Week in my life vlog: Iceland & books by women in translation

[@casskrug]

orlanda has been on my tbr ever since i read orlando - i didn’t realize it was written by the author of i who have never known men!! need to get my hands on copies of both of those books. “in my ravenous state i am overwhelmed” FELT this big time 😭

[@bibliosophie]

you should read it!! i can’t speak for the translation, but i had a great time with it

[@disisally]

not to be corny but watching your videos is like being on a phone call with a friend. it's delightful how geniune you are in speaking about books and other things

[@bibliosophie]

that absolutely delights! thank you for leaving this comment! 🥺

[@disisally]

@@bibliosophie of course! being perceived is excruciating so I thought this might put a temporary balm on any self-doubt or self-consciousness ☀️ or at any rate satiate your curiosity about how others perceive you haha

[@bibliosophie]

@@disisally always curious about it!!

[@joelharris4399]

What a splendid sight to see you in merriment during your Icelandic adventures. The bare rocks; the green fields squirting the countryside; the hot springs smooching your skin; you wading in the water. Ahhh, looks and feels like a fever dream Works in translations are once again finally getting their due, and rightfully so📚

[@bibliosophie]

@@joelharris4399 do you have favorite translated texts?

[@joelharris4399]

@@bibliosophie Glad you asked Sophie. I am reading one at present, actually: Don Quixote, the John Rutherford translation. What a read! I am wholly absorbed, taken to highlighting and marginalia🧡

[@nathansnook]

we will be in talks! loved your thoughts on music as a matter at once existent and non-existent. though it's not my favorite Lispector, it's one i'm still thinking about. mostly because it's just like what you said: "it's not that she is exhausting in herself, she makes me exhausting to myself." i'm tired of myself! but here, i connect so deeply because all of her thoughts are deep tissues and scars for me. and eep! new Baltasar!!! need to run to it!

[@bibliosophie]

@@nathansnook ooh ok deep tissues and scars 🤍 i owe you another round of whatsapp answers lol - but it is tiring to think about! it’s tiring to think! i want to be a modest sea cucumber!

[@julie.k15]

off topic but the Kafka shirt and the leopard hoop earrings looked stunning together!! read boulder a few weeks ago so maybe I should give mammoth a go:) thx for sharing ur thoughts as always

[@bibliosophie]

@@julie.k15 thank you!! 😊 i definitely recommend you check out mammoth!

[@asiamasia01]

recently ive been ignoring my youtube recommended but im glad this one caught my attention!!!! subscribed almost immediately loved the video thanks for sharing

[@bibliosophie]

@@asiamasia01 hello and welcome! i’m very pleased to hear this!

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

I may try a Lispector! I’ve read some short stories and enjoyed them, but I’m not a short story person, so I think I’ll give it a try! I’m glad to be reminded about Harpman!

[@bibliosophie]

@@thelefthandedreader6632 woohoo! do you know what you’d like to read?

[@blabbinglobster]

I was in Iceland at the same time you were! It's magical, isn't it? ❤

[@bibliosophie]

absolutely!!

[@courtenaywrites]

For me, I felt Mammoth was completely different from her other works. I don't see a similarity at all, and it's actually become my favourite of hers.

[@bibliosophie]

ooh, that's very interesting to me! in what ways do you think they diverge? did you feel that boulder and permafrost were similar to one another? now i want to peel through my own thoughts to figure out if i'm simply imposing a similarity between the protagonists, and why i might be. all three books have felt like they were approaching different facets of living within/without society, and of "living" as a raw, physical reality versus a social/intellectual narrative

[@courtenaywrites]

@@bibliosophie I see them all as completely different stories, though I am inclined to agree that Boulder and Permafrost can be similar. Mammoth feels like a folk tale: far less sparse than her other books. However, as a whole, all the books stand on their own for me!

[@bibliosophie]

@@courtenaywrites funny, i think of them as distinct and yet made up of largely the same matter. i imagine our conception of the boundary between what’s discrete and what’s fundamentally similar is different. i like yr description of mammoth as a folk tale - i can definitely see this, too

[@courtenaywrites]

@@bibliosophie I guess it’s because they are three different books. I’m not sure I subscribe to the idea of linking them by theme? To think of an example, you could say Dracula and Twilight are the same because they both discuss vampires? Does that make sense?

[@bibliosophie]

@@courtenaywrites they are indeed 3 different books, and i do think of them that way. i also think of them as dealing with similar themes in a similar way with a recognizable writerly voice, so that’s why they exist for me both as 3 separate objects and also simultaneously as a body of work that feels very harmonized arguably, any writer’s bibliography can be considered this way, but i think some bibliographies are more homogeneous than others

[@Mapletron]

Sophie, so nice to see normalizing of mask-wearing on transit.

[@bibliosophie]

love to see this comment, tbh!

[@mddelphis]

Frábærar minningar: Ég elska myndirnar þínar af Íslandi...

[@bibliosophie]

@@mddelphis 🐑🌋🖤 (j’ai dû faire un p’tit google translate bien sûr…)

[@ameliareads589]

You are absolutely right, the English covers for Orlanda are atrocious. I quite like the German edition though.

[@bibliosophie]

@@ameliareads589 ha ha ha glad you agree. i couldn’t find a good pic of the one with a long tan torso on it, or i would have put it up on the video! the german cover is good, ya - i looked for it based on yr comment

[@Slothreadersclub]

I see you spent some time in my former place of work - Kaffibarinn.

[@bibliosophie]

really?! and yes, i did :)

[@Slothreadersclub]

@@bibliosophie Now I feel old when I just think about when that was. 😂 But yes, I lived and worked in Iceland. I finished my BA in political science there.

[@bibliosophie]

@@Slothreadersclub wow! i’m so curious what it was like to study there

[@Slothreadersclub]

@@bibliosophie It was an interesting experience. Definitely one that taught me a lot about myself and about the ability humans have to adjust or not adjust to certain conditions.

[@Kimromero1219]

I found The Wren The Wen super boring.

[@bibliosophie]

@@Kimromero1219 i can definitely get that. i can also see why some people love it, actually. i’ve still not gone back to it 🙊