1997. Lost in Translation

In 1973 I took a class on computers. Here's a student flowchart I made then. I didn't, however, have personal access to computers until I lived w/ John Berndt & John Sheehan in 1989. I got my own computer as a present from Sarmad Brody in 1994. It was a Mac SE. This was already an 'outdated' computer by then but it was a fantastic tool for me & enabled me to save electronic copies of letters to friends that I was writing at the time. It wasn't until 1996 that I started using the internet thanks to library access. I don't even remember what my email identity was at the time - possibly Luther Blissett. In early 1997, my friend John Berndt gave me a Mac Performa wch enabled me to access the internet from home & to edit sound & burn CDs. That was huge leap forward for me. It also had translation software.

"Lost in Translation" was one of the 1st big pieces I created w/ the Performa. It was made for a performance at a festival that I organized at Chatham College called "LatinAmeriMIX!can". I enlisted the musical aid of Ben Opie (clarinet & alto sax) & Ravish Momin (percussion). I played computer - thusly dubbing myself an "HDJ" (Hard Disc Jockey). This was my 1st performance using computer as an instrument.

The text below is the edited version of what I created for the piece. It was read by various pre-fab synthesized speech voices. A primary focus of the process was how the translation programs distorted the blurbs for the Latin American literature.

 

 

Lost in Translation.

 

1. First I chose fifty-seven books by twenty-four authors. These books are either about Latin America or are by Latin Americans.

2. Then I copied excerpts from the book jackets' descriptions (mostly blurbs & reviews) of the books into a computer.

3. Since the majority of these books were originally written in either Spanish or Portuguese I then used a translation program to translate the descriptions into Spanish.

4. Deliberately leaving the problems in the translations, I then re-translated the texts back into English so that these problems would become more exaggerated & then re-re-translated them back into Spanish again to further this process. Spanish had "the last word" at this point because the translation program refused to cooperate any further. The result of this was that the male possessive pronoun "his", for example, in English, became the apparently more ambiguous "su" in Spanish. This, translated back into English, then became "their/its/your/his". Re-translated to Spanish, with the ambiguity unresolved, this became "su/su/su/su". The translation program also put plus signs in front of names & "at" symbols in front of untranslateable words, etc..

5. The result of these processes was 51 pages of text. I timed how long it took another program to read just 1 of these pages & found that it took approximately 7 minutes & 45 seconds. I then decided to edit this material so that the more prominent generative aspects of the multi-translation process would be highlighted & so that the entire result could be read by the computer in approximately 45 to 60 minutes.

6. The first section of the edit is the following list of the authors, their countries of origin (& residence), the titles of the books used, & the approximate date of the book's first publication:

 

Allende, Isabel (Chilé) - La Casa de los Espíritus (The House of the Spirits) - (1982)

Argueta, Manlio (El Salvador - exiled) - Un Día en la Vida (One Day of Life) - (1980)

Arlt, Robert (Argentina) - Los Siete Locos (The Seven Madmen) - (1929)

de Assis, Machado (Brazil) - Epitaph of a Small Winner - (1880)

Asturias, Miguel Angel (Guatemala) - El Señor Presidente - (1946)

Azuela, Mariano (Mexico) - Los de Abajo (The Underdogs) - (1915)

Bastos, Augusto Roa (Paraguay - exiled) - Yò, el Supremo (I the Supreme) - (1974?)

Borges, Jorge Luis (Argentina)

Ficciones - (1959)

Labyrinths - (1960)

Crónicas de Bustos Domecq (Chronicles of Bustos Domecq) - (1967)

(with Adolfo Bioy-Casares)

Brandão, Ignácio de Loyola (Brazil)

Zero - (1969)

Não Verás Pais Nenhum (And Still the Earth) - (1982)

Burroughs, William S. (United States of America) - The Yage Letters - (1963)

Carpentier, Alejo (Cuba) - Los Pasos Perdidos (The Lost Steps) - (1953)

Caufield, Catherine (United States of America) - In the Rainforest - (1985)

Cortázar, Julio (Argentina)

Historias de Cronopias y de Famas (Cronopios and Famas) - (1962)

Rayuela (Hopscotch) - (1963)

Todos los Fuegos el Fuego (All Fires the Fire) - (1966)

Blow-Up and Other Stories - (1967)

