I just read Cars: Radiator Springs #3 to Alex as his bedtime story. Well, I read it but I didn't understand half of it. I understood the English half just fine. It was the half in Italian that left me mostly clueless. Yep, this comic aimed at kids--American kids--was half in Italian with no translations. Yeah, the pictures provide the general gist of what was going on but it would be nice to know exactly what Luigi & Guido were saying.
There are a couple ways I'm OK with other languages in the comics. I've learned a couple of words of Russian from Colossus having the occasional word of his native language and it's A-OK if there's a caption that translates the foreign language dialogue. But that's it!
Untranslated dialogue is just the writer showing off. It's a dis-service to the readers. What's the worst is when it's in a language that uses different characters then English. Then it can't even be looked up online (at least I don't know how!). Even Kingdom Come looses points for this, and that's an otherwise terrific story.
Am I alone here or does this bug the Dickens out of anybody else?
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I disagree that untranslated dialogue is the writer showing off. I do agree that it is a disservice to the readers, at least to the extent that it makes more work for them, turning reading for pleasure into a chore.
I mostly agree with Clark. I haven't seen this issue yet, but I would think in this particular comic is was probably appropriate as Luigi and his assistant have previously been shown (or implied) that they speak Italian to each other often.
and I think most writers who use extended passages of foreign language dialogue are doing it for effect. Often the main character you are following is just as lost as you, and get a bit more immersed into his or her confusion. I consider the foreign language dialogue used well to work like a Easter eggs, you don't need it to understand the story...but it can add a little layer of fun if you do decipher it (I am thinking of the Tiny Titans and Blue Beetle and the Blue Backpack dialogue. .
ClarkKent_DC said:
I disagree that untranslated dialogue is the writer showing off. I do agree that it is a disservice to the readers, at least to the extent that it makes more work for them, turning reading for pleasure into a chore.
There are times it can be okay. I don't need to know what specific battle cry the Martian invaders are using means, what the translation of the Elvish song in the background is, or what orders are being barked in German to the Nazis.
Conversations, however, need to be understood to be relevant to a story. I dropped the Prisoner mini-series from DC back in the 80's due to that exact thing.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
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Two examples this come to mind, both from Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing.
In the one, some aliens land on Earth, and the characters are clearly modeled on several from the Pogo comic strip, and their dialogue is like those of those characters, filled with puns and wordplay. A few issues later, on the letters pages (remember when comics had letter pages?), several writers wrote in that style in praise of Moore's effort, which was cute for the first two or three, and then quickly became tiresome.
In the other, a couple of Thanagarian soldiers -- a Hawkman and Hawkwoman, if you will -- encounter Adam Strange. There are extended sequences in which the Hawks speak Thanagarian, which, apparently, Moore made up just for this appearance. Several letters in a subsequent issue were from happy readers who had translated the Thanagarian, which I thought was so much gibberish. So I looked at the issue again to try to translate it, but couldn't figure it out.
That's exactly what I meant about making the reading a chore.
Replies
and I think most writers who use extended passages of foreign language dialogue are doing it for effect. Often the main character you are following is just as lost as you, and get a bit more immersed into his or her confusion. I consider the foreign language dialogue used well to work like a Easter eggs, you don't need it to understand the story...but it can add a little layer of fun if you do decipher it (I am thinking of the Tiny Titans and Blue Beetle and the Blue Backpack dialogue. .
ClarkKent_DC said:
Conversations, however, need to be understood to be relevant to a story. I dropped the Prisoner mini-series from DC back in the 80's due to that exact thing.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! It's a pretty lame website, but I did it myself, so tough noogies
Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!
In the one, some aliens land on Earth, and the characters are clearly modeled on several from the Pogo comic strip, and their dialogue is like those of those characters, filled with puns and wordplay. A few issues later, on the letters pages (remember when comics had letter pages?), several writers wrote in that style in praise of Moore's effort, which was cute for the first two or three, and then quickly became tiresome.
In the other, a couple of Thanagarian soldiers -- a Hawkman and Hawkwoman, if you will -- encounter Adam Strange. There are extended sequences in which the Hawks speak Thanagarian, which, apparently, Moore made up just for this appearance. Several letters in a subsequent issue were from happy readers who had translated the Thanagarian, which I thought was so much gibberish. So I looked at the issue again to try to translate it, but couldn't figure it out.
That's exactly what I meant about making the reading a chore.
Plus, I felt like Moore was showing off.