Little Brother German fan-translation

Christian Wohrl undertook a German fan-translation of my novel Little Brother, working on his daily train-commute. He's just finished the work and posted "version 1" on his site. The whole text is CC licensed, of course!

"Little Brother" auf Deutsch (Thanks, Christian!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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cwoehrl

Kleinzeit,
sorry for almost missing your reply :-(

No, it wouldn’t. The original line is “Freedom is something you have to take for yourself.” Now let’s add the equivalent of a “dass”:

“Freedom is something *so that* you have to take (it) for yourself.” That’s obviously something different.

The “das” isn’t required in English, but if we wanted to add it, the line would read “Freedom is something *which* you have to take for yourself”. That’s not elegant English, but at least it keeps the original meaning.

Actually in this context it’s not an article but, I’m almost sure, a “Relativpronomen”.
CaptHaddock

Thx a lot Christian, and Cory, of course. As far as i can tell, this is a pretty good translation, sure beats fan-translations of other books i’ve read. (Haven’t read the original, but finished the german version.)

I have to say that ‘Little Brother’ is way more radical than i would have expected it to be. Very interesting read for a ‘children’s book’. It makes me wonder why most children’s books are either non-political, or, if they are, are moralist and comparatively boring. This books is the proof it doesn’t have to be that way.

But maybe I’ve just not read enough of them. Anyway, great read.
cwoehrl

Thanks Cory for so prominently featuring this here, and thank you all for the encouraging and enthusiastic feedback here and over at my site!

@#7, I completely share your feelings about LB being radical. When first reading it, I even felt the waterboarding part to be somewhat over the top, but after the umpteenth re-reading I think it fits in. And yes, we need more political kids stuff like that, to counter hysteria as well as indifference.

@#6, where’s the misuse here? I’m pretty sure the tagline is correct like that, at least according to “Neue Rechtschreibung”, even though I’m still in mourning for the friendly “Du”…
eins78

GroÃŸartig! WunderschÃ¶n!
Endlich mal wieder ein Fetzen Deutsch auf BoingBoing und eine perfekte Ausrede um auf Deutsch zu kommentieren ;)
Danke Cory.
Kleinzeit

Freiheit ist etwas, daÃŸ Du Dir nehmen muÃŸt.

Methinks…? I’m surprised none of your German friends has commented yet; they’re usually pretty pedantic about the misuse of their own language.
Kleinzeit

#8, CWoehrl: Even according to the Neue Rechtsschreibung it would still be “dass” (that) and not “das” (the neuter article), wouldn’t it?
elNico

Alle Achtung, Christian…ein beeindruckendes Projekt.

Train-commuting seems to send some people into productivity overdrive…great work!
mercurytransit

schamlose Eigenwerbung dienen.
minimalniemand

hÃ¤tte mir “little brother” auch auf englisch gekauft … aber dann auf deutsch & for free? nice one!
DustinFreeman

It’s a fanslation!