62: Modela Para Armar (62: A Model Kit) - (1968)

Around the Day in Eighty Worlds - (1969)

Libro de Manuel (A Manual for Manuel) - (1973)

Un tal Lucas (A Certain Lucas) - (1979)

Queremos Tanto a Glenda y Otra Realtos y Octaedro y Alquien que Anda por Ahi

(We Love Glenda So Much and A Change of Light) - (1981)

Donoso, José (Chile) - El Obsceno Pájaro de la Noche (The Obscene Bird of Night) - (1970)

Fuentes, Carlos (Mexico) - The Death of Artemio Cruz (1961)

Ibargüengoitia, Jorge (Mexico) - Dos Crímenes (Two Crimes) - (1979)

Infante, G. Cabrera (Cuba) - Tres Tristes Tigres (Three Trapped Tigers) - (1965)

Koster, R. M. (United States of America; Panama)

The Prince - The Tinieblas Trilogy - (1972)

The Dissertation - The Tinieblas Trilogy - (1975)

Mandragon - The Tinieblas Trilogy - (1979)

Llosa, Mario Vargas (Peru)

La Ciudad y los Perros (The Time of the Hero) - (1962)

La Casa Verde (The Green House) - (1965)

Los Cachorros y Los Jefes (The Cubs and Other Stories) - (1967)

Conversación en la Catedral (Conversation in the Cathedral) - (1974?)

La Guerra del Fin del Mundo (The War of the End of the World) - (1981)

La Historia de Mayta (The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta) - (1984)

¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero? (Who Killed Palomino Molero) - (1986)

El Hablador (The Storyteller) - (1989)

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia (Columbia; Mexico)

Relato de un Náufrago (The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor) - (1955)

El Coronel No Tiene Quien de Escriba y Los Funerales de la Mama Grande

(No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories) - (1962)

Cien Añon de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) - (1967)

Leaf Storm and Other Stories - (1972)

El Otoño del Patriarca (The Autumn of the Patriarch) - (1975)

El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera) - (1985)

Queiroz, Rachel de (Brazil) - Dôra, Doralina - (1975)

Sánchez, Luis Rafael (Puerto Rico) - La Guaracha del Macho (Macho Camacho's Beat)

- (1980?)

Souza, Márcio (Brazil) - The Order of the Day - An Unidentified Flying Opus - (1983)

Traven, B. (Germany; Mexico)

Das Totenschiff (The Death Ship) - (1926)

Der Schatz der Sierra Madre (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) - (1927)

Die Brucke im Dschungel (The Bridge in the Jungle) - (1927)

Die Weisse Rose (The White Rose) - (1929)

Regierung (Government) - (1931)

Der Marsch ins Reich der Caoba (March to Caobaland or March to Monteria) - (1933)

Die Rebellion der Gehenkten (The Rebellion of the Hanged) - (1936)

Sonnenschöpfung (The Creation of the Sun and the Moon) - (1936)

Ein General kommt aus dem Dschungel (General from the Jungle) - (1940)

The Night Visitor and Other Stories - (1966)

 

7. Noting that some of the proper names, when uncritically translated became words rather than names, I created the following list:

 

Isabel Allende became Isabel Beyond became Isabel Más allá de.

Clara del Valle became Clear of the Valley became Claro del Valle.

The Netherlands became la Países Bajos became the Low Countries.

Remo Ardosain became Oar Ardosain.

Augusto Roa Bastos became August Gnaws Coarse became Agosto Roe Burdo.

Bustos Domecq became Bust Domecq.

Alejo Carpentier became I Remove Carpentier became Yo Quito Carpentier.

Julio Cortázar became July Cortázar.

Famas (of "Cronopios y Famas") became Reputations.

Carlos Fuentes became Carlos Sources became Carlos las fuentes.

Marcos Gonzalez became Frameworks Gonzalez.

G. Cabrera Infante became G. Cabrera Infant became G. Cabrera El infante.

Tinieblas became Gloom.

Palomino Molero became Dove Molero.

Vera Martins became Saw Martins became La sierra Martins.

 

8. Titles, too, became interestingly transformed:

 

"Los de Abajo" became both "The Underdogs" & "The of Down" while "The Underdogs" became "Los Desvalidos" became "The Destitutes".

