During the Cold War, the US and Chinese governments didn’t drop bombs on each other, but they did drop translated works of literature. In fact, national governments put a lot of effort into creating translations that covertly served their political agendas. In the case of the US, this meant emphasizing values like freedom and self-reliance, with which they hoped to win the hearts and minds of Chinese readers. But while propaganda is meant to convey one simple message, Lamyu Maria Bo argues that literature can’t be reduced to a single meaning – and meanings multiply even more in translation.
Tag: novel
Life experiences can transform us in many ways, and Laurie Paul wants us to appreciate how experiencing works of art can be powerfully transformative too. Works of fiction can change how we understand our own lives going forwards, or experiences we’ve already had. But art doesn’t always transform us for the better – when we truly open ourselves up to transformation, we can’t know in advance, or ultimately control, what the results will be.
After we finish reading a book, our memories of it quickly fade and can even get distorted. Andrew Elfenbein has studied how the things we read get transformed in memory. What we remember may diverge from what’s in the book, but that doesn’t mean we’re sloppy readers – we’re actually using highly sophisticated skills without even noticing. By understanding this process we can better appreciate how books live on in our minds long after we’ve read them.