{"id":9515,"date":"2016-03-14T20:09:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T00:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=9515"},"modified":"2016-03-14T20:09:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T00:09:31","slug":"episode-159-burton-pike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-159-burton-pike","title":{"rendered":"Episode 159 – Burton Pike"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"25540193895_62b4490de7_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Virtual Memories Show #159:
\nBurton Pike<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_159_-_Burton_Pike.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“When you translate, you are digging into not so much the psyche of the author but the psyche of the author’s use of language.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"51EULu1tNBL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/a>Translator and emeritus literature professor Burton Pike<\/a> joins the show to talk about his lifetime in the arts, the musicality and rhythm of language, the experience of translating early Proust, whether national literature departments are an outdated concept, the peculiarities of various Swiss ethnicities, how his dream project — Musil’s The Man Without Qualities<\/a> — fell into his lap, and more! Give it a listen<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“The Man Without Qualities is written not from a literary but a scientific point of view. It’s predicated on the fact that everything changes and nothing stays stable. And of course that includes this novel itself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We also talk about the joys of hitchhiking across Europe in the ’50s, the reasons he came to New York and the reasons he stays, the disappearance of high German culture — Goethe, Schilling, et al. — from postwar Germany, the problems with Moncrieff’s fruity translation of Proust, his objection to calling Die Verwandlung<\/em> The Metamorphosis<\/em>, and more! Go listen!<\/a><\/p>\n

“When a German is in sight, Swiss Germans revert to their native patois, because they’re horrified that they’ll be taken for German. The French look down on French Swiss and Belgians, of course, because they’re not French. The Swiss French, their faces are glued to the window pane of France. And the Italian Swiss? They’re perfectly happy and at home and have no problem.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_159_-_Burton_Pike.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, if you want to find out who Burton is reading nowadays and get a list of the books we talked about in this episode, join our Patreon<\/a> and become a monthly contributor to The Virtual Memories Show!<\/em> At the end of March, the new episode of our patron-only podcast, Fear of a Square Planet<\/a>, will go up with a bonus segment about who he’s\u00a0reading and why.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the conversation!<\/a>\u00a0Then check out\u00a0the archives<\/a>\u00a0for more great episodes! You might like:<\/p>\n