"The Yage Letters" became "El Yage Rotula" became "The Yage Labels" became "El Yage Etigueta".

"Todos los Fuegos el Fuego" became "All Fires the Fire" became "Todo Dispara el Incendio" became "All Disparate the Fire".

"Blow-Up and Other Stories" became "El golpe-Arriba y Otras Historias" became "The blow-Arriba and Other Histories".

"Around the Day in Eighty Worlds" [itself already a variation on Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days"] became "Alrededor el Dia en Ochenta Mundos" became "Around the Day in Eighty mixture Worlds".

"Cien Añon de Soledad" became "One Hundred Years of Solitude" [as it's most commonly known] but also "Hundred Añon of Loneliness".

"La Guaracha del Macho" became "Macho Camacho's Beat" became "Macho Camacho's de Golpe" became "Male Camacho's suddenly" became "Varón Camacho's repentinamente".

Perhaps my favorite is: "Der Schatz der Sierrra Madre" [a title with German & Spanish words] became "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" became "El Tesoro del Sierra Madre" became "The Exchequer of the Mother Saw" became "El Fisco de la Sierra Madre"! I intend to encourage people to call "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" "The Exchequer of the Mother Saw" from now on!

 

9. The following is an example of the process unedited by me:

 

Arlt, Robert (Argentina) - Los Siete Locos (The Seven Madmen) - (1929)

 

Here, for the first time in English, is a seminal masterpiece of Latin American literature: Roberto Arlt's novel, The Seven Madmen, a swirling story as vital today as when it first exploded in Buenos Aires.

Behind the flood of recent Latin American novels, behind Borges, Márquez, Fuentes, Sábato, and others, lies the work of Roberto Arlt, who died in 1942. The Seven Madmen, written in the years Joyce was bringing out Ulysses piecemeal, and first published in 1929, is a fundamental modern book. Arlt said of his novel, in one of those deft ironical ripostes artists sometimes use to deflect questions about their work, that in it he has "done nothing more than reproduce a state of anarchy latent in the breast of every misfit or crackpot."

Remo Ardosain, a bill collector, has embezzled six hundred pesos and six centavos. On the same day he is found out, his wife leaves him. Demoralized, frantic for someone to front him the money he needs to avoid jail, he falls in with a revolutionary plot led by the Astrologer, a weird and muddled fanatic. The proposed scheme - a terrorist conspiracy to help the unemployed that will lure workers to mountain stronghold factories and enslave them - is mad but plausible. For start-up capital, a chain of bordellos is proposed. To finance these, the murder of Erdosain's wife's rich cousin is planned.

But to summarize even part of the plot of this bizarre masterwork trivializes it. The book swirls, coils, sets off bombs in the mind.

The Seven Madmen has long since taken its rightful place in European letters; it has been translated into several major European languages. To publish it at last in a fine American translation is an homage to a great writer and a belated gift to English-speaking readers the world around.

 

 

Arlt, Robert (Argentina)-Los Siete Locos (Los Siete Locos)-(1929)

 

Aquí, por primera vez en el Inglés, es una obra maestra espermática de literatura latinoamericana: Roberto Arlt s de novela, Los Siete Locos, una @@swirling la historia tan vital hoy como cuando lo primera estallado en Buenos Aires.

Detrás la inundación de novelas latinoamericanas recientes, detrás Borges, Márquez, Fuentes, Sábato, y los otros, yace el trabajo de Roberto Arlt, quien murió en 1942. Los Siete Locos, escribidos en los años Joyce trajo fuera Ulysses gradualmente, y primero publicados en 1929, es un libro moderno fundamental. Arlt dijo de su novela, en uno de esos hábil irónica @@ripostes artistas a veces uso para desviar preguntas acerca su trabajo, que en lo él tiene @+hecho nada más de reproduce un estado de anarquía latente en el seno de cada persona inadaptada o @@crackpot.

Remo Ardosain, un cobrador de cuenta, ha malversado seis ciento @@pesos y seis @@centavos. Sobre el mismo día él se averigua, sus licencias de esposa lo. Desmoralizado, frenético para alguien a la frente lo el dinero él necesita para evitar cárcel, él cae en con un lote revolucionario conducido por el Astrólogo, un fanático confundido y raro. El plan propuesto-una conspiración terrorista a ayuda los desempleados que tentarán trabajadores a las fábricas de fortaleza de montaña y los esclavizan-es loca pero plausible. Para el comienzo-arriba de capital, una cadena de @@bordellos se propone. A financiar estos, el asesinato de Erdosain s de esposa s el primo rico se planifica.

