#natasha lehrer

[majestativa]

Real lovers, on the other hand, find common understanding even in the most profound silence, their every movement charged with a burning passion that has the power to bring ecstasy.

— Georges Bataille, The Sacred Conspiracy: The Internal Papers of the Secret Society of Acéphale and Lectures to the College of Sociology, transl by Natasha Lehrer, John Harman & Meyer Barash, (2017)

[finalgirlfall]

Even at the age of fourteen, Springora instinctively understands that her abuser is using language to steal her soul. One day he determines to write her assignment for school, an experience she describes as a "dispossession." Throughout their relationship he takes endless notes in his Moleskine notebooks, and uses them later to turn her, barely disguised, into a character in several novels that are published to some acclaim by the most esteemed Parisian publishing houses. "I was just a character, living on borrowed time, like every other girl who'd come before me. It wouldn't be long before he erased me completely from the pages of his wretched diary. For his readers, it was merely a story, words."

Vanessa Springora tr. Natasha Lehrer, "A Note from the Translator," Consent: A Memoir, EPUB ed., (New York, New York: HarperVia, 2021).

[newvesselpress]

THE PROPAGANDIST by Cécile Desprairies is "spellbinding" in Natasha Lehrer's stellar translation: "For this spellbinding debut novel, historian Desprairies draws on her family’s collaboration with the Nazis during the occupation of France in WWII . . . With a sardonic tone and an uncompromising vision, Desprairies lays bare the inequities of Vichy France. This will stay with readers." says Publishers Weekly.

[emjee]

So in addition to the concept of “Steve Rogers ♥️s Libraries 4ever” being very important to me, I also enjoy thinking about “Steve Rogers vs. Book Bans” in which Man Who Normally Avoids Interviews says “Pepper put me on every radio and morning show that will take me” and gives us such gems as

- “it’s amazing, they’ve managed to take two of my favorite words: “moms”—that’s great, I’m generally a fan, and my mother was a wonderful woman, God rest her—and “liberty” which, you might know, has historically been part of my whole Thing—and they’ve taken these two words and used them to name a group that is one of the largest threats to American democracy currently operating”

- rocks up to the Brooklyn Public Library after hearing they’re making digital library cards available to anyone under 18 and says “hey I know I already said I would do literally anything for you guys but I will do LITERALLY ANYTHING FOR YOU GUYS WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP”

- shows up to library and school board meetings. Bitch that is Captain Fucking America. Shut the fuck up

- gets spotted by a reporter at a counterprotest and the only sound bite he’ll give them is “I do have a cause: obscenity. I’m for it” (don’t worry he gives due to credit to Tom Lehrer. I like to think Bruce introduced him to his music)

On a spiritual level Bucky is eating an unlimited amount of popcorn and grinning the entire time. On a literal level Bucky is hosting Natasha and Sam for morning show viewing parties and grinning the entire time.

[swanmaids]

Recent reads - women in translation

Child of Fortune - Tsushima Yuko, 1978, tr. Geraldine Harcourt

Orignally published in Japanese. A single mother with a difficult relationship with her 11 year old daughter finds herself pregnant again after an affair. A dreamy and flashback-centred short story of motherhood and alienation.

The Mermaid’s Tale - Lee Wei-Jing, 2019, tr. Darryl Sterk

Originally published in Mandarin. A lonely woman in her thirties with an obsessive love for Latin dance attempts to make peace with her past and her body. Blends the whimsical and the excruciatingly real.

Consent - Vanessa Springora, 2020, tr. Natasha Lehrer

Originally published in French. A wrenching memoir of the author's sexual abuse by a celebrated author as a teenage girl, and the culture that colluded with her abuser. Devastating.

A Woman of Pleasure - Murata Kiyoko, 2013, tr. Juliet Winters Carpenter

Originally published in Japanese. In 1903, a teenage girl tries to survive after being sold into sex work. The novel's brutality makes its moments of light even more poignant.

Masks - Enchi Fumiko, 1958, tr. Juliet Winters Carpenter

Both a novel of tragedy and manipulation and an exploration of the role of women in noh theatrical tradition and the Tale of Genji. Lingers in the mind long after reading.

Abandon - Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, 2013, tr. Arunava Sinha

Originally published in Bengali. A mother's conflict between caring for her sickly young son and her desire to abandon motherhood to pursue her art is personified by two narrations by the same "character". A fascinating self-referential novel that raises many questions on the conflicts between art and humanity.

