Writing . . .

[ZoeTick]

. . . brings scant relief. It retraces, it delimits. It tends a touch of coherence, the idea of a kind of realism. One stumbles around in a cruel fog, but there is the odd pointer. Chaos is no more than a few feet away. A meagre victory, in truth.

What a contrast with the absolute, miraculous power of reading!

[Whatever - M Houellebecq. Translated from the original French, which may account for it being a bit weird.]

PS Houellebecq advocated the use of mathematical problems in literature. So maybe it's not necessarily the translation that is weird.

[Burper Tilling]

Uh?  Wrong forum?  Wrong website? :matte-motes-big-grin:

[Callum Meriman]

Because I abor seeing an author's words mangled

L'ecriture ne soulage guere. Elle retrace, elle delimite. Elle introduit un soupcon de coherence, l'idee d'un realisme. On patauge toujours dans un brouillard sanglant, mais il y a quelques repères. Le chaos n'est plus qu'a quelques metres. Faible succes, en verite.

And I add some more. Something that has little to do with "mathematics"

La connaissance n’apporte pas la souffrance. Elle en serait bien incapable. Elle est, exactement, insignifiante. Pour les memes raisons, elle ne peut apporter le bonheur. Tout ce qu’elle peut apporter, c’est un certain soulagement. Et ce soulagement, d’abord tres faible, devient peu a peu nul.

Expect the rabble, those who can only speak one language, to be up in arms with this heresay.

 

SPEAK ENGLISH DAMNIT< IF GOD HAD MEANT US TO SPEAK ITALIAN HE WOULD HAVE NEVER INVENTED PINEAPPLE PIZZA

 

 

((haha, on posting this, it errored: "The message body contains <c cedilla>, which is not permitted in this community. Please remove this content before sending your post. And so, the illiterate rabble win out and I need to mangle the French))

[ZoeTick]

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Callum Meriman wrote:

Because I

abor

 seeing an author's words mangled

Expect the rabble, those who can only speak one language, to be up in arms with this

heresay.

---

You also mangled the English.

I took the translation from The Year of Reading Dangerously; Houellebecq probably did it himself.

[DejaHo]

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ZoeTick wrote:

. . . brings scant relief. It retraces, it delimits. It tends a touch of coherence, the idea of a kind of realism. One stumbles around in a cruel fog, but there is the odd pointer. Chaos is no more than a few feet away. A meagre victory, in truth.

What a contrast with the absolute, miraculous power of reading!

[

Whatever

- M Houellebecq. Translated from the original French, which may account for it being a bit weird.]

PS Houellebecq advocated the use of mathematical problems in literature. So maybe it's not necessarily the translation that is weird.

---

I quote the above only because I want to re-read while I type my response.  I need more time to digest the meaning, the intent, and then the French way.  It's a difficult OP for me and I need time to think through a response,  I need to learn the players.  

So I am off to the bookstore.

PS Once again my ignorance is on display. 

 

[DejaHo]

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ZoeTick wrote:

. . . brings scant relief. It retraces, it delimits. It tends a touch of coherence, the idea of a kind of realism. One stumbles around in a cruel fog, but there is the odd pointer.

Chaos is no more than a few feet away.

A meagre victory, in truth.

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Now if it was written as: "Chaos is no more than a few posts away . . . ."   perhaps I would have better understood.