Pero para resumir parte pareja del lote de este raro @@masterwork @@trivializes lo. El libro @@swirls, enrolla, conjuntos fuera bombardea en la mente.

Los Siete Locos han largos desde tomado su @@rightful lugar en cartas Europeas; se ha traducido en varios lenguas Europeas importantes. A publicar lo en última en una multa traducción de Estadounidense es un homenaje al grande escritor y un regalo atrasado a el Inglés-hablando de lectores el mundo alrededor.

 

 

++Arlt, ++Robert (Argentina)-The Seven Insane (The Seven Insane)-(1929)

 

Here, for the first time in the English, it is a work @@maestra spermatic of Latin American literature: Roberto ++Arlt s of novel, The Seven Insane, a @ @ @@swirling the so vital history today as when it first exploded in Buenos Aires.

Behind the flood of recent Latin American novels, behind Borges, ++Márquez, Sources, ++Sábato, and the others, lies the work of Roberto ++Arlt, who died in 1942. The Seven Insane, they written in the years ++Joyce brought would be ++Ulysses gradually, and first publisheded in 1929, it is a fundamental modern book. ++Arlt said of their/its/your/his novel, in one of those qualified ironical @ @ @@ripostes artists sometimes I use to divert questions about their/its/your/his work, that in it he has @ + made nothing else of reproduces a latent anarchy state in the bosom of each misfit or @ @ @@crackpot.

Oar ++Ardosain, an account collector, it has embezzled six hundred @ @ weights and six @ @ cents. On the same day he is verified, their/its/your/his wife licenses it. Demoralized, frantic for someone to the front it money he needs to avoid jail, he falls in with a revolutionary batch driven by the Astrologer, a rare and confused fanatic. The proposed plan-@@una terrorist conspiracy to ++ayuda the unemployed that will attempt workers to the factories of mountain strength and enslave them-is insane but commendable. For the beginning-@@arriba of capital, a chain of @ @ @@bordellos is proposed. To finance these, the assassination of ++Erdosain s of wife s the rich cousin is planned.

But to summarize part couple of the batch of this rare @ @ @@masterwork @ @ @@trivializes it. The book @ @ @@swirls, coils, joint would be bombed in the mind.

The Seven Insane have long from taken their/its/your/his @ @ @@rightful place in European letters; has been translated in several important European languages. To publish it in last in a fine American translation is a homage to the large writer and a gift delayed to the English-@@hablando of readers the world around.

 

 

+ + Arlt, + + Robert (Argentina)-El Siete Loco (El Siete Loco)-(1929)

 

Aquí, por primera vez en el Inglés, es un trabajo @ @ @@maestra espermático de literatura latinoamericana: Roberto + + Arlt s de novela, La Siete Loca, una @ @ @ @ @@swirling la historia tan vital hoy como cuando lo primera estallado en Buenos Aires.

Detrás la inundación de novelas latinoamericanas recientes, detrás Borges, + + Márquez, Fuentes, + + Sábato, y las otras, yace el trabajo de Roberto + + Arlt, quien murió en 1942. Los Siete Loco, ellos escribieron en los años + + Joyce traído ser + + Ulysses gradualmente, y primero @@publisheded en 1929, es un fundamental moderno reservado. + + Arlt dijo de su/ su/ su/ su novela, en uno de esos capacita irónico @ @ @ @ @@ripostes artistas a veces Yo uso para desviar preguntas acerca su/ su/ su/ su trabajo, que en lo él tiene @ + hecho nada más de reproduce un estado latente de anarquía en el seno de cada persona inadaptada o @ @ @ @ @@crackpot.

El remo + + Ardosain, un cobrador de cuenta, ha malversado seis ciento @ @ pesos y seis @ @ centavos. Sobre el mismo día él se averigua, su/ su/ su/ su esposa licencia lo. Desmoralizado, frenético para alguien a la frente lo dinero él necesita para evitar cárcel, él cae en con un lote revolucionario conducido por el Astrólogo, un fanático confuso y raro. El plano propuesto-@ @ @@una conspiración terrorista a + + @@ayuda los desempleados que intentarán los trabajadores de las fábricas de la fortaleza de montaña y esclaviza los-es loco pero meritorio. Para el principio-@ @ @@arriba de capital, una cadena de @ @ @ @ @@bordellos se propone. A financiar estos, el asesinato de + + Erdosain s de esposa s el primo rico se planifica.