[dillydedalus]

WIT 2024: read + WIT 2024 acquired (physical only, i read & bought a bunch more)

some stats books read: 16 og languages: catalan (3x), croatian, danish, french (3x), greenlandic, japanese (2x), russian, spanish (4x) female translators: 16 books i read (* marks stand-outs)

living pictures, polina barskova, tr. from the russian by catherine ciepiela

butter, asako yuzuki, tr. from the japanese by ursula gräfe / english tr. by polly barton, same title

gesang für die verlorenen, hemley boum, tr. from the french by gudrun & otto honke (no english translation so far)

*grieving: dispatches of a wounded country, cristina rivera garza, tr. from the spanish by sarah booker

*jawbone, mónica ojeda, tr. from the spanish by sarah booker again

*tríptic: permafrost / ***boulder / mammoth, eva baltasar, tr. from the catalan by julia sanches, READ BOULDER READ BOULDER READ BOULDER

days in the caucasus, banine, tr. from the french by anne thompson-ahmadova

my work, olga ravn, translated from the danish by sophia hersi smith

das tal der blumen, niviaq korneliussen, tr. from greenlandic to danish by the author as far as i can tell, tr. from danish to german by franziska hüther (no english translation)

diary of a void, emi yagi, tr. from the japanese by david boyd & lucy north

unser teil der nacht, mariana enríquez, tr. from the spanish by inka marter & silke kleemann (english translation: our share of the night, tr. by megan mcdowell)

so reich wie der könig, abigaïl assor, tr. from the french by nicola denis (english translation: as rich as the king, tr. by natasha lehrer)

fox, dubravka ugrešić, tr. from the croatian by ellen elias-bursać & david williams

the house of spirits, isabel allende, tr. from the spanish by magda bogin

[bracketsoffear]

Here's my TMA playlist/songs I associate with each entity:

The Eye:

Busted from Phineas and Ferb

Welcome to the Internet by Bo Burnham

Aha! by Imogen Heap

The Lonely:

Mister Cellophane from Chicago

Drift Away from Steven Universe: The Movie

Eet by Regina Spektor

The Vast:

Major Tom (Coming Home) by Tom Schilling

Superheroes from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Waiting for the Drop from Ride the Cyclone

The Buried:

Why We Build The Wall from Hadestown

Pressure by Billy Joel

Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Erie Ford

The Dark:

Come Wayward Souls from Over The Garden Wall

The Night by Aurelio Voltaire

Snuff Out the Light by Eartha Kitt

The Stranger:

Mr. Roboto by Styx

Brass Goggles by Steam Powered Giraffe

Doll Parts by Hole

The Spiral:

Crazytown from 35MM: A Musical Exhibition

Who's Crazy?/My Psychopharmacologist and I from Next to Normal

Discord by The Living Tombstone

The Slaughter:

Ballroom Blitz by Sweet

Three Five Zero Zero from Hair

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park by Tom Lehrer

The Hunt:

Catch You by Sophie Ellis-Bextor

One Way Or Another by Blondie (obviously)

A Confession by PhemieC

The Flesh:

We Started this Op'ra Shit from Repo: The Genetic Opera

A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

64 Little White Things by Cake Bake Betty

The End:

The Fall Fair Suite from Ride the Cyclone

Memento Mori: the most important thing in the world by Will Wood

Dust and Ashes from: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

The Extinction:

We Will All Go Together When We Go by Tom Lehrer

The End of the World by Skeeter Davis

How Bad Can I Be? from The Lorax

The Desolation:

That's Not How the Story Goes from ASOUE

Arsonist's Lullaby by Hozier

Burn It Down by Daughter

The Corruption:

Sweet by PhemieC

Sticks and Stones by The Pierces

Entomologists by Ghost and Pals

The Web:

Mastermind by Taylor Swift

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Kiss Me, Son of God by They Might Be Giants

.

[verifiedaccount]

Once upon a time the man I loved reproached me for my apparent passivity with other men. We were in the kitchen having breakfast: he told me that he was afraid of that habit particular to women in general and me in particular, in his opinion, of being either unable or unwilling to resist uninvited male desire, of the madness of giving in to whatever they asked of us. He couldn't understand how hard it is to say no, to be confronted with the desire of another and to reject it–how hard it is and possibly how pointless. How could he not understand the sometimes overwhelming necessity of yielding to the other's desire to give yourself a better chance of escaping it? Sylvia Plath writes in her journal: "For instance, I could hold my nose, close my eyes, and jump blindly into the waters of some man's insides, submerging myself until his purpose becomes my purpose, his life, my life, and so on. One fine day I would float to the surface, quite drowned and supremely happy with my newfound selfless self."

