What is the meaning of translation? When you see worldwide thrillers spreading their gory fonts and blazed, burnt (and shiny!) hardcovers all over bookstore tables, elbowing out even Irving novels (!), with always, for some unknown reason, “Available in over 50 Languages!” What does this all mean?
Translation to Derrida meant, well, noone really knows. But it certainly can’t get closer to a literary text’s meaning, we can perhaps safely say it increases the always-already distance to a text from meaning. But today, translation is an afterthought, but an important one. It’s not like people buy Thunder Dance in 4.0 Russia in French and English to compare meanings. It’s purely a marketing ploy, a status symbol of book money, a feat in a “dying” industry (Also, I’d probably buy Thunder Dance in 4.0 Russia but I also made up that title). So, would Derrida be horrified at what translation now means? Are texts further and further away from their meaning?
Are we, everytime we walk into another (metaphorical interrogation) room in another novel that is international-thriller-banking-conspiracy-post-soviet-spy-esque, not to mention (walking into another raw food sushi restaurant room) chic-lit-fashion-smashion-20/30-something-dating-dirge, walking further away from our meaning? Or am I just being an unfounded elitist. Safe to say, I was never cool enough in middle school when everyone else was reading Gossip Girl.
Tags: Gossip Girl, Jacques Derrida, Translation