writing and translation
Flusser translated the title of his essay “Geste und Gestimmtheit” as “Gesture and Sentimentality”. I didn’t. I found, and to some extent still find that particular word misleading at best. Its equivalence to “Gestimmtheit” is almost...
The German word “Entwerfen” — drafting or drawing — is closely related, a kind of reversal of the verb “werfen,” which is to throw, or hurl, or toss. Flusser uses the association to describe...
There’s a conference coming up next year with the title “Flusser’s Languages.” One of the questions to be addressed is, “Is Flusser untranslatable?’ Yes, I think he is. And although the same might be...
It has nothing to do with ostentation and need not be expensive. It has everything to do with inefficiency, wastefulness and impracticality. In this book, Lambert Wiesing sets out to simply describe luxury. Rather...
It’s not often that you read a book that seems to be written at least partly with you in mind. Kate Briggs’s This Little Art, from Fitzcarraldo Editions, is about translation. That simple declaration...
Translation was such an integral part of Flusser’s writing practice that it seems intrusive to translate again, or to translate what he did not. He was not in any way reassuring about the issue either:...