Author Archives: zolltan

The best books I read in 2021

Posted on 7 January 2022 by zolltan

Lots of good books this year, with me thoroughly enjoying stuff I’ve read by Pynchon, Ishiguro, Petrushevskaya, Jhumpa Lahiri and Teju Cole, as well as several books from Steven Brust’s Taltos series and several more from Sjowall and Wahlöö’s Martin … Continue reading →

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The best movies I watched in 2021

Posted on 4 January 2022 by zolltan

This was the first full year where I had access to some kind of streaming service for all of it. As a result, I watched a lot of movies this year, but in a lot more mainstream fashion than previously. … Continue reading →

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2021 in Review: Articles Part II

Posted on 27 December 2021 by zolltan

Here’s the second part of interesting articles for this year, where the fun stuff is. Art, Reviews and Cultural Criticism Here’s Why Liking Something I Don’t Like Makes You A Bad Person Damien Kronfeld at The Reductress has a … … Continue reading →

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2021 in Review: Articles Part I

Posted on 26 December 2021 by zolltan

Here are some interesting things I read this year on the internet. It’s harder to make these lists as more of the stuff I read ends up being paywalled, so I can’t necessarily easily check back whether I still find … Continue reading →

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2021 in Review: Quotes

Posted on 26 December 2021 by zolltan

Martin Buber believed that the foundation for human existence is relational. People can create between-zones of resonant meaning. In a letter to Ludwig Binswanger, the Swiss psychiatrist, he wrote, “Dialog in my sense implies the necessity of the unforeseen, and … Continue reading →

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Faithfulness in Translations

Posted on 7 July 2021 by zolltan

I thought I would expand a little on what I meant when I said accuracy/faithfulness in translation was multi-faceted in the previous post. I recently tried to translate Roald Mandelshtam’s poem “Новая Голландия”. Here is the poem: Новая Голландия Запах … Continue reading →

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Some thoughts on translation philosophy

Posted on 7 July 2021 by zolltan

Recently, well, not very recently, but the timeline of this blog is what it is, let’s let that slide, I made a book of translations of my grandfather’s poetry, and showed it to people to comment. As a result, I’ve … Continue reading →

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Canada Day

Posted on 2 July 2021 by zolltan

Yesterday was Canada Day, and I was reading David Frum’s column in the Atlantic arguing for preserving the legacy of John A. MacDonald. Frum’s point was that “things are forms” and being a symbol of Canada, cancelling Sir John A. … Continue reading →

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The best books I read in 2020

Posted on 7 January 2021 by zolltan

Given that there wasn’t much else to do, I read a lot of good books this year, but there was no single standout. I would have trouble picking a best book I read this year, and that means I also … Continue reading →

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The best movies I watched in 2020

Posted on 1 January 2021 by zolltan

A lot of a year late and a dollar short flavour to these picks, but you know, not that much came out in 2020 so what can I do? Parasite (기생충 2019, dir. Bong Joon-ho, trailer) I saw this movie … Continue reading →

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