[Repost] 10 Rejection Letters Sent to Famous People (by Jennifer M Wood)

Please, always BE CONFIDENT! 🙂
The result will be worth the effort.
[CONFIDENCE, TRANSLATORS!]

#translatorsgonnatranslate
#perlediunatraduttrice

10 Rejection Letters Sent to Famous People

 

Shared by Sofia Polykreti on twitter 🙂 http://www.earthlang.net/

Jennifer M Wood

filed under: Lists

IMAGE CREDIT:

THINKSTOCK

We’ve all heard that the road to success is paved with failure. But that doesn’t make rejection any easier to swallow. What does help? Knowing that the world’s most talented people have been there, too. Here are 10 actual rejection letters that prove it.

1. U2

Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton were just teenagers when they formed U2 in 1976. (Though they were originally known as The Larry Mullen Band, then Feedback, then The Hype.) By the fall of 1979, they had released their first single in Dublin, though it was with no thanks to London-based RSO Records, who had rejected the band’s submission in May of the same year. The reason, as briefly explained in a letter to the man sometimes known as Paul Hewson, was that it was “not suitable for us at present.” Within a year, U2 had signed with Island Records and released their first international single, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock.” Hmmm… wonder if they would be suitable for RSO now?

2. ANDY WARHOL

PAPERMAG

In 1956, Andy Warhol couldn’t give his work away. Yes, we mean that literally. On October 18th the artist received a letter from the Museum of Modern Art declining a drawing “which you so generously offered as a gift to the Museum.” Today, MoMA owns 168 of Warhol’s pieces.

3. SYLVIA PLATH

OpenCulture

At least Howard Moss, The New Yorker editor who (sort of) rejected Sylvia Plath’s Amnesiac, admitted that “Perhaps we’re being dense” in having trouble connecting the piece’s first and second sections.

4. MADONNA

PerezHilton.com

There’s no date on this rejection letter to Madonna’s team. But it must have been before she signed with Sire Records in 1982, a year before she released her first, self-titled album (which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide).

5. KURT VONNEGUT

Letters of Note

Award-winning novelist Kurt Vonnegut took a certain amount of pride in being rejected. In 1949, he received a letter from Edward Weeks, editor of The Atlantic Monthly, who noted that two of the samples Vonnegut had sent the magazine “have drawn commendation although neither one is quite compelling enough for final acceptance.” A framed copy of the letter hangs in Indianapolis’ Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.

6. TIM BURTON

Letters of Note

As far as rejection goes, Tim Burton had it pretty easy. In 1976, while still a high-schooler, Burton sent a copy of his children’s book, The Giant Zlig, to Walt Disney Productions for publication consideration. Though it was rejected for being “too derivative of the Seuss works to be marketable,” editor T. Jeanette Kroger offered Burton some great—and mostly positive—feedback. A few years later, the company brought Burton on as an animator’s apprentice.

7. GERTRUDE STEIN

Anyone who has ever successfully managed to read the work of Gertrude Stein knows that her prose can be rather dense. Too dense for Arthur C. Fifield to even bother reading the full manuscript for The Making of Americans, which he declined—quite poetically—in 1912.

8. JIM LEE

Instagram

Today Jim Lee is one of the world’s best-known figures in the world of comic books; he’s an artist, a writer, and the co-publisher of DC Comics. But back in the mid-1980s, he was struggling to find his place in the industry, and being rejected by all of the major publishers, including the one he now runs (though a handwritten P.S. did tell him he had some interesting stuff and to keep at it). But his funniest rejection may have come from Marvel, when editor Eliot R. Brown told him “Your work looks as if it were done by four different people,” and suggests he “resubmit when your work is consistent and you have learned to draw hands.”

9. STIEG LARSSON

The Guardian

Though author Stieg Larsson didn’t live long enough to witness his own greatest success with the Millennium series, he did know the sting of rejection, beginning with his application to journalism school in Stockholm at the Joint Committee of Colleges of Journalism. In case you don’t speak Swedish, “This is a letter saying ‘you are not good enough to be a journalist’ to a man who went on to create a supremely creative, crusading magazine which fought against the worsening tide of extreme right thinking and activity in Sweden,” publisher Christopher MacLehose told The Guardian in 2011, right before the letter was auctioned off in London.

10. HUNTER S. THOMPSON

Dangerous Minds

Okay, so this letter wasn’t a rejection of Hunter S. Thompson. It was a rejection letter sent byHunter S. Thompson, to William McKeen, author of a 1991 biography of Thompson. The author at the heart of the story wasn’t a fan. After its publication, Thompson sent McKeen a handwritten review of the book, which McKeen framed.

