<story><title>When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)</title><url>https://teresaelsey.medium.com/when-nothing-ever-goes-out-of-print-maintaining-backlist-ebooks-fcd63e680667</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>djoldman</author><text>&amp;gt; And sometimes we’re not sure if what we’re seeing even is an error. The following passage, from Philip K. Dick, displays a lot of creative use of language, but the “zommed” in the third line — while matching the print book — seems a bit suspect. Should it be “zoomed”? How can we know?&lt;p&gt;Strictly for possible typos: if the author is alive, ask them, otherwise leave it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Sometimes a book is completely accurate at the time of publication, but becomes factually inaccurate over time, giving the wrong dates for the beginning of daylight saving time or an incorrect planetary status for Pluto.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should we fix these factual errors? Do we need the author’s input? What if the author is dead, the agent is retired, and the editor has left the company? Should we fix them silently or with some kind of editorial note?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Then there’s the case where the content of a book is not incorrect, per se, but may have become outmoded or offensive.... What do you do here? Do you update the language that’s incidental to the content of the book? Does it matter who you think is buying this — whether it’s people who want the diet advice or people who are researching the historic participation of Asian Americans in diet programs?&lt;p&gt;No. A book should capture an author&amp;#x27;s intent&amp;#x2F;concept&amp;#x2F;idea at the time it was written and those intents&amp;#x2F;concepts&amp;#x2F;ideas should be frozen.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shagie</author><text>Back in college, I recall a professor saying that German students of philosophy would learn English to be able to read Nietzsche in translation rather than as it was written.  (Upon reflection, it might have been Kant - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;philosophy.stackexchange.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;28743&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;philosophy.stackexchange.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;28743&lt;/a&gt; )&lt;p&gt;My latin was too rusty to be able to read Meditations on First Philosophy as it was written. ( &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;ebooks&amp;#x2F;23306&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;ebooks&amp;#x2F;23306&lt;/a&gt; ).&lt;p&gt;A translation from Latin to English ( &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikisource.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Meditations_on_First_Philosophy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikisource.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Meditations_on_First_Philosop...&lt;/a&gt; ) necessarily changes those intents&amp;#x2F;concepts&amp;#x2F;ideas into those that the reader is more familiar with.&lt;p&gt;A translation from English of 1000 AD to 2000 AD has the same necessary changes &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hieronymus.us.com&amp;#x2F;latinweb&amp;#x2F;Mediaevum&amp;#x2F;Beowulf.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hieronymus.us.com&amp;#x2F;latinweb&amp;#x2F;Mediaevum&amp;#x2F;Beowulf.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it ok to read Liu Cixin&amp;#x27;s work 三体 as Ken Liu&amp;#x27;s translation known to the English speaking word as The Three-Body Problem?  Or should I learn Chinese and immerse myself in the culture of China in order to read it with those intents &amp;#x2F; concepts &amp;#x2F; ideas as things frozen on paper?&lt;p&gt;There are two problems - the book captured at its time may not be accessible anymore.  Secondly, even if you can read the words it may be that the words those concepts map to in today&amp;#x27;s language are not the concepts that the author intended.&lt;p&gt;So... how short of a time frame is not &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; acceptable to read the work in translation?&lt;p&gt;I hold that a translation across time is not really any different than a translation of a modern work across languages and cultures.</text></comment>
<story><title>When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)</title><url>https://teresaelsey.medium.com/when-nothing-ever-goes-out-of-print-maintaining-backlist-ebooks-fcd63e680667</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>djoldman</author><text>&amp;gt; And sometimes we’re not sure if what we’re seeing even is an error. The following passage, from Philip K. Dick, displays a lot of creative use of language, but the “zommed” in the third line — while matching the print book — seems a bit suspect. Should it be “zoomed”? How can we know?&lt;p&gt;Strictly for possible typos: if the author is alive, ask them, otherwise leave it.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Sometimes a book is completely accurate at the time of publication, but becomes factually inaccurate over time, giving the wrong dates for the beginning of daylight saving time or an incorrect planetary status for Pluto.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should we fix these factual errors? Do we need the author’s input? What if the author is dead, the agent is retired, and the editor has left the company? Should we fix them silently or with some kind of editorial note?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Then there’s the case where the content of a book is not incorrect, per se, but may have become outmoded or offensive.... What do you do here? Do you update the language that’s incidental to the content of the book? Does it matter who you think is buying this — whether it’s people who want the diet advice or people who are researching the historic participation of Asian Americans in diet programs?&lt;p&gt;No. A book should capture an author&amp;#x27;s intent&amp;#x2F;concept&amp;#x2F;idea at the time it was written and those intents&amp;#x2F;concepts&amp;#x2F;ideas should be frozen.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>allturtles</author><text>&amp;gt; Sometimes a book is completely accurate at the time of publication, but becomes factually inaccurate over time, giving the wrong dates for the beginning of daylight saving time or an incorrect planetary status for Pluto.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Should we fix these factual errors? Do we need the author’s input? What if the author is dead, the agent is retired, and the editor has left the company? Should we fix them silently or with some kind of editorial note?&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s bizarre to call the &amp;quot;factual errors&amp;quot;  at all. Would you alter a book from 1958 that &amp;quot;incorrectly&amp;quot; refers to Eisenhower as the current U.S. President? Such &amp;quot;fixes&amp;quot; would be a defacement of the historical record, flattening all of time into a perpetual now.</text></comment>