Pero para resumir pareja de parte del lote de este raro @ @ @ @ @@masterwork @ @ @ @ @@trivializes lo. El libro @ @ @ @ @@swirls, espirales, la articulación se bombardearía en la mente.

El Siete Loco haber largo desde tomado su/ su/ su/ su @ @ @ @ @@rightful lugar en cartas Europeas; se ha traducido en varias lenguas Europeas importantes. A publicar lo en última en una multa traducción de Estadounidense es un homenaje al escritor grande y un regalo demoró al Inglés-@ @ @@hablando de lectores el mundo alrededor.

 

10. I like to think of this next part as being "What the Critics have Said About tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's "Lost in Translation". It's an edit combining some paragraphs from many of the blurbs of the re-translated English versions:

 

In A by day of Life-@@escrito for a Salvadoran who was forced in the exile by their/its/your/his government in the wake of this book, that it has already is publisheded in the Italy, Germany and the Low Countries-the collective voice of the people of El Salvador, terrifying and @ @ @@irrepressible, sings on of hope for the social justice in the future.

But to summarize part couple of the batch of this rare @ @ @@masterwork @ @ @@trivializes it. The book @ @ @@swirls, coils, joint would be bombed in the mind.

++Miquel ++Asturias it was rewarded the ++Nobel of Premium for the Literature in 1967. Their/its/your/his other projects include: The Green Pope, ++Mulatta @ @ of Such, Men @ @ of ++Mais, and The Week-++Fin @ @ in Guatemala. In 1962, President Sir received an Ibero-American Novel Premium from The ++William ++Faulkner from Foundation.

Latin America has seen, time and again, the increase of dictators, the Supreme Leaders @@poseyeron of the absolute power dream, who sought to impose their/its/your/his insane visions of Perfect Order on their/its/your/his own peoples. The Latin American writers, at the same time, they have answered with fictitious portraits of such figures, and not novel in this @ @ @@genre is so universally estimated as August Gnaws Coarse I the Supreme, a book that takes advantage of and @ @ @@reimagines the career of the man who was chosen the Supreme Dictator for the Life in the Paraguay in 1814.

These short Fiction has to is read one at a time, and slowly; then they throb with supernatural and frequenting power. A strange and formidable writer, Mr. Borges is also a magisterial stylist-@@parejo in the translation.

The real target of[ the authors] @ + to deride frequently noisy is the modernism-@@o the part than what jealously pursues in a way pure theories in the Cloud-Cuckoo-Earth. The result, that ++Domecq never perceives, it is invariably monstrous: the novels and poems that they can not @ + be read, art that it can not deals, the architecture-@@liberada from the responsibility demands-that ++puede @ + be used....With @ @ @@donnish humor and unfailing intelligence, Bust Chronicles ++Domecq advances a @ @ @@rapier in such gigantic posing. -The Time

ZERO is the trip of a revolutionary, search for the freedom, joint on a collision course with Death Squads of government. A terrifyingly to exempt novel filled ++Brasileña with the grotesque and the rare deep revelations and the funny parody, ZERO is frequenting an the affront work and terrifying truth.

In the ++Rainforest is, before all, a book on of people. The @ @ @@rainforest has their/its/your/his beauties and the fascinations, yes; and the ways their/its/your/his resources @ + being squandered and destroyed are tragic; but even more so it is the low crumbling of India tribes or the misery of the mislaid @ @ @@transmigrant colonizing. The book areas in the problems of the locality and the wrong planning mixture, greed, corruption and simple bad administration that the @ + compound. ++Caufield gives admirable @ @ @@vignettes of local experiences, a polished journalistic treatment. When she is described their/its/your/his meetings and discussion with indigenous tribes of the Amazon, a pioneer farmer in Costa Rica or a rafter in the Philippines, she is in her better. Their/its/your/his book is @ @ @@refreshingly free of jargon or irritating @ + stylistic peculiarity.

