Translating Marguerite Stern and Dora Moutot's Transmania

[MyPearlViper]

Namechange for this.

Transmania, that banned French book. I'm translating it!

This is only the first 35 pages of a 350 page book, but I'm happy to keep updating this thread as I go.

(I'm doing it as a labour of love, if anyone is in touch with Marguerite or Dora or their publishers, I want to be very clear that I'm not looking for money for this!)

Links removed by MNHQ at the OP's request.

Just popping in to say that Marguerite Stern is now posting openly racist content on Twitter, three days before elections in which the fascist RN is polled to win an outright majority. I'd be astonished if any UK publisher touched the book with a bargepole at this point.

In case anyone else is curious about this fantastic (and potentially defamatory) claim and doesn't want to go down the rabbit hole alone -

The "openly racist content" from Marguerite Stern is a tweet saying "Ça me fait bizarre quand je rentre dans une rame de métro et que je suis la seule blanche." Or (my translation) "it feels strange when I get on the subway train and I'm the only white person." It got traction because a French politician latched on to it and made a fuss - and was ratio'd like hell, in particular for antisemitism (which is also racism); you can check the link and see.

I gotta tell ya, AuxArmesCitoyens: thanks for "popping", I guess, but - when translated stuff gets published in English, it's mainly because people in the USA will read it. And no one in the USA of any race or colo(u)r - except maybe a couple of very confused yt Robin d'Angelo acolytes - thinks that "I'm surprised whenever I'm the only person of my race in the subway car" is a racist career ender. Or in any way shocking. And I'm not convinced that the UK is significantly stupider.

Can we maybe please, if it's not too much trouble, focus on racism that actually negatively impacts people, rather than playing stupid (and yes - in effect, even if not in intention, racist - because antisemitism is also racist, and because calling things "racist" when they are demonstrably not racist potentially dilutes and discredits the project of identifying and combatting racism) games? BECAUSE RACISM IS DEADLY SERIOUS TO THE PEOPLE IT IMPACTS. Thanks.

It is not just that one tweet. In the last couple of weeks she has posted a dogwhistle video of a majority Black neighbourhood in Paris and about the Lebanisation of France, for instance. I mean, call it not racist if you like but in the French context of the rise of the RN it is unambiguous. And books can sell for various English language territories, not just the US.

I mean, call it not racist if you like... Call WHAT non racist? You have absolutely failed to provide any evidence of your claim that Marguerite Stern is posting racist content, let alone that she is racist. And the content I posted in reply to your reply kind of shows that she's not, and the others accusing her (who you keep silent about) perhaps may be. Are we now assuming that everyone is racist until proven otherwise? I'm not necessarily opposed to that view, but your posts give me pause because it really seems like you don't understand racism.

... but in the French context of the rise of the RN it is unambiguous. Oh, my sweet summer child. Have you been to France? I'm delighted that FN lost, but come the fuck on. None of this would have even happened if Mélenchon had not gone full-on racist (antisemitism is racist) himself, making it very hard for those of us who want to combat racism

And books can sell for various English language territories, not just the US. The whole point of this thread is that the OP wanted to translate a book that apparently is not in progress for an English-language translation to be released. Most of the replies are interested in this. You claim - incorrectly, I think - that because of very recent Twitter content from Marguerite Stern, her book would not be published in the UK. Maybe so - although I disagree, and apparently think a lot better of the UK than you do - but it certainly still stands a strong chance of being published in English.