More amusing linguistic snafus here. Funny, I tell you.
Stikkord: non-fiction
Broken English Spoken Perfectly
A collection of examples of that which we know as Engrish, but with a mostly Scandinavian origin. My favourite was from «A hotel in Vienna» and literally made me laugh til I cried:
In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
(I couldn’t help imagining a porter with a particular affinity for horror movies, who would naturally be more difficult than the average person to «alarm».)
All in all: Funny.
Typisk norsk
Det er jo hyggelig å få ting man ønsker seg til jul. Jeg kom aldri så langt som til å se på Typisk norsk på TV, men boka er jo litt mer brukervennlig i og med at man ikke er avhengig av å først finne ut og så huske et spesiellt tidspunkt på akkurat det tidspunktet og være i nærheten av en tv. Sånt er jo bare pes. Boka derimot kan man for eksempel plukke opp når man spiser frokost eller bare tilfeldigvis har noen ledige minutter.
Og det har jeg altså gjort.
Man kan vel si at jeg nå vet langt mer om norsk språkhistorie enn jeg gjorde før jul. Ikke at det egentlig skulle så mye til, selvsagt, og mye av det jeg nå vet har jeg sannsynligvis glemt igjen snart (med en hjerne som lekker som en sil blir det gjerne sånn). Men da kan jeg jo lese boka om igjen. For den var riktig så underholdende. Det var vel kanskje særlig alt «ekstramaterialet» som var underholdende, med det kan man jo også lese igjen. Boka inneholder nemlig, foruten språkhistorie fra unionsoppløsningen til i dag delt inn i tiår, bokstavenes historie, ords opprinnelse, forsøk på gjenoppliving av gamle ord og «Folkets ordbok» som kanskje var noe av det mest fornøyelige, der var det nemlig svært mye nyttig. «Automagisk» har jeg vel hatt i mitt aktive ordforråd en stund, men arrogasme («den nærmest sanselige gleden man kan ha av å plassere en velformulert (men ganske arrogant) replikk på riktig sted til rett tid) for eksempel var en praktisk nyhet.
Boka kan altså i høyeste grad anbefales, og jeg har store planer om å prøve å få med meg i hvert fall ett eller to av programmene i den nye serien. Og så var det å melde seg inn i kjell-bevegelsen, da.
Without Reservations – Alice Steinbach
I enjoyed Without Reservations, though I think the title is a bit misguiding – Steinbach actually makes plenty of reservations in advance in the «books a place to stay» sense, so the pun doesn’t really work. However, she is pleasant company, and it’s quite refreshing to read travelogues by women, even in this day and age women seem to be less apt to travel on their own than men.
Reading Lolita in Tehran
I’d been half-heartedly searching for Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran ever since I saw it at Malmö train station in May (didn’t buy it there because it was ridiculously priced and we already had too much luggage). Found it in Ottakars in Elgin (after we – on our tenth visit or so to the town – found that Elgin had an Ottakars completely by chance, but that’s another story), and of course had to begin it pretty promptly.
The main point of departure for the book is a reading group Nafisi started after she had to stop teaching at the university in Tehran following various changes introduced as a result of the revolution. She and her girls read novels that are forbidden, or at least frowned upon, by the regime and their discussions of and reaction to the novels and authors, provides an interesting contrast to the snippets of memoirs of the actual political situation and how it affects their lives. As regards the politics, Nafisi’s account is both critical and sympatetic at the same time, which makes it more interesting than the majority of the commentaries I’ve read before.
It’s pretty much as interesting as expected, with a few unlookedfor side-effects. Half-way through I had to find my post-it index tabs and start marking the places I’ll want to refer to later. I’ve been wanting to start seriously looking at my studies – most specifically this doctoral thesis I was planning to write at some point – again anyway, being in an academic atmosphere is catching obviously, but this book certainly provided fuel for that particular flame.
A book to be recommended if you are at all interested in the study of literature, and probably also if you’re just interested in an intellectual (dare I say: intelligent) view of the Iranian regime from «the inside».