This book is a golden nettle. Those who the blow in it carefully and @+be pike brought still far tiny splinters of pure gold. Those who @ @ @@gallantly to seize will find yes same in new dimensions of thought, observing with the nonchalance and confused fear of bright childhood, nearby, funny-@@tristes, wonderful, sometimes mess, sometimes I dream terrible-successions of their/its/your/his world.

Here it is a new histories collection by July ++Cortázar, the Argentine writer whose last book, 62: A Set of Model, was described in the Times of New York Reserved the Review as a deeply touching, agreeable novel, @ @ @@beautifully written and @ @ @@fascinatingly mysterious....Realizes[ ++Cortázar s] desire of finding manners freer and new of organization in the fiction. All Disparate the Fire is the sixth work of ++Cortázar s of fiction to be published in the America, and creates again their/its/your/his special @ @ @@mindscape, beyond the space and linear thought time.

From the progress knows-no-límites, in Spain they sells packages that contain thirty-two of party cases (the tapers, as them say), each of the fact that exhibitions the striking reproduction of a complete set of chess.

The life has delivered me screwing an. So radical young Frameworks ++Gonzalez, alias that of Black, frequently regretted. More he was to learn it rapid than one of thing could obtain it in the problem deeper than their/its/your/his political. The women. The policy had made @ @ @@hima fugitive, bullfight for their/its/your/his life from the Mexico City policemen to the household of a rich uncle in a provincial people. But three women-@@cada with irresistible captivations-would trap it in a hazardous game of @ @ @@gredd and passion, deceit and @ @ @@counterbluff, where nothing was as seemed...the except assassination.

Strong ++Camilo decides to fulfil their/its/your/his ++Ph.THE D. of requirement writing on their/its/your/his father, Strong ++Léon, the martyred Gloom president, a country in Latin America. Each women generation in the family has seduced the Gloom leaders that jumps to give the birth to the son who will order the country. Finally, they triumph in ++Léon, who twists their/its/your/his path twisted through the delinquency, learning, bravery, and incest to the presidency. The @ @ @@endnotes are especially noisy, narrating ++Camilo disquieted s marriage and explorations in that of here in forward.

There is life here, the modern life counted in a new way, powerful and new but not new-@ + fang. The conversation in the Cathedral, more considerably, more profoundly than ++García ++Márquez s One Hundred Loneliness Years, it is the large and the crucial book of an era that a by day is @ + seen as mastered by Hispanic-++Estadounidense of writers.

In the remote Brazilian @ @ @@backlands was ++Canudos-hogar to all the damned of the land, to prostitutes, freaks, bandits, beggar, and the most wretched of the poor. And was the paradise, a Utopian state driven by an apocalyptic prophet, a place without the hunger, money, property, taxes, or marriage. And so, in 1897, the Brazilian government decreed must @ + be destroyed.

The life in ++Macondo is filled with mysteries and the miracles. Some are so old as manned itself and somehow easier to understand: the strange death purpose, the furious activity that swells up around the prosperity and then disappears as well as suddenly as wine. The others are almost incredibly fantastic: a man that loosen from the skies, a left transformation, a death that brings people together as the life never could. Probable or fantastic, mystery or the miracle, inspires ++cada wonder in the people of ++Macondo and the reader. The feeling one comes far with, @ + said The Mail of Washington, it is one of the enchantment, that it is a sense of having endured terror and magic. The Christian Science Monitor called LEAF ASSAULTS Wild, funny, @ @ @@surreal...A palatable @ @ @@potpourri of first-@@valor South American @ @ @@gothic.

The life is a phenomenal thing... A pop tune jumps to the life in Puerto Rico. Multiplied to the infinity by the radios radiance, television, and record player, their/its/your/his refrain, the Life is a @ @ @@phenomenol the thing, @ @ @@frontwards or @ + toward back, however You balance, apprehension the island. Their/its/your/his apprehensions suddenly us too, and propels us through the island, touching down on a family only-@@un @ @ for-American of senator caught in a gigantic traffic jam on their/its/your/his way to an assignment with their/its/your/his black Mrs.; their/its/your/his aristocratic wife who, waiting for him, spends their/its/your/his time in an analyst s of sofa; their/its/your/his right-@@vuela quite terrorist son literally in the love with their/its/your/his ++Ferrari; and the Mrs. who inhabits other world poorer with their/its/your/his idiot child, the three cousins (++Huey, ++Dewey, and ++Louie), and their/its/your/his friend ++Doña ++Chon.

