SV: Swedes and character names in strange languages

[Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr.]

Lars Jensen <lpj at forfatter.dk> wrote:

> Sigvald, sometimes I think you go around
> looking for reasons to be insulted.

Or let's say chanses of getting rid of some old irritation.


> As a historian, you must know that Yugoslavia
> in the 1970s was part of the East Bloc...

It was a neutral country, and thus not a part of the Warzaw-pact. It was
however as you correctly a communist country and thus at some will say "the
wrong side of the iron curtain".


> and thus (by Western countries) hardly was
> perceived to be a country in its own right.
> That the book even mentioned the names in
> "Yugoslavian", rather than the language of
> some Western country, is a small (positive)
> surprise in itself.

Or a proof that the Italian redaction was more aware of their neighbouring
countries than Scandinavia.


>> Well let me just tell all Swedes this: for
>> Norwegian and I bet also Danish readers of
>> any age, Asian "rubble" is definitely *not*
>> as interesting as Swedish names!
>
> You'd lose that bet.

Why? Have you asked every Dane or every Norwegian about that???


> I was very interested by Rich Bellacera's list
> of characters in the "Disney Character names
> in Chinese" thread. Looking at it, I see such
> favorites of mine as Fethry Duck and Madam Mim
> are mentioned - implying (to me, at least) that
> stories featuring them are being printed in
> China.

OK, and the lack of a Portuguese or was is a "Spanish" name for Drakeborough
tells me that some readctions haven't published some of Don Rosa's stories
yet. But this is not why I look in such list of Character's names anyway.


> That's *much* more interesting to me than what
> the name of, say, Daisy Duck is in Sweden - I
> already know stories featuring her are being
> used all over Scandinavia, so what information
> could I get out of knowing her Swedish name?

You seem to forget that I was 10-12 years old at the time I first got "Jeg,
Mikke Mus", by then I was very interested to know the Swedish names, but I
didn't have the internet to help me...



> Personally, I'm puzzled by why you would fault
> the Swedish editorial group in the 1970s for
> something the *Norwegian* editorial group of
> that time failed to do - namely include the
> Swedish names in the Norwegian edition. Care
> to explain why?

Just that the interest, shown by people with Swedish names, for Rick's topic
triggered a two and a half decade old irritation of mine.


> Also, I'm puzzled by the line you draw from
> the Swedish 1970s editorial group to today's
> Swedish members of the DCML, blaming the
> latter for the former's (alleged) mistakes:

That was not for offending andybody - it was (I guess) just for justifying
my complaints of the list in a book printed more than 25 years ago.


> As you probably know, the Barks story
> "Lost in the Andes!" (about the square eggs)
> underwent a not-too-well-received second
> translation when it was used in the Norwegian
> 1974 "Jeg, Donald Duck" book. Using your
> own logic, I'm going to blame *you* for that
> fiasco. On behalf of *serious* Donaldists
> everywhere I expect to get an apology from you
> regarding that mess.

You seem to have completely misunderstand my logic.

1) The second Norwegian translation was "a problem" for Norwegians only.

2) I haven't given you any reason to assume I support the attitudes behind
that second translation.

3) In my posting I din't ask anyone to apologize for the missing languages
in "Jeg, Mikke Mus".


> Oh, and calling languages you don't understand
> "rubble" is utter nonsense.

I was *not* calling oher languages "rubble" - I was adressing strange
alphabets and signs *only* as rubble. So if you wrote me a message in Danish
or in English but were using let's say the Arab alphabet I'd seen it as
"rubble" to.

Sigvald :-)