Re: [LoGH] German Name Research Notes
Lee Thompson (shadow@nwlink.com)
Wed, 27 Sep 2000 09:35:33 -0700
On Wed, 27 Sep 2000 10:49:37 -0500, you wrote:
>At 05:29 PM 9/26/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>>Additionally,Yoshiki Yanaka has no sense of English,neither of German.
>>I am sure that he couldn't talk even a word in English.
>>You can guess when you read the novel.
>
>I would have to agree. There is a difference between things being based
>off the author's research and specifically deriving royalty structure down
>to every minute detail....
>
>I think the best route to go with this thing would be to not overdo
>thinking of where the naming conventions came from but to concentrate on
>accurately translating what is said. The author has most likely drawn
>from historical references instead of basing his work upon the exact
>details of a historical setting. After all this is not a recreation of a
>historical setting.
I think this is a valid point as well and raises the argument "should it be
presented as the author intended or as it's presented".
An example is Koenigstiegel as presented in the anime. In German it's
equivelent is "King's Pot" -- was this really what Tanaka INTENDED? Probably
not, so we should make it "King's Tiger" (Ko(..)nigstiger).
But how far is too far?
The Galactic Empire is made up of PIECES from German and Prussian history and
society but also has parts of Norse myth (mostly due to Wagner but not
completely).
Generally speaking, I think we should go with the German/Prussian names and
ranks but leave it at that.
Another good question, I think, is why did Tanaka go with German and English
names for things?
Although flawed, Tanaka did an awful lot of research so there was clearly
something he found very interesting about Prussia. Enough so, that I think it
does make some sense to investigate it a bit; we may end up finding a completely
new layer of meaning so let's not write Tanaka off simply because he doesn't
know English or German. He clearly made an incredible effort to study the
languages and history. And, after all, Galactic Heroes is ABOUT history.
--
Lee Thompson
shadow@nwlink.com
