google translate Fail - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkoshiI used Google Translate to check what the Swedish title (Män som hatar kvinnor) of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" means. As I typed the words, I seemed to recall that kvinnor means "women". But the translation displayed as "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". In fact, even "hatar kvinnor" by itself was translated as "Dragon Tattoo". Not-Very-Helpful, oh ye translating tool! I quite doubt that is how one says Dragon Tattoo in Swedish. Only by entering each word separately did it give me the presumably correct translation "Men who hate women".
The title of the 2nd book "Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden", does literally translate to "The Girl Who Played with Fire".
The title of the 3rd book "Luftslottet Som Sprängdes" (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) seems to mean "The Air Castle that was Blown (Up?)". No weirdness with that translation.
I finished reading the first book today. I'm not planning to watch any of the movies until I finish the books.
Spoilers Below....
The book started off a bit slow, but soon became rather intriguing in spite of the unpleasant subject matter. It kept my attention.
The book contains several references to females being sexually victimized by men, and that is what much of the story ends up being based on. The Swedish title makes sense. Why do regular adult fiction books and stories so often deal with females being threatened, raped, molested, kidnapped, beaten up, held hostage, discriminated against, and/or otherwise victimized? Apparently the next book is just as bad on that point, based on the preview that was at the end of the first book, and the jacket text of the 2nd book.
The couple of men who were victimized in the book weren't victimized simply because they were men, or because they were presumed (or portrayed) as being easy to victimize due to their maleness.
Men who read these books and watch these stories aren't constantly bombarded with these kinds of messages:
The world is full of men who'd like to hurt you and/or use you. It's easy for them to kill you. It's easy for them to rape you. Men only see you as a sexual object. You're always in danger. You're weaker than they are. It's natural for you to be a victim. You don't have it in you to fight back; generally you just scream or whimper or beg. Even if you fight, you'll lose, because any of them is stronger than you are, and brute strength is all that matters. Even if you get away, you'll still always be in danger.
Even if it is true that females are victimized a lot by males, why would people want to be reminded of that all the time, in their recreational book-reading and movie-watching activities?
On a different topic, the end of the book seemed trite. Lisbeth realizes that she loves Mikael. Then she sees him together with Erika, about to go shag, and that makes her suddenly deeply jealous and hateful of Erika. Why is it only when she thinks that she's in love, does the idea of him having sex with someone else bother her? And why is her reaction one of anger against Erika?
Another thing that bothers me is that the book never seemed to explain Cecilia's sudden coldness and dislike of Mikael. And why Mikael left a note asking her to forgive him - what was there that needed forgiving? Was he only referring to his not having exposed the crimes like he felt he should have?
Another thing that bothered me a lot is that Lisbeth threw the binder which had photos and passports of the victims, into the fire, destroying it all. Later she mentioned that she hoped the Vangers would be able to find out who all the victims were and notify/recompensate their families - but how can they do that when she purposefully DESTROYED the most useful evidence?! She could have at least wiped her prints off of it and put it back, so that others could have discovered it. Sure, she's got photographic memories of it all in her mind, but how does that help anyone else?
The title of the 2nd book "Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden", does literally translate to "The Girl Who Played with Fire".
The title of the 3rd book "Luftslottet Som Sprängdes" (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) seems to mean "The Air Castle that was Blown (Up?)". No weirdness with that translation.
I finished reading the first book today. I'm not planning to watch any of the movies until I finish the books.
Spoilers Below....
The book started off a bit slow, but soon became rather intriguing in spite of the unpleasant subject matter. It kept my attention.
The book contains several references to females being sexually victimized by men, and that is what much of the story ends up being based on. The Swedish title makes sense. Why do regular adult fiction books and stories so often deal with females being threatened, raped, molested, kidnapped, beaten up, held hostage, discriminated against, and/or otherwise victimized? Apparently the next book is just as bad on that point, based on the preview that was at the end of the first book, and the jacket text of the 2nd book.
The couple of men who were victimized in the book weren't victimized simply because they were men, or because they were presumed (or portrayed) as being easy to victimize due to their maleness.
Men who read these books and watch these stories aren't constantly bombarded with these kinds of messages:
The world is full of men who'd like to hurt you and/or use you. It's easy for them to kill you. It's easy for them to rape you. Men only see you as a sexual object. You're always in danger. You're weaker than they are. It's natural for you to be a victim. You don't have it in you to fight back; generally you just scream or whimper or beg. Even if you fight, you'll lose, because any of them is stronger than you are, and brute strength is all that matters. Even if you get away, you'll still always be in danger.
Even if it is true that females are victimized a lot by males, why would people want to be reminded of that all the time, in their recreational book-reading and movie-watching activities?
On a different topic, the end of the book seemed trite. Lisbeth realizes that she loves Mikael. Then she sees him together with Erika, about to go shag, and that makes her suddenly deeply jealous and hateful of Erika. Why is it only when she thinks that she's in love, does the idea of him having sex with someone else bother her? And why is her reaction one of anger against Erika?
Another thing that bothers me is that the book never seemed to explain Cecilia's sudden coldness and dislike of Mikael. And why Mikael left a note asking her to forgive him - what was there that needed forgiving? Was he only referring to his not having exposed the crimes like he felt he should have?
Another thing that bothered me a lot is that Lisbeth threw the binder which had photos and passports of the victims, into the fire, destroying it all. Later she mentioned that she hoped the Vangers would be able to find out who all the victims were and notify/recompensate their families - but how can they do that when she purposefully DESTROYED the most useful evidence?! She could have at least wiped her prints off of it and put it back, so that others could have discovered it. Sure, she's got photographic memories of it all in her mind, but how does that help anyone else?