or in my rough translation:
Smith stated that she kept discussing with Han Kang over the course of translation process. It particularly took the longest amount of time to settle on the translation of words from Inhye, an elder sister of Younghye the protagonist; she translated that as "surely the dream isn’t all there is? [...]".
"Han Kang worried that English readers might not get a hint of Inhye's inconclusive hesitation from that line, so I had to explain her how 'surely' in English rather often conveys sort of self-delusion instead of confidence."
[1] https://www.khan.co.kr/culture/culture-general/article/20241...
You know how things work. The media starts to chant about how great those winners are, with only a few seriously digging into the actual works. They are quickly followed by internet trolls who derail every discussion by insisting that these are masterpieces certified by big-name committees, claiming that we, the lowly masses, must accept the decisions of the great authority as the absolute truth of our lives.
Every awards season is like this, and I now hate awards
Who does this with the Nobel Prize on literature? I've not even heard of any of the previous winners on until Bob Dylan in 2016.
Even with the Oscars, like who is demeaning the lowly masses that they must view as absolute truth that e.g. CODA or The Whale or The Power of the Dog etc are masterpieces?
When was the last time an Oscar or a literature prize (Nobel but not only) has been awarded to something funny?
Only the nobel peace prize is handed out by Norway. What would you consider an example of nobel bait?
I used to think that Nobel committee was made up of researchers around the world, and the Nobel dudes would just present it for a ceremony. Nope, it's really just people from one college who are picking these prizes.
Edit: It seems the committee for physiology and medicine is actually at Karolinska institutet, so in this case it was one college.
Michelin stars remain coveted and are a sure-fire way for fine-dining restaurants to fill their seats.
[Edit: changed "know" to "will have read"]