March 5, 2014 – 2:35pm

[Repost] The Curious Case of the American Accent

The Curious Case of the American Accent

Miss Cellania • Monday, February 24, 2014 at 5:00 AM • 

(Image credit: DrRandomFactor)

Hey youz! Whah do ‘Mericans have all different aks-ay-ents? It’s, like, totally confusing and somewhat bizzah, dontcha know.

TALK THIS WAY

An accent is “a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.” That’s not to be confused with dialect, which is a specific form of a language that has its own unique lexicon (words), grammatical structures, and phonology (a fancy word for accent). So an accent can be a part of a dialect, but not vice versa. Because dialects can be traced to geographical regions, they give linguists important clues to the origin of accents. And discovering where accents came from can explain why an American says “ta-may-to” and a Brit says “ta-mah-toe,” or why Bostonians say “park the cah” and a Nebraskan says “park the car.”

BRITISH INVASIONS

The United States began as colonies of Great Britain, but the settlers didn’t trickle across the Atlantic at random. According to Brandeis University Professor David Hackett Fischer in his bookAlbion’s Seed, there are four primary American accents, which derive from the major migrations from England to the New World in the 17th and 18th centuries.

1. East Anglia to Massachusetts (1620-40). Puritans who fled to the New World to escape religious persecution were, by and large, from the eastern counties of England. To this day, in remote parts of East Anglia, there are rural folk who speak in what is sometimes referred to as the “Norfolk whine.” When they came to New England, that accent came along with them. You may recall the TV commercials where an old fellow says “Pepperidge Fahm remembers…” That’s the Norfolk whine.

2. South and West of England to Virginia (1642-75). Immigrants who settled in the colony of Virginia tended to be wealthy Cavaliers (that is, loyal to the King) who came to the New World to become planters. Many elements of their accent can still be heard in rural Virginia, such as their penchant for elongated vowels -stretching “you” into “yeew,” and shortened consonants- “ax” for ask, and “dis” and “dat” for this and that.

3. North Midlands to Pennsylvania and Delaware (1675-1725). In another flight to escape religious persecution, Quakers, largely from the middle and northern parts of England, also settled in the New World. Their speech patterns, characterized by shorter vowel sounds -a short “a” for dance, not the Yankee and East Anglican “dahnce,” or the South England and Virginia “day-ence”- formed the basis for the flat Midwestern American accent we hear today, which has since been adopted as the standard American “non-regional” accent spoken by most newscasters.

4. Borderlands to the Backcountry (1715-75). The so-called “Scotch-Irish” fled their poverty-stricken homeland of northern England and southern Scotland, first to northern Ireland and then to America’s mid-Atlantic coast. These new arrivals were considered uncultured and unruly and didn’t mix well with the established settlers, so most kept going to settle in the backcountry of the Appalachian Mountains. Their distinctive accent can still be heard in many Southern regions: “far” for fire, and “winder” for window. The Borderlands accent gave rise to the twangy “country” accent heard in the poorer parts of the South -as opposed to the more south-of-England “Southern gentleman” drawl heard in more affluent regions. Thank you Yosemite Sam for the former and Foghorn Leghorn for the latter.

THE HUDDLED MASSES

After achieving independence, the United States expanded westward and fresh waves of immigrants arrived in New York, New Orleans, and other port cities. The Northeast kept closer ties with Britain, which explains why Bostonians caught onto the English trend of broadening the “a” in bath, while the flatter pronunciation was used in most of the rest of the country.

WORLD TOUR

Just as it was with the English, immigrants from other countries tended to stick together when they got to America. Here’s a look at where they came from, where they ended up, and how the way they spoke then still affects the way people in the United States speak today.

* Germany. After England, Germany produced the largest wave of U.S. immigrants between the 1680s and the 1760s. Arriving first in Pennsylvania, the newcomers adopted the nasal tones of their Quaker neighbors who had come from England, then added their own clipped German speech patterns. The biggest German influence is the hard “r” found at the end of words -“river” vs. “rivah”- and is the feature that most distinguishes American speech from British. The trend spread as settlers moved into the Midwest and beyond.