Suite for Barbara Loden (tr. Natasha Lehrer & Cécile Menon)

Nathalie Léger

[holdmytesseract]

Loki + The Masochism Tango (Tom Lehrer)

a/n: That was very... intense to write. I must admit, that I struggled a bit, but I nevertheless love what my mind came up with. ☺️🙈 I hope you love it too, nonny. ☺️

Warnings: this is a tiny bit spicy, swear word(s), thirst, dancing?

Word Count: 1155

Tagging: @lulubelle814 @km-ffluv @lokisgoodgirl @eleniblue @muddyorbs @loz-3 @vbecker10 @jennyggggrrr @lokisninerealms @mochie85 @chantsdemarins @peaches1958 @multifandom-worlds @fictive-sl0th @loki-laufeyson-1054 @theaudacitytowrite @lovingchoices14 @simping-for-marvel @stupidthoughtsinwriting @vanilla-daydreaming @lou12346789 @kimanne723 @linaax @coldnique @lady-rose-moon @evelyn-kingsley @the-princess-of-loki @acefeather2002 @aagn360 @ijuststareatstuffhereok89 @iamlokisgloriouspurpose

Lyric-Drabble-Mania Masterlist

Based on this song:

On Edge

"Loki and I have to do what on that mission?" You asked Tony with wide eyes. You expected a lot, but that? Nope, not at all. Tony rolled his eyes, visibly quite a bit annoyed. "Y/L/N... It's simple. Go with Reindeer Games to that ball, dance a bit, have some drinks if you feel like it, and supervise this suspicious Hydra spy lady. That's all. No big deal." Tony then crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing you sharply. "Or do you have a problem with being accompanied by our drama queen?" You gritted your teeth, wanted to scream 'Yes' at him - but you didn't. Instead, you took a deep breath and shook your head. "No, it's not a problem."

Well, it wouldn't have been a problem for you, if you didn't have a massive crush on the handsome Asgardian prince. Since the day Thor dragged him through the doors of the Avenger Tower, you weren't able to take your eyes off him. He had something dark and mysterious, which was utterly intriguing for you. Not to mention his wit, charm, sassiness and the extraordinary good looks. Tall, dark and handsome - your personal downfall. Exactly what Loki was.

No one knew about your crush and secret feelings you harboured for the god - or well, at least you hoped nobody knew it... A man like him wouldn't want a mere mortal woman like you anyway, right? Your chances were very slim, and you were pretty certain, that there was a princess waiting on Asgard for him to marry.

"See? There we go." Tony smiled at you and stuffed two invitations in your hands. "The ball is this evening, Happy is going to drive you and Reindeer Games, you two are invited guests - Mr. and Mrs. Watson, here to play a bit dress up and show the world how rich you are. That's that plan, got it?" You blinked. Wait a second, what? "Tony, h-hang on a minute... Mr. and Mrs. Watson? We have to play a married couple?!" "Didn't I mention that before? Whoopsies, my bad." You just wanted to answer something, as suddenly Tony's phone vibrated in the pocket of his sweatpants. "Duty calls, I have to go." The man announced, smiling his million-dollar smile. "Have fun tonight with Rock of Ages. Maybe you get him to loosen up a bit. Ta-ta." With those words, Tony left the gym; leaving you behind. You groaned, regretting your decision already. "Great..."

Exactly at 7 p.m., there was a knock on your door, signalling Loki's arrival. You took a deep breath, "Here we go..." and quickly adjusted the cleavage of your emerald green dress, before you stepped over to the door. Yes, you wore a green dress. "If you two are going to play a married couple, you have to wear his colours." That was what Natasha said - and of course you listened to your friend.

You opened the door - and almost fell straight backwards again, as your eyes met the Asgardian prince, who leaned casually against the door frame. He was dressed like you have never seen him before. His raven curls were slicked back. A tight fitting, black shirt, with emerald green highlights adorned his upper body. The first three buttons were undone, giving you a delicious glimpse of his pale, but strong chest; and the smattering of fine, dark hairs across his pecs. His suit trousers were tight as well around his hips, but wider on his legs. He literally looked like he just stepped out of a dancing contest. You swallowed hard, tried desperately to control your breath. Why does he have to look like this? How am I supposed to survive this evening? Yep, it was definitely a bad idea to agree on this mission...

"Well, good evening, Agent." Loki literally purred, smiling down at you, almost causing you to faint - again. "H-Hi." You stammered out helplessly, still completely overwhelmed by his more than just sexy outfit. The little quiver in your voice didn't go unnoticed by Loki. His lips twitched into an even bigger smirk. "Shall we go, Agent? Best not to be late." You nodded, following him down on the yard, where Happy already waited for you, to drive you to the ball.

