Comments on: Stieg Larsson – about the titles of his books in English http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/stieg-larsson-about-the-titles-of-his-books-in-english/ Books reviewed Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:34:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Gabriel http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/stieg-larsson-about-the-titles-of-his-books-in-english/comment-page-1/#comment-1432 Gabriel Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:33:05 +0000 http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/?p=91#comment-1432 Thanks, Ive been wondering about this books titles, since I was very confused at first: my mother language is spanish, but I read in english. So, when I visited stores in my country (Panama) I saw the books with titles in spanish, wich is translated from the nordic. Then on Amazon I saw the english titles, wich are so different; got me some time to understand wich is wich, and were to start reading. Wich makes me wonder, why publishers dont write a "book 1 of the series" in a little corner? cheers Thanks,
Ive been wondering about this books titles, since I was very confused at first: my mother language is spanish, but I read in english. So, when I visited stores in my country (Panama) I saw the books with titles in spanish, wich is translated from the nordic. Then on Amazon I saw the english titles, wich are so different; got me some time to understand wich is wich, and were to start reading. Wich makes me wonder, why publishers dont write a “book 1 of the series” in a little corner?
cheers

]]> By: Peter http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/stieg-larsson-about-the-titles-of-his-books-in-english/comment-page-1/#comment-93 Peter Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:51:21 +0000 http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/?p=91#comment-93 Hi! Thanks for an extremely interesting comment! I can see how it was difficult to use the titles as they were in English. Very interesting to see some of the thinking and arguments as well. And - great job on the translations! I've read them in Swedish/Norwegian, but have looked quickly at the translated books :) Hi! Thanks for an extremely interesting comment! I can see how it was difficult to use the titles as they were in English. Very interesting to see some of the thinking and arguments as well. And – great job on the translations! I’ve read them in Swedish/Norwegian, but have looked quickly at the translated books :)

]]> By: Reg Keeland http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/stieg-larsson-about-the-titles-of-his-books-in-english/comment-page-1/#comment-91 Reg Keeland Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:40:36 +0000 http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/?p=91#comment-91 Actually the titles Stieg gave the manuscripts of books 2 & 3 were longer, more or less well rendered in the French titles: Actes Sud in France was the first to translate the books, and they used the titles that were on them in 2006 when I was working on the English translation of all 3. Something approximately like this: The Girl Who Fantasized About a Gasoline Can and a Match, which deals more with Lisbeth's desire for revenge on her abusers, one in particular whom I will not reveal here in deference to American readers who have yet to catch up. The title on the MS of book 3 I was given to translate from in May '06 was The Queen in the Air Castle (Castle in the Air), but it went through several changes before it went to press in Sweden, ending up as The Castle in the Air That Was Detonated or something like that, none of which worked in English. The title of the first book was indeed invented by the team at MacLehose Books/Quercus; they obviously did not think that Men Who Hate Women would fly in English, with its reverberations of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus lending it a self-help sort of sound. Knopf went along with the title for their US edition. I acquiesced on the title change in the interests of marketing, but when I later got a proof of the book I was sorry to see that the cover artist hadn't read the book. At the beginning of chapter 23 in my translation, Blomkvist, in bed with Salander for the first time, describes her tattoos: "He looked down at the dragon that stretched across her back, from her right shoulder blade down to her buttocks. He counted her tattoos. In addition to the dragon on her back and the wasp on her neck, she had a loop around one ankle, another loop around the biceps of her left arm, a Chinese symbol on her hip, and a rose on one calf. Except for the dragon, the tattoos were small and discreet." Checking the UK printed book, I find on page 377: "He looked down at the dragon on her shoulder blade. He counted her tattoos. As well as the wasp on her neck, she had a loop around one ankle, another loop around the biceps of her left arm, a Chinese symbol on her hip, and a rose on one calf. Except for the dragon, the tattoos were small and discreet." [Nor does the cover show a loop around her left arm.] So it wasn’t the cover artist’s fault after all! Was the editing done first? Or was it done to match the cover, once it had been received with a small Chinese dragon on the <i>left</i> shoulder blade? Yet another quandary for academics of the future to ponder. I did see one blogger comment that she bought the book because she was sure it was about China; she was incensed that China was never mentioned in the book at all. I agree with you that names matter a lot, as do cover images. In this respect, it was something like working on a movie. Actually the titles Stieg gave the manuscripts of books 2 & 3 were longer, more or less well rendered in the French titles: Actes Sud in France was the first to translate the books, and they used the titles that were on them in 2006 when I was working on the English translation of all 3. Something approximately like this: The Girl Who Fantasized About a Gasoline Can and a Match, which deals more with Lisbeth’s desire for revenge on her abusers, one in particular whom I will not reveal here in deference to American readers who have yet to catch up. The title on the MS of book 3 I was given to translate from in May ’06 was The Queen in the Air Castle (Castle in the Air), but it went through several changes before it went to press in Sweden, ending up as The Castle in the Air That Was Detonated or something like that, none of which worked in English.

The title of the first book was indeed invented by the team at MacLehose Books/Quercus; they obviously did not think that Men Who Hate Women would fly in English, with its reverberations of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus lending it a self-help sort of sound. Knopf went along with the title for their US edition. I acquiesced on the title change in the interests of marketing, but when I later got a proof of the book I was sorry to see that the cover artist hadn’t read the book. At the beginning of chapter 23 in my translation, Blomkvist, in bed with Salander for the first time, describes her tattoos:

“He looked down at the dragon that stretched across her back, from her right shoulder blade down to her buttocks. He counted her tattoos. In addition to the dragon on her back and the wasp on her neck, she had a loop around one ankle, another loop around the biceps of her left arm, a Chinese symbol on her hip, and a rose on one calf. Except for the dragon, the tattoos were small and discreet.”

Checking the UK printed book, I find on page 377: “He looked down at the dragon on her shoulder blade. He counted her tattoos. As well as the wasp on her neck, she had a loop around one ankle, another loop around the biceps of her left arm, a Chinese symbol on her hip, and a rose on one calf. Except for the dragon, the tattoos were small and discreet.” [Nor does the cover show a loop around her left arm.]

So it wasn’t the cover artist’s fault after all! Was the editing done first? Or was it done to match the cover, once it had been received with a small Chinese dragon on the left shoulder blade? Yet another quandary for academics of the future to ponder. I did see one blogger comment that she bought the book because she was sure it was about China; she was incensed that China was never mentioned in the book at all.

I agree with you that names matter a lot, as do cover images. In this respect, it was something like working on a movie.

]]> By: invinfemy http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/stieg-larsson-about-the-titles-of-his-books-in-english/comment-page-1/#comment-70 invinfemy Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:39:24 +0000 http://bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com/?p=91#comment-70 Great site this bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor :) Great site this bookblog.scandinavianbooks.com and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor :)

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