*The Netherlands. When settlers from New England moved south to New York, there was already a sizable Dutch population. The mixture of the two groups formed the famous Brooklyn accent (think of Bugs Bunny), in which bird is often pronounced “boid,” these and those, “deez” and “doze,” and coffee, “caw-fee.” Unlike most other immigrant languages, which were abandoned for English within a generation or two, the Dutch language lingered in New York for three centuries. (Theodore Roosevelt grew up hearing his grandparents speak it at the dinner table as late as the 1860s.) While other immigrant groups have influenced the classic New York accent, it come primarily from original Dutch settlers.

* Russia and Poland. Arriving in New York in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Yiddish-speaking Jews from eastern Europe added many new words and humorous turns of phrase to English, including “I should live so long,” “I need it like I need a hole in the head!” and “What’s up?” Interestingly, although “New Yawk tawk” has become strongly associated with Jewish immigrants, Yiddish seems to have had little affect on the accent itself, which was adopted by the Irish, Italians, Chinese, and dozens of other ethnicities who live in New York. Actual spoken Yiddish -which is very clipped and Germanic- sounds very little like the New York accent.

* Scandinavia. Immigrants from northern Europe settled in the upper Midwest, and many aspects of their Old World accents persist to this day. Referred to as both the Minnesota accent and the Great Lakes accent, it is most notable for the overpronunciation of vowels, especially the long “o” sound, as in “dontcha know.” If you’ve seen the 1996 dark comedyFargo, that’s a good example of the Minnesota accent (although most native speakers claim that it’s a bit exaggerated in the film).

* France. Much of the French influence on the American accent ended up in Louisiana. Cajuns were originally French settlers who had moved down from Acadia in the eastern part of Canada. In 1765 the British took over, and loyal Acadians fled and resettled in New Orleans, still French territory. Cajun French is very old, dating from the 1600s. It might be understood by someone in Paris today, but only with some effort. The Cajun accent (like the food) has a very distinctive flavor -“un-Yon,” “ve-HIC-le,” and “gay-Ron-tee,” and “LOO-ziana.”

* Africa. The speech of slaves brought over from West Africa had a strong effect on American English. However, its exact origin is hard to trace. There are a number of West African languages, and slaves were intentionally separated from members of their own groups to make it difficult for them to conspire. That led to what are called pidgins -simple languages with few rules that were cobbled together from two or more languages. According to some theories, this was the origin of what is now called African American Vernacular English (AAVE). It has been called ebonics, but use of that term is controversial. Many linguists now believe that West African languages had little if any influence on AAVE, and that its origin can be traced to early Southern dialects brought over from England. Nevertheless, some of the cadence and lilt of the Southern accent -spoken by both blacks and whites- probably comes from African slaves. Some linguists believe this could be because black women served as nannies to white children, and those relationships helped blend the two speaking styles.

BARN IN THE USA

Not all accents were brought over from other countries. A few are as American as apple pie.

* In a small section of southern Utah, there is an accent in which “ar” sounds are transposed with “or” sounds. It’s uncertain how this way of speaking came about, but people who live in this region don’t say “born in a barn,” rather “barn in a born.”

* A relatively young accent, Valley Girl, or “Valspeak,” began in the 1980s. The most defining characteristic: Raising the intonation at the end of a sentence as if it were a question. Originating in the San Fernando Valley of southern California, Valspeak may be one of the most uniquely American accents. Some linguists speculate its roots may be traced to refugees from the Ozarks who moved to California during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s.

HOMOGENIZATION

U.S. regional accents are in danger of being lost. Because of TV, movies, video games, and YouTube, kids learn less about speaking from their parents and their grandparents than they do from the likes of the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Pixar. Result: A young boy in Boston might pretend to “park the car,” and a teenage girl in Georgia might roll her eyes when her mother says “Y’all.” If this trends continues, then perhaps one day there will be just one American accent.

Cf. original: http://www.neatorama.com/2014/02/24/The-Curious-Case-of-the-American-Accent/#!yjsR7

If you love something… (Time for a little fun!)

Post per gli umoristi della traduzione, per chi ha qualche minuto da dedicare al mio blog e per chi è casualmente passato di qua ed ha voglia di farsi due risate.

Nei momenti di pura follia, che accompagnano una giornata-tipo del traduttore, c’è anche la ricerca di risposte a domande che oserei definire “esistenziali”.
Ogni traduttore ha le proprie, più o meno profonde che siano, e si racchiudono in grandi macrogruppi (diversi anch’essi da traduttore a traduttore).
Quella che vi propongo oggi fa parte dei miei “DUBBI da ANNI”.