The drive to the event passed completely in unpleasant silent - almost... "I have to say, you look stunning tonight, Agent. Wearing my colours." "T-Thanks." You cleared your throat. "I-I mean, it's necessary to uphold our cover." You weren't able to meet his gaze; too afraid of losing it. Loki smirked. "Of course."

You were so uptight the whole evening, feeling your nerves on edge - just because a certain handsome god put you off your stride. "Agent, are you feeling well tonight?" Loki's words ripped you out of your thoughts. "You seem a little... absent-minded and tensed up." "N-No, uh, I'm fine, really. Just a bit nervous, regarding our mission." He smiled, causing you to curse internally. Couldn't he stop smiling that ridiculously charming smile for just a moment?! "I see. Don't fret, Agent. We got this. Now loosen up a little." Loki answered, handing you a drink. You accepted the drink with an uptight smile. Just after you took a sip, a loud voice announced through the speakers, that the dance floor was declared open; loud music flooding the crowded room. After all, this was a ball. "Care to dance?" You blinked. "W-What?" "Would you like to dance?" "B-But our mission..." Loki shook his head, stretching out his hand towards you. "Relax, darling. Our target is not even here yet and besides, we need to keep up our façade, don't we?" Shit, he was right. "O-Okay..." Hesitatingly, you placed your hand in his bigger one, letting him lead you on the dance floor, where other fancy dressed couples were already dancing.

Unfortunately for you, was the music just changing in that very moment. From slow waltz music, to a sexy, erotic tango tune. You were fucked. Positively, entirely fucked. "I hope you know how to dance the tango, Agent. If not, just follow my lead." Loki winked at you, before taking position. He could dance the tango?! Oh gods… Before you could even protest or say something, the both of you were tangled up in an erotic dance. It caused your heart to stand aflame and your nerves to sizzle with sparking desire. The sexual tension between you and Loki was literally cuttable with a knife. You could feel it - and so could he. "Did someone ever told you, Agent, that your eyes cast a spell that bewitches?" Your eyes snapped up to meet Loki's. "Exactly what I mean... I find myself intrigued, drawn in by your beautiful eyes." What was suddenly going on here? "I-I-I-" "Hush, darling, don't speak. Just feel." Loki interrupted you, before he reeled you in once again and crashed his lips onto yours.

[batboyblog]

A Call for Empathy for Innocent Israelis

Open Letter: A Call for Empathy for Innocent Israelis

OCTOBER 19, 2023

To the Editor: Every Tisha B’av, the national day of communal mourning, Jews read liturgy recounting the horrors of our slaughtered ancestors throughout history and around the world. Every year, our blood runs cold rereading accounts of those nightmares. This year those nightmares became real. Earlier this month, the slaughter in southern Israel has matched the brutality of that liturgy: 1,400 people murdered at a concert, in their cars, in their homes, and nearly 200 taken as hostages. These are scenes we never thought we would see. We are heartbroken and disgusted by the shocking lack of empathy on much of the self-professed global left for the innocent Israelis who were murdered and kidnapped, and for the Jews in the diaspora who watched helplessly around the world as the most catastrophic slaughter in our history since the Holocaust was perpetrated. For much of the left, however, this was “resistance.” Furthermore, it was “justified,” as if the Jews murdered in their beds and the closets of their own homes somehow deserved to die. Jews and Palestinians have something in common: the dead bodies commentators around the world either pretend to care about or grotesquely dehumanize were once people we loved. The body count only grows. In the wake of Israeli retaliation the number of civilian Gazan deaths approaches 4,000. We can extrapolate from our own pain, and we recognize the despair and horror haunting Palestinians in and outside of Gaza. Grief should be respected. It would be an expression of gross inhumanity to demand that the Palestinians are only entitled to their grief if they publicly blame the deaths of their loved ones on their leadership. Jews deserve the same respect and the same degree of empathy. The victims in Israel were civilians. They were not “partisans,” merely because they lived within Israel’s borders. Much of the conversation since the dark events of October 7 has focused on distinguishing Hamas “militants” from innocent Palestinians, a distinction that is real and significant. But why does the same distinction not apply to Israel and its people? Why are Jews living in the Jewish state seen as justifiable collateral damage? Those who in any way justify the actions of Hamas should consider the macabre tradition in which their rhetoric falls: the mass murder of innocent Jews in cold blood, justifying this mass murder as necessary policy, and celebrating the bloodthirsty evil that is, that has always been, antisemitism. That tradition reached its apex in the Holocaust, an epochal catastrophe that changed the face of Jewish and world history forever but whose legacy is somehow vanishing by the day. The events of October 7 only underscore how much. Celeste Marcus James McAuley David Grossman Cynthia Ozick Simon Sebag-Montefiore Anita Shapira Leon Wieseltier Simon Schama Michael Walzer Natasha Lehrer Lauren Elkin Robert Alter Etan Nechin Arash Azizi Oksana Forostyna Dexter Filkins Alex Levy Natalie Livingstone David Avrom Bell Elliot Ackerman Anne Sebba Noga Arikha Kati Marton Daphne Merkin Matti Friedman Marie Brenner Elisabeth Zerofsky Names added after publication: Anshel Pfeffer Daniel Mendelsohn Enrique Krauze Nicholas Lemann Ruth Rosengarten Judith Shulevitz

