I wasn't driven into medicine by a social conscience but by rampant curiosity.
Jonathan MillerRead
What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That's what their substance is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature loses its essence in translation, as the characters are inherently tied to their original language.
Jonathan Miller highlights the unique nature of literature, emphasizing that the depth and intricacies of characters are deeply rooted in the original language's sentences. When literature is translated, the original nuances and subtleties are often lost, leading to a different interpretation and experience for the reader, which raises questions about the authenticity and fidelity of literary works in translation.
Themes
LiteratureTranslationCharactersLanguageEssence
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary discussion about the challenges of translating classic works.
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