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Liza Libes

@pensandpoison • 12,635 subscribers

📝 Writer. Rebuilding literary taste one book at a time. 🎨 Essays on literature, beauty, art, culture: https://t.co/XahKAlR9rK

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Dostoyevsky is fundamentally untranslatable. Here’s a great example.

Dostoyevsky is fundamentally untranslatable. Here’s a great example.

148,626 次观看 • 17 天前

In an interview with Good Morning Washington, East of Eden writer Zoe Kazan defends her choice of making Cathy Ames into a sympathetic character. "I'm just really curious about, like, well, what if we think of her not as the embodiment of evil but about a person who does really bad things? And I think we learn more about ourselves if we don't think about evil people as being that different from us." If evil people aren't that different from Zoe Kazan, then can we safely conclude that Zoe Kazan might just be evil? Poor Steinbeck tried to show us good and evil but didn't realize that evil people might just get their hands on his beloved novel.

In an interview with Good Morning Washington, East of Eden writer Zoe Kazan defends her choice of making Cathy Ames into a sympathetic character. "I'm just really curious about, like, well, what if we think of her not as the embodiment of evil but about a person who does really bad things? And I think we learn more about ourselves if we don't think about evil people as being that different from us." If evil people aren't that different from Zoe Kazan, then can we safely conclude that Zoe Kazan might just be evil? Poor Steinbeck tried to show us good and evil but didn't realize that evil people might just get their hands on his beloved novel.

61,970 次观看 • 11 天前

The new Harry Potter trailer just dropped, and the reason we’re all universally upset is that they’ve made it look almost exactly like the original—the Great Hall is the same, the Hogwarts uniforms are virtually unaltered, the dialogue is eerily familiar—while swapping out enough details to make it feel more like an assault on the original rather than a complete reinterpretation of Rowling’s iconic books. For instance, right at the end of the trailer, Arabella Stanton delivers Emma Watson’s exact line but with less pomp than we’ve grown to expect from our beloved Hermione. Of course we’re going to compare this thing to the original—it’s not a work of art on its own so much as it is a conscious reinterpretation of the original films. And when you swap out enough familiar details—draining the footage of its color, insisting on DEI casting, and putting elevator music in the background—you end up stripping the franchise of its original magic.

The new Harry Potter trailer just dropped, and the reason we’re all universally upset is that they’ve made it look almost exactly like the original—the Great Hall is the same, the Hogwarts uniforms are virtually unaltered, the dialogue is eerily familiar—while swapping out enough details to make it feel more like an assault on the original rather than a complete reinterpretation of Rowling’s iconic books. For instance, right at the end of the trailer, Arabella Stanton delivers Emma Watson’s exact line but with less pomp than we’ve grown to expect from our beloved Hermione. Of course we’re going to compare this thing to the original—it’s not a work of art on its own so much as it is a conscious reinterpretation of the original films. And when you swap out enough familiar details—draining the footage of its color, insisting on DEI casting, and putting elevator music in the background—you end up stripping the franchise of its original magic.

170,301 次观看 • 1 个月前

The best grade I ever got at Columbia was for a paper arguing that Shakespeare was secretly writing about transgenderism. I wish I were kidding.

The best grade I ever got at Columbia was for a paper arguing that Shakespeare was secretly writing about transgenderism. I wish I were kidding.

210,791 次观看 • 4 个月前

The new Netflix series East of Eden tries to make you sympathize and “maybe fall in love” with Cathy Ames. Reminder that this woman burned her parents alive and works as a prostitute (an act we used to collectively condemn). In a letter to family friend, Steinbeck once called Cathy “representative of Satan.” Can we please stop doing this thing where we keep making evil characters into sympathetic people? Morality used to exist for a reason in our art. It helped us tell right from wrong and guided for own lives. Since we destroyed objective morality, our art has never been the same again.

The new Netflix series East of Eden tries to make you sympathize and “maybe fall in love” with Cathy Ames. Reminder that this woman burned her parents alive and works as a prostitute (an act we used to collectively condemn). In a letter to family friend, Steinbeck once called Cathy “representative of Satan.” Can we please stop doing this thing where we keep making evil characters into sympathetic people? Morality used to exist for a reason in our art. It helped us tell right from wrong and guided for own lives. Since we destroyed objective morality, our art has never been the same again.

13,864 次观看 • 11 天前

If you’ve only read Emily Wilson’s Odyssey, you’ve read one interpretation of Homer rather than Homer himself. Translation is never neutral and often inserts a translator’s own worldview into the story.

If you’ve only read Emily Wilson’s Odyssey, you’ve read one interpretation of Homer rather than Homer himself. Translation is never neutral and often inserts a translator’s own worldview into the story.

53,505 次观看 • 2 个月前

I don’t hate Lupita as Helen of Troy for the reasons that everyone else does, but I do think she could at least do a better job of pretending that she cares about the source material.

I don’t hate Lupita as Helen of Troy for the reasons that everyone else does, but I do think she could at least do a better job of pretending that she cares about the source material.

36,258 次观看 • 2 个月前

What happens when the SAT stops asking students to read great literature? Classrooms stop teaching it. That’s why a new test is in order. I sat down with Classic Learning Test founder Jeremy Wayne Tate to discuss the collapse of the Western canon, why elite universities have abandoned academic excellence, and whether a standardized test could be our last hope to bring great books back to the classroom.

What happens when the SAT stops asking students to read great literature? Classrooms stop teaching it. That’s why a new test is in order. I sat down with Classic Learning Test founder Jeremy Wayne Tate to discuss the collapse of the Western canon, why elite universities have abandoned academic excellence, and whether a standardized test could be our last hope to bring great books back to the classroom.

22,655 次观看 • 1 个月前

Have you ever noticed that contemporary novels feel strangely empty? It’s because publishers stopped publishing books for readers and started publishing books for MFA students.

Have you ever noticed that contemporary novels feel strangely empty? It’s because publishers stopped publishing books for readers and started publishing books for MFA students.

33,443 次观看 • 4 个月前

The easiest way to become a bestselling novelist in three easy steps: 1) Write a caricature of a conservative Christian with absolutely no depth. 2) Make sure every reader agrees with your politics. 3) Call it “literary fiction.” Congratulations!

The easiest way to become a bestselling novelist in three easy steps: 1) Write a caricature of a conservative Christian with absolutely no depth. 2) Make sure every reader agrees with your politics. 3) Call it “literary fiction.” Congratulations!

19,255 次观看 • 2 个月前

When students use ChatGPT to “translate” novels written in modern English, the problem is no longer AI itself. The problem is that they’ve been taught that reading is just an act of retrieving information rather than a transformative intellectual experience.

When students use ChatGPT to “translate” novels written in modern English, the problem is no longer AI itself. The problem is that they’ve been taught that reading is just an act of retrieving information rather than a transformative intellectual experience.

18,156 次观看 • 2 个月前

Nolan may have gotten one of the most important aspects of Odysseus completely wrong—and it’s all because he read Emily Wilson’s terrible translation.

Nolan may have gotten one of the most important aspects of Odysseus completely wrong—and it’s all because he read Emily Wilson’s terrible translation.

16,973 次观看 • 2 个月前

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