1. Amardeep Singh has an interesting discussion of Saul Bellow's Nobel Lecture, which was apparently a bit of a response to Robbe-Grillet and the nouveau roman. How much things change! Or maybe not: Henry Farrell discusses the politics of literary criticism here.
2. Vincent Henderson of Blogos has a post about transliteration in response to a William Safire On Language column that's no longer online. I point it out because it's the first time I've seen the question of the relationship between Poutine (the accepted French spelling for Putin) and putain (if you'll pardon my French) raised anywhere. I still don't know, though, how the Russian leader's name is perceived by French speakers, or how it would be perceived if spelled Putin.
3. If the French are trying to make Putin's name sound less offensive, some American censors are having fun with John Ashcroft, overdubbing his last name anywhere the word asshole appears. Maybe this will catch on?
4. In case you've forgotten, there's a whole buttload (after the last two items I couldn't resist this execrable (!) and highly offensive pun; but at least it gives me a chance to offer up buttload/boatload as yet another eggcorn example) more pictures from Abu Ghraib that have never been released and probably never will. This should make Raffi Melkonian happy.
5. And speaking of Raffi, I seem to have missed this rich post/paper of his over at Crescat (discovered so late thanks to Professor Bainbridge) about the wine-induced revolt in Southern France in 1907. Maybe Raffi will tell us his sources?
Hello.
A couple of things in response to your remarks on the W. Safire column response on Blogos.
The column is still online, but has gone into subscription mode at the NYT.
I'm puzzled when you say you still don't know how the French feel about this issue. The Blogos article explains that if they've spelled it this way it's because that's how the French spell Russian. French transliteration rules from Russian have been around for centuries. LanguageHat makes other useful points and comparisons for edification.
Why don't the English spell his name Butt-hen, and how would they feel if it was spelled this way?
Who cares? There can be no justification for the French to spell Putin any other way than Poutine, which sounds like nothing even close to putain to a French ear. That's why you've never seen that phony argument raised anywhere else before.
I get the feeling you feel you've been attacked, which is not at all what I intended... I actually agree with everything you said in your post, but still wondered, regardless of the correctness of the transliteration in French, whether it would be perceived as similiar to putain to a French ear (something you've now clarified with your comment), and also how it would be perceived if spelled as we spell it here. Sorry if this curiosity makes me an americentric simpleton or puts me in the same category as Mr. Safire -- I assure you the latter at least is actually quite rare! I will say that I hadn't read the Language Hat post before, which seems to clarify things rather more than your own...
I'll do better than hand over the sources, if you like - you can be the proud owner of the paper when done! Or I'd be happy to excerpt that part. In any case, my post was a rough draft.
Raffi -- that would be great. Thanks!
Paul,
I did indeed sound a touch over-flippant. I live in Paris, and this comment happened to be on my last round before going to bed. I tend to be susceptible when I'm tired. Not to mention when I'm French.
I'm glad you feel LanguageHat clarifies things better than my own post. I tend to see the former as simply shorter and complementary :). In any event, your eventual edification provides for a great happy ending.
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