Hi folks,
This backstage area is intended for project updates so, being a completist, I thought I'd quickly tell you about the Korean edition of the book. The product itself is unlikely to excite you if you can't read Korean, but this is the sort of thing your early investment has helped to happen though the snowball effect. Bizarre isn't it? And wonderful.
First of all,just look at the book. It is beautiful:
There’s some colour ink inside — purple — for headings, and some new ornaments in the shape of manacles and whatnot.
It’s also amusing to see snippets of original English amongst the Hangul text. It’s like when you listen to Gaelic radio and your ears prick up at something like, “Is toigh leam a bhith a ’seinn… Sega Megadrive.”
The English moments largely refer to people’s names and the titles of books and films so it builds up into a litany of cultural references. It also seems to include English concepts for which there is no Korean translation. An example that leaps off the page is “sexual opportunism.”
There’s often an asterisk next to a name or title to explain the context to the Korean reader: what The Inbetweeners is and who Mark E. Smith and Giant Haystacks are. Those famous enough not to need an asterisk include Tom Waits, Jim Jarmusch and Donald Trump.
(I wish I hadn’t mentioned Trump in my book, by the way, but I wrote it before his presidency if you can imagine such a time, and I only cited him as an example of a celebrity dirtbag.)
Since you're cognisant of the snowballing magic of crowdfunding, I'd also like to mention my Patreon. Please join it to help make some more magic happen. In exchange, you'll get a monthly essay of substance in your inbox (plus an old essay from the New Escapologist vault if you join a higher tier) and immediate access to the wealth of writing already there.
All for now and Happy Summer,
Robert Wringham