Tutto inizia nel 1999 con la canzone di questo video

What a Girl Wants (Christina Aguilera) [1999]

in cui al minuto 1.55 Xtina canta “They say, if you love somethin’, let it go / If it comes back, it’s yours and that’s how you know / It’s for keeps, yeah, it’s for sure“.
Mi sono sempre domandata il senso di questa frase, che è poi diventata un tormentone assoluto e vittima di stalking da parte di molte adolescenti-blogger-tumbleraddicted etc (come mostrato nella foto qui sotto).

Per quale assurdo motivo se ami qualcosa (qualcuno), dovresti lasciarla andare per avere la certezza che sia tua per sempre nel momento in cui ritorna?
E poi… Perché è stato aggiunto – a mo’ di corollario – che se non torna, non era destino che andasse diversamente?
Ma che cosa? Di cosa stiamo parlando?
Carissimo tu che hai inventato per primo questo concetto assurdo, *imho* hai detto una delle più grandi cavolate mai sentite.

1. Se ami veramente qualcosa, non dovresti MAI, e ripeto MAI, abbandonarla. Un amico, un animale, un sogno, un lavoro, una qualsiasicosavivengainmente;
2. Se ti lascio andare, un motivo ci sarà e, probabilmente, non spero assolutamente di rivedere mai più quella cosa/persona sulla mia strada;
3. Se non era destino andasse così… CI MANCHEREBBE PURE! Perché mai sognare di veder tornare un qualcosa che mi sono “amabilmente” lasciata alle spalle?!

Per questo, ad oggi, in mio aiuto arrivano altre immagini dalla rete.

Per esempio questa recita: “Se ami qualcosa, non puoi lasciarla andare mai, nemmeno per un secondo, altrimenti è persa per sempre”.
Si avvicina abbastanza alla mia idea di ‘cavolata’, però mi sembra un pochino (tantissimo) estremista. Non esaspererei la cosa al punto da lanciare un’anatema o ergermi sul malcapitato in stile Gandalf.

“You shall not pass” -Gandalf [from The Lord of the Rings]

Personalmente, preferisco una più modesta regola di un gentiluomo. In questo caso la n. 163:

In tempi recenti lo stesso tema è stato trattato anche nelle stupende E-cards.
A. Una versione “autocelebrativa”

B. Una versione “restrittiva”

C. Una versione “vendicativa”

D. Una versione “punitiva” (con tanto di caccia!)

E. Una versione “definitiva” (ndt: non ha neanche bisogno di inseguire la ‘cosa’!)

Un po’ di Damon Salvatore ci sta sempre bene.
[Ian Somerhalder]

#perlediunatraduttrice
#translatorsgonnatranslate

Per chi volesse lanciarsi in qualche riflessione filosofica, consiglio questo link sull’argomento: http://philosiblog.com/2011/08/16/if-you-love-something-let-it-go-if-it-comes-back-to-you-its-yours-forever-if-it-dosent-then-it-was-never-meant-to-be/

Per chi invece “sa di amare la sua donna solo quando la lascia andare”, propongo un po’ di Passenger e la sua Let her go.

Well, You only need the light when it’s burning low,
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow,
Only know you love her when you let her go.

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home.
Only know you love her when you let her go,
And you let her go.

Staring at the bottom of your glass
Hoping one day you’ll make a dream last
But dreams come slow and they go so fast
You see her when you close your eyes
Maybe one day you’ll understand why
Everything you touch surely dies

But you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

Staring at the ceiling in the dark
Same old empty feeling in your heart
‘Cause Love comes slow and it goes so fast

Well you see her when you fall asleep
But never to touch and never to keep
Cause you loved her too much and you dived too deep

Well you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go ooooh ooooh oh no

And you let her go
ooooh ooooh oh no

Well you let her go

ooooh ooooh oh no

Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go

BrE vs AmE

Source: Muro de los Idiomas

BrE vs AmE

Source: Grammar.net

UK vs US spelling

 

Have a break: The Offensive Translator [video]

The Offensive Translator*

*NB: actually, she’s not a translator, she is an interpreter. 😉

Translators be like.

This is how I feel about being a translator.

It’s like… there were three of you. 

 

1. The Assignment

2. Sudden self-awareness 

3. The Deadline

4. The Whole Process

5. The Aknowledgement

6. The Final Effort

7. The Delivery

“The power of three will set us free” –Charmed

Summon all your doppelgängers to you!

[A huge thank you to Nina Dobrev for being the Guest Star on my post
and
for playing Elena Gilbert, Katherine Pierce/Katerina Petrova and Amara
in the tv series The Vampire Diaries]