++CHUPA-CHUPA of Things heated up in the Amazon jungles. Saw ++Martins, Ministry of the Agriculture agent assigned to ++Parintins, had bullfight in an old lover with an immediate resumption of @ @ @@amorous activities. And the @ @ @@natives of this steamy tropical village had experimented a terrifying encounter with the foreign sucked blood. In this case the intruders were ++Chupa-chupa from @ @ @@outer space, not the United States. In spite of the evidence científica-y the involvement of the KGB and the CIA-the incidence @ + be covered up by the Brazilian government. Saw, however, it was determined to expose the truth on the strange disappearances, the deaths, figures-from-the-@@muerto, and an ++ET inspired blow d @ @ état. Turned out to be it a @ @ @@hilariously funny, sharp-@@la sharpened satire on the power and political, intrigue and the absurdity mixed with a @ @ blow sauce.

The principle as a form of humorous satire on the bureaucracy of government and the passports absurdity, rises in a powerful sea-@ @ @@fantasia and end as an ++MOBY ++DICK of the @ @ @@stokehold....Toward the extraordinary climax of the book, their/its/your/his rough virile style becomes a perfect torrent of @ + to stab description and vivid nightmare.

It is the topic of greed and gold that masters the history of B. ++Traven s The Exchequer of the Mother Saw, a history of the inexorable moral crumbling of three men infected by the lust for easy wealth. It is a book with certain @ + small peculiarity, their/its/your/his sometimes taut dialogue, their/its/your/his author s of philosophy-@ @ @@antibourgeois, @ @ @@anticlerical, @ @ antibureaucratic-sesgada and narrow. But the super novel these trends; B. ++Traven it is too good a writer to be @ @ @@sidetracked for @ @ @@idiosyncracies. The characterizations of the three men and the qualified representation of the tension @ + to mount among them are the work of an important writer.

The @ @ @@locale is huts by the river, a deep anonymous of Indian arrangement in the Mexican bush, too small to appear on any map. As well as a party that it has attracted many Indian from neighboring arrangements been about to begun, the death marched silently in. A small boy has disappeared and, gradually, as the intimation from the tragedy expansions among the people gathered in the jungle clarifying, they join, first to help @ + to find the lost boy and then to console afflicting it mother.

Of course the reader needs to know nothing the ++Wobblies or philosophical anarchism to enjoy these histories only, that they can serve as an introduction to the projects as ++Traven. Here they are young Gale looms-++Traven explored Mayan ruins; of a luxuriant cowboy-the Gales that drive cattle through Mexico; of a @ @ @@testy but Dr. the secure Gales that help a coiled underground revolutionary. Here it is some @ @ @@storyteller who loves to write on @ @ @@everything, from daily trifles to the eternal veracities. He describes @ @ @@calves that it repays human kindness, a dog that appreciates friendship, an Indian who weaves dreams deprive in the matter of their/its/your/his baskets, and the Indians who know simply why they @ @ sir t want be converted to the Cross. In their/its/your/his long history, ++Macario, ++Traven gives a New World twist to the old ++Faustian topic; the hungry ++Macario, who sometimes earns as much as two bits a day in @ @ @@woodcutting, it is a universal figure faced Old Man Death. The Mexican movie of ++Macario earned ten international movie premiums, and the history is one of the finest New World folkloric tales in our literature.

 

11. A free-wheeling distillation of the preceding is as follows:

 

In A by day of Life-@@escrito Low Countries to summarize part couple of the batch of this rare @ @ @@masterwork @ @ @@trivializes it. The book @ @ @@swirls, coils, joint would be bombed in the mind rewarded the ++Nobel of Premium insane visions of Perfect Order on their/its/your/his magisterial stylist-@@parejo in the translation to deride frequently noisy is the modernism-@@o the part than what jealously pursues in a way pure theories in the Cloud-Cuckoo-Earth and the rare deep revelations and the funny so it is the low crumbling of India tribes or the misery of the mislaid @ @ @@transmigrant who the blow in it carefully and @+be pike special @ @ @@mindscape, beyond the space and linear thought that contain thirty-two of party cases (the tapers, as them say) screwing an martyred Gloom president in a new way, powerful and new but not new-@ + fang was ++Canudos-hogar to all the damned of the land as manned itself and somehow easier to understand: the strange death purpose, the furious activity that swells up around the prosperity and then disappears as well as suddenly as wine jumps to the life in bullfight in an old lover with an immediate resumption and the passports absurdity, rises in a powerful sea-@ @ @@fantasia and end as an ++MOBY ++DICK of the @ @ @@stokehold.... Exchequer of the Mother Saw party that it has attracted many Indian from neighboring arrangements been about to begun, the death marched silently in the ++Wobblies or philosophical anarchism to enjoy these histories only.

