Around the novels of the great American Thomas Pynchon there is a stable legend that they cannot be translated. But what is there to translate - they are not amenable to simple export outside America: even an English reader understands them with difficulty and, frankly, does not like them too much - let alone speakers of other languages. The experience of the Russian reader so far confirms this legend: Pynchon's Russian translations range from average to tragically bad. In the case of the writer’s last book for today, Bleeding Edge (in the original Bleeding Edge), there was a glimmer of hope - compared to the epoch-making and overwhelming Gravity’s Rainbow, this novel looks a little more understandable and light (well, as far as the word “light” can generally be attributed to the work of this author). However, hopes are not destined to come true: the galaxy of Russian translations of Pynchon, which are not subject to any application, has been replenished with one more copy.
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American writer based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of fiction. Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon spent two years in the United States Navy and earned an English degree from Cornell University. After publishing several short stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began composing the novels for which he is best known today: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), and Against the Day (2006).
So, the first thing you need to understand about the Russian edition of The Edge is that you can’t read it in isolation from the original, and, in general, it’s pointless to complete it with the original. Translator Maxim Nemtsov set himself a rather bizarre task - to make Pynchon's Russian text as difficult for the Russian reader as the original text is for the American reader, and he brilliantly exceeded this task. In this difficult task, he was helped by unmotivated literalisms, gross violence against Russian syntax, an abundance of inappropriate slang words and language cripples, and most importantly, a fatal unwillingness to at least interpret and explain something. Brace yourselves: on page three, you'll find the passage "Warp McElmo, gliding down the porch through the crowd, longer than necessary, from the West Coast fifa, Maxine sees. Vyrva is lala, but not even close to being obsessed with time. Others are known to be stripped of their Upper West Side Mom's credentials much faster than she can get away with it." Even if at this moment you do not give up the idea of continuing your acquaintance with the novel, immediately switch to the English text - it is complex, but unlike the Russian translation, it is at least clear what to google.
In order not to reduce the conversation about the novel to a conversation about its translation, it is worth noting that The Edge is, as always with Pynchon, a complex game with genre literature, and this time a detective story about a private detective is at the epicenter of his literary amusements. The heroine Maxine Tarnow (actually Tarnow, but what now), the quivering Jewish mother of two teenage sons, due to the machinations of her ex-husband, lost her license as a certified anti-fraud auditor and now runs a small agency investigating in the same sphere. One of Maxine's long-standing clients brings her a curious case - a computer company with the ugly name "heshevarzy" (that's right, with a small letter) and its mysterious director Gabriel Mroz (in the original Ice) are obviously messing up something with reporting and other documents. Maxine gets to work and soon finds out that the hashwarz is not just a large computer security firm, but the real focus of a global conspiracy with obscure dark goals. From that moment on, the paranoid spring begins to unwind with great speed: one of Maxine's informants dies (in fact, from the very blade that is present in the English version of the name, but lost in Russian), the plot is overgrown with ominous details, aliens from another time, not aliens, but as a cherry on the cake, the time of the novel is the summer of 2001, the scene is New York, and the twin towers are still peacefully standing in their place in the center of Manhattan ... Well, then you yourself understood, I guess.
Pynchon is regarded by many readers and critics as one of the finest contemporary authors. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Both his fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, styles, and themes, including (but not limited to) the fields of history, science and mathematics. Pynchon is also known for his avoidance of personal publicity: very few photographs of him have ever been published, and rumours about his location and identity have been circulated since the 1960's.
However, I repeat, your chances to get through the text offered to the Russian reader by the translator and find out how the matter ends are negligible. According to Maxim Nemtsov, the only authority to which the translator is responsible is not the reader, but exclusively the author, who must be kept as faithful as possible at any cost, including by making the reader hurt, unpleasant and unbearable. It is likely that some of the readers will be consoled by the realization that his torment is not accidental, but is full of deep meaning and is carried out in strict accordance with a well-thought-out translation concept, but I am afraid that the circle of these tolerant lucky ones is not too wide. In short, the meaning of the Russian version of "Bleeding Edge" is about the same as the English text, only typed in Russian letters. Perhaps, over time, translators and publishers will be able to provide the novel with a detailed commentary and explication, and then it will sound somehow different (for example, it will acquire some meaning), but until then, do not waste money and time: if Pynchon, then only the original , Amazon only. And don't forget the invaluable treasure trove of information on the PynchonWiki site - it makes a lot of things much clearer.
This article was sponsored by Evgenia Kondrashina
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