The job of a translator is both difficult and one of great responsibility. An author can be utterly misrepresented in a language that is not his own: David Magarshack, for example, who translated Chekhov’s plays, argued that the entire Western approach to Chekhov was grossly mistaken and based . . . . Continue Reading »
A society that lacks a teleology of desire also lacks normative, transcendent models of desire. “Few people want to be saints nowadays,” wrote René Girard, “but everybody is trying to lose weight.” Continue Reading »
It is not hard to imagine the common sense reaction to the news that a distinguished historian had attempted to cover the history of human suffering in a little over two hundred pages. What have humans ever thought, done, or made that is not directly or indirectly involved with suffering in one or . . . . Continue Reading »
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