 

12. Further confusing comprehensibility is the program that phoneticizes these texts without "understanding" what's being said - making sure we become further Lost in Translation.

 

13. Finishing off this Latin AmeriMIX!can are simultaneous musical excerpts from various Latin American sources which are subjected to similar de- & re- generative processes.

 

The recordings sampled from (or used in their entirety) are:

 

"Pan in A Minor" from the Steel Bands of Trinidad and Tobago CD by an uncredited Steel Band

"We Can Make It" (1988) from the Roots, Rock, Soca CD by Black Stalin (Trinidad)

"Mr. Walker (calypso)" from the West Indies - An Island Carnival CD

- performed by an unnamed Cocoa-lute Duet in Grenada (the Cocoa-lute being a mouth-bow)

"Seven Skeletons Found in the Yard" from the Calypso Breakaway 1927-1941 CD

- performed by Lord Executor (Trinidad?)

"Oígame Juanita" from the In Praise of Oxalá and Other Gods - Black Music of South America LP

- performed by an unnamed group in Ecuador (using a leaf (hoja) as a melody instrument)

"No. 5 Tiempo de Son" from "Two Ritmicas" (1930) from the Concert Percussion for Orchestra LP

- composed by Amadeo Roldán (Cuba)

- performed by The Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, Paul Price conducting

"La Cucaracha" from the La Cucaracha "Songs of the Mexican Revolution" LP

- performed by Cuco Sanchez and Dueto America (Mexico)

"Tanguedia III" from the Tango: Zero Hour / Nuevo Tango: Hora Zero LP - composed by Astor Piazzolla & performed by Astor Piazzolla and the New Tango Quintet (Argentina)

"Mary Ann" from the Steel Drums LP - performed by The Native Steel Drum Band (Trinidad?)

"Yawar" from the Legend of the Jivaro LP - composed by Moises Vivanco & performed by Yma Sumac (Peru?)

"Nago Rhythms" from the Voodoo Ceremony in Haiti LP

"Cantata para América Mágica" (1960) from the LP probably of the same name

- composed by Alberto Ginastera (Argentina) & performed by The Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble

Flaco Jiménez performing a song in the movie "Chulas Fronteras" (Tex-Mex)

"Sweet Trinidad" from the Discover America LP - composer unknown to me (presumed to be Trinidadian)

- performed by Van Dyke Parks (USA)

"Soria Moria" (1968) from the New Music from South America for Chamber Music LP

- composed by Gerardo Gandini (Argentina)

"Divertimento III" (1967) from the New Music from South America for Chamber Music LP

- composed by Cesar Bolaños (Perú)

"Tropicale" (1968) from the New Music from South America for Chamber Music LP

- composed by Marlos Nobre (Brazil)

"Sonogramas" (1963) from the New Music from South America for Chamber Music LP

- composed by Oscar Bazän (Argentina)

"Diptico I" (1969) from the New Music from South America for Chamber Music LP

- composed by Manuel Enriquez (Mexico)

"Penetrations II" (1969) from the New Music from South America for Chamber Music LP

- composed by Alcides Lanza (Argentina)

(the preceding 6 selections all performed by The New Sound Composers/Performers Group

- conducted by Alcides Lanza)

All of the La Region del Mesterio cassette - composed & performed by Antonio Zepeda (Mexico):

"When It was Still Dark"

"Undulating Serpents of Water"

"Must I Leave the Beautiful Flowers"

"The Dust of Nothingness"

"Yesterday is not Today and Today will not be Tomorrow"

"Flowers of the Wind"

"Voices from Xibalbá"

"Obsidian Butterfly"

"The Sad Iguana and the Lord of Time"

 

- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (March, 1997E.V.)

 

 

 

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