Pay the Translator (Harlan Ellison -- "Pay the Writer") Thread poster: PRen (X)
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PRen (X)
Canada
Local time: 09:34
French to English
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Here's an interesting clip of an interview with writer Harlan Ellison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE
I think it resonates particularly well for translators, especially his remarks that professionals "are undercut by all the amateurs...it's the amateurs who make it tough for the professionals" - the people charging 3 cents a word perhaps?
PRe... See more Here's an interesting clip of an interview with writer Harlan Ellison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE
I think it resonates particularly well for translators, especially his remarks that professionals "are undercut by all the amateurs...it's the amateurs who make it tough for the professionals" - the people charging 3 cents a word perhaps?
PRen
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2008-02-01 09:17] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lia Fail (X) 
Spain
Local time: 14:34
Spanish to English
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PRen wrote: Here's an interesting clip of an interview with writer Harlan Ellison. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE I think it resonates particularly well for translators, especially his remarks that professionals "are undercut by all the amateurs...it's the amateurs who make it tough for the professionals" - the people charging 3 cents a word perhaps? PRen
Don't know who he is, but his ire is patent.
What it is about translation is that it's associated with "the arts" and people "die" to work in "the arts", hence a start-off salary, as one example, in "the publishing world". is dire compared, say, to that for a prestigious company in an economic sector that's not "artistic".
Recently there was a post about literary translation (in Spanish perhaps), referring to rates that - for me - personally - make it more economically interesting to be a cleaner (no, I'm not proud, but as it happens, I respect literature too much to translate it "fast" + "for peanuts", a rotten combination). I'd love to be a literary translator, but I'm not going to be the "whore" that Ellis referred to, I feel it's more honest to be a cleaner at 10 euros/hour than a literary translator at 3 or 4 eurocents a word.
[Edited at 2008-02-01 00:14]
| | | | | Three cheers for Harlan!! | Feb 1, 2008 |
What an excellent rant! Sounds just like me. Thank you, PRen.
I believe professional actors feel exactly the same about amateur actors who, regrettably, often equate themselves with pros when talking (endlessly) about their thespian achievements. Avoid, avoid.
Regards,
Jenny
| | | | Margreet Logmans (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 14:34
English to Dutch
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Williamson
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:34
Flemish to English
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and does not hesitate to result to lawsuits.
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