全般的なコメント: NYTimes Book Reviewなんかのエッセイより段違いにレベルの高い教養度だ。
題名(The cracked glass)も素晴らしい。 参りました。
冒頭>>> Dour talk about the trade deficit never addresses the grossly unequal patterns of cultural exchange between the United States and other countries. If the hand-wringers looked closely at the culture industries, they’d find an enormous trade imbalance that tilts the other way. Seventy-five per cent of the films shown worldwide are made in Hollywood, while the number of foreign films available in the US remains negligible. Every year translated books range between 10 and 25 per cent of total output in most European countries, while in American publishing the figure hovers around 2 per cent. ...
Take Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall, which like most American movies shown in Spain is dubbed in Spanish. Alvie Singer, Allen’s alter ego, comically reveals his paranoia when he talks about having lunch with “some guys from NBC”. He asks them, “Did you eat yet or what?” and when one answers, “No, didchoo?” Alvie feels under attack. “Not did you eat”, he later tells his friend, “but jew eat? Jew. You get it? Jew eat?”
In Spanish, however, the answer is “Sí, judías”, which can mean either “Jewish women” or “green beans”. The joke in Spanish is brilliant, but it isn’t Allen’s.