#The Californian

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week: Twain’s “Revenge Translation”

Mark Twain wrote, “I am quite sure I that (bar one) I have no race prejudices.” It is generally interpreted that the prejudice to which Twain referred is toward the French. As is often the case with Twain, it can be difficult to determine the sincerity of his ribbing; in Mark Twain and France: The Making of a New American Identity, the authors argue that Twain used France “as a kind of foil ... to help build a modern American sense of cultural self.” Sincere or not, Twain’s antipathy toward the French is on full display in The Jumping Frog: in English, then in French, then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil. Perhaps it would amuse Mr. Clemons that I came across this title because I am a bit of a francophile! Our first edition copy was published in New York in 1903 by Harper & Brothers, with illustrations by Frederick Strothmann.

The frog tale, Mark Twain’s first published short story, first appeared under the title “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” in November of 1865 in the literary weekly The Saturday Press. It was widely reprinted; Twain continued to refine the story and a new version appeared in The Californian a month later with the title “The Celebrated Jumping From of Calaveras County.” Keeping this title, it appeared again as the titular story in Twain’s first book, a collection of short stories published in an edition of 1000 in 1867 by American News Company, edited by Twain’s good friend Charles Henry Webb. Issued in seven different colored bindings, the sales were lackluster, but it has since become a hot item among rare book collectors.

A French translation of the story was completed by Thérèse Bentzon and published in 1872 in the monthly magazine Revue des deux Mondes, embedded in an essay about American humorists that Twain interpreted as condescending. He complained that Bentzon’s translation stripped all the humor from the story, and cited that as the impetus for “clawing back” the story into English, but it might have been Bentzon’s characterization of Twain as an unrefined rube that really got his goat. His retaliatory “retranslation” is a word-for-word translation retaining the French syntax. Therefore, it reads like the early days of computer-assisted translators when it was a fun party game to see who could come up with the most convoluted phrase by translating it into another language and back (although maybe this is something only English-major nerds did?). Whether read as a meditation on the limits of translation or an example of pre-internet literary trolling, it is a fun little book. 

Find more Staff Picks here. 

Check out past posts on Mark Twain here. 

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[youlovegoodmusic]

YouTube Channel 💻

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New Music Video 🍿

"The Californian" 🎵

Bob Schneider

[AI Music Video]

[wy-mackk]

jean: if you must speak to me, please do not speak in gibberish. the sun has clearly addled your brain-

[wtfforged]

i refuse to draw him in a normal length shirt. you cant make me

[finchwingart]

wanted to try avian august today, a californian condor

[redstonedust]

these look like poison and i want them SO bad

[theonyxranger]

@quinton-reviews has naturally what tiktok users trying to bring back 2000s fashion wish they could emulate

[jaxthedragon]

Water, earth, fire, air. Finally, California has become the Avatar of Natural Disasters

[hiikohakiss]

so ... that new crazy:b event huh ?

[syd-meow]

❄️☕️☁️

[realismovisceral]

Sarah McDaniel

Treats! Magazine

[geoledgy]

Unfortunately I have become hopelessly dependent on the volcano

[dreamingofspring]

I'm sorry

You're telling me that Elmville has a fucking in n out????

[elbiotipo]

also OH BOY I HAVE NEVER SEEN A CARTOON SET IN CALIFORNIA BEFORE. SUCH AN EXOTIC, UNEXPLORED SETTING. THROUGH ANIMATION, WE CAN MAKE ALL SORT OF SPECTACULAR AND AWESOME SETTINGS, SO WE SHOULD MAKE A CARTOON SET IN CALIFORNIA. EVERY KID IS FROM CALIFORNIA RIGHT? WE SHOULD ALL MAKE CARTOONS IN CALIFORNIA. WE HAVE NEVER MADE A CARTOON IN CALIFORNIA OMG.

[onenicebugperday]

Californian two-pronged bristletail, Occasjapyx californicus, Japygidae, Diplura

Two-pronged bristletails are non-insect hexapods that are common in moist soil and leaf litter, but are rarely seen because of their size and subterranean lifestyles. Depending on species, they feed on a wide variety of live prey and dead organic matter. They are found throughout the world. Despite their similar-looking forceps, they are only distantly related to earwigs.

Photographed in California by easmeds

[clingyduoapologist]

hhonesttly bro like the most annoyong thing about hoo to me is how they like subtly shit on camp half blood like in the original pjo series it's like confirmed that the reason that it isn't as shiny and safe as new rome is that most demigods don't live long enough to make it there, and like besides the obvious the fact that chb is like almost helpless when octovian does his little bitchboy seige in blood of olympus like these are the same campers who singlehandley thrashed a fucking army of monsters and titans in new york like we're shown in son of neptune that percy on his own handles like half their leigon theres no earth whhere i believe the leigion could snuff out camp half blood that easily LIKE CLARISSE SOLOED A FUCKING DRAKON AFTER SELINA DIED??? PIPER AND LEO ARE LIKE SOME OF THE MOST POWERFUL DEMIGODS EVER????? ANNABETH CHASE END OF SENTANCE????? LIKE WHERE THE HHELL DID ALL THAT GO