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alexpgpWhen you begin to work in the "words" side of a publishing house, you are introduced (if you lack such an acquaintance) to the idea of "style," a concept that may sound all cool and highbrow and whiffy, but in reality, exhibits a sort of 24-carat mundaneness that eventually becomes difficult to wash off using ordinary soap and water.
"Style" is sort of a step short of "grammar," answering questions such as "Do we use the serial comma or not?" and when (and where) to capitalize various words (president? President?). The well-known Chicago Manual of Style, for example, has this to say about quoting from "constitutions, bylaws, and the like" (indicating, by the way, that the serial comma is very much part of the University of Chicago Press house style):
And so, upon emerging from the hothouse environment of a publishing establishment, one finds that one had been forever changed. On the whole, I think the change has had a beneficial effect on my translation/writing career.
And thus it was that, upon seeing "Kurt Vonnegut" (sans ", Jr.") in a Russian text, it occurred to me to look up what the proper rendering might be of the name of the author of books such as Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions. Google obligingly found multiple references to the following explanation:
Onward!
Cheers...
"Style" is sort of a step short of "grammar," answering questions such as "Do we use the serial comma or not?" and when (and where) to capitalize various words (president? President?). The well-known Chicago Manual of Style, for example, has this to say about quoting from "constitutions, bylaws, and the like" (indicating, by the way, that the serial comma is very much part of the University of Chicago Press house style):
In quoting from constitutions, bylaws, and the like, the words section and article are spelled out the first time they are used and abbreviated thereafter."People get all sorts of hot and bothered when you violate rules of grammar, and they may have a point in doing so, because following the rules of grammar tends to keep the language understandable. On the other hand, when people get their knickers in a twist because of style differences—delivering lectures on Latin plurals when the word "data" is used as a singular noun, for example—my reaction is to want to poke fun at them.
And so, upon emerging from the hothouse environment of a publishing establishment, one finds that one had been forever changed. On the whole, I think the change has had a beneficial effect on my translation/writing career.
And thus it was that, upon seeing "Kurt Vonnegut" (sans ", Jr.") in a Russian text, it occurred to me to look up what the proper rendering might be of the name of the author of books such as Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions. Google obligingly found multiple references to the following explanation:
The author's name appears in print as "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." throughout the first half of his published writing career; beginning with the 1976 publication of Slapstick, he dropped the "Jr." and was simply billed as Kurt Vonnegut.Now I know.
Onward!
Cheers...
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Date: 2011-04-26 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 12:53 am (UTC)Cheers...
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Date: 2011-04-26 11:41 pm (UTC)(the Australian style manual (http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0701636483.html) is a compulsory text for one of my subjects. I've been reading it chapter by chapter for the last month, it's making my head hurt).
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Date: 2011-04-27 12:53 am (UTC):^)
Cheers...
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Date: 2011-04-27 01:01 am (UTC)