[majestativa]

Her sweetness eludes the real world she passes through, for she can be no more confined than a dream.

— Georges Bataille, The Sacred Conspiracy: The Internal Papers of the Secret Society of Acéphale and Lectures to the College of Sociology, transl by Natasha Lehrer, John Harman & Meyer Barash, (2017)

[finalgirlfall]

Physical violence leaves a memory for a person to react against. It's appalling, but tangible. Sexual abuse, on the other hand, is insidious and perverse, and the victim might be barely aware it is happening. No one speaks of "sexual abuse" between adults. Of the abuse of the vulnerable, yes, of an elderly person, for example. Vulnerability is precisely that infinitesimal space into which people with the psychological profile of G. can insinuate themselves. It's the element that makes the notion of consent so beside the point. Very often, in the case of sexual abuse or abuse of the vulnerable, one comes across the same denial of reality, the same refusal to consider oneself a victim. And indeed, how is it possible to acknowledge having been abused when it's impossible to deny having consented, having felt desire...?

Vanessa Springora tr. Natasha Lehrer, "The Imprint," Consent: A Memoir, EPUB ed. (New York, New York: HarperVia, 2021).

[newvesselpress]

With this chilling autobiographical novel historian Cécile Desprairies probes why her mother and other family members zealously collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of France, remaining for decades afterward devotees of that evil lost cause. Review copies, translated by Natasha Lehrer, available now.

[librarycards]

five books i like: consent: a memoir by natasha lehrer, the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson, my dark vanessa by kate elizabeth russell, sunshine by robin mckinley, aaaand--the cavendish home for boys and girls by claire legrand! love this idea <3

love a creepy + uncanny list!

recs:

The Deer, Daniel Carrera

Dark Neighbourhood, Vanessa Onwuemezi

The Seas, Samantha Hunt

Bonus: also recced elsewhere but I think you'd enjoy Fantasian by Larissa Pham too!

[otherpplnation]

921. Colombe Schneck

Colombe Schneck is the author of Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories, available from Penguin Press. Translated by Lauren Elkin and Natasha Lehrer.

Schneck is documentary film director, a journalist, and the author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction. She has received prizes from the Académie française, Madame Figaro, and the Société des gens de lettres. The recipient of a scholarship from the Villa Medici in Rome as well as a Stendhal grant from the Institut français, she was born and educated in Paris, where she still lives. 

Lauren Elkin is the author of several books, including Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art and Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, The New York Times, Granta, Harper's, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among other publications. She is also an award-winning translator, most recently of Simone de Beauvoir's previously unpublished novel The Inseparables. After twenty years in Paris, she now lives in London. 

Natasha Lehrer is a writer, translator, editor, and teacher. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The Guardian, The Observer (London), The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, Frieze, and other journals. As literary editor of the Jewish Quarterly she has worked with writers including Deborah Levy, George Prochnik, and Joanna Rakoff. She has contributed to several books, most recently Looking for an Enemy: 8 Essays on Antisemitism. She has translated over two dozen books, including works by Georges Bataille, Robert Desnos, Amin Maalouf, Vanessa Springora, and Chantal Thomas. In 2016, she won the Scott Moncrieff Prize for Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger. She lives in Paris.

***

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[womenintranslation]

The notion of “double vision” is a challenge of writing any memoir — to truthfully embody both the perspective of the past and of the narrator in the present.... It is also the challenge of translation, as [Natasha] Lehrer allows. She navigates these shifting registers with subtlety and insight.... By every conceivable metric, [Vanessa Springora's] book is a triumph.

Parul Sehgal reviewing Consent: A Memoir, by Vanessa Springora, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer, in the NYTimes.