The Aesthetic

Eleanor was a big fan of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” She read the English version of the book … eleven times. Then she fought her way through the Swedish version of the book with an English/Swedish dictionary. It took her six months of intense word-for-word translation to get through it. Then, she realized that there was a Swedish version of the movie. She flew to Sweden to see it in the theaters. Then she rented it, and ultimately purchased it in the U.S. Then came the American version of the movie — she camped in front of the theater for two days to make sure she would see it first. Then, something strange happened. As the American version went into international release, Eleanor began seeing it in other languages, sometimes hiring a translator to explain for her nuances in these new versions. She was particularly pleased with the Japanese version, which she felt was truer to the original — not the original in the book, but rather to the original in her own mind.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2012 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Numbered.