8 ms·
The name problem totally disappears when you use any e-reader's built-in search on the highlighted name
by dub4u 3mo ago
The name problem totally disappears when you use any e-reader's built-in search on the highlighted name
- Oreb 3mo agoNot really. The problem with the names in Dostoyevsky (and Russian literature more generally) isn’t that the names on their own are difficult to remember, it is that all names also have familiar forms, which are sometimes very different from the formal name. On page you get introduced to a character named Alexander, a few pages later the text talks about Sasha. For non-native speakers, it’s hard to guess that it’s the same person. An e-reader’s search function isn’t going to make this problem disappear.
- orthoxerox 3mo ago> For non-native speakers, it’s hard to guess that it’s the same person. Like "Mrs. Thatcher", "Margaret" and "Peg"?
- kelnos 3mo agoI think Robert and Bob are better examples. Native English speakers of all ages today are going to know that they're the same person, but someone in Russia might have trouble with those names if they were to read a Russian translation of an English novel. (My first grade teacher in the 80s was named Margaret, but went by Peg with her students' parents, so I know this one. I wouldn't fault most native English speakers under the age of 35 or so if they didn't know it.)
- Forgeties79 3mo agoMore like “Richard” and “Dick.” You have to be explicitly told that Dick is a nickname for Richard at some point in your life or you’d likely never figure it out.
- sumeno 3mo agoI mean, yeah, if I wasn't a native speaker I'd find those confusing, especially Margaret and Peg
- LearnYouALisp 3mo agoThat sounds like a decision for the translator and editor, honestly