 Giap/digest # 36 - What Kept Us Busy: Manituana - 8 June 2007
It's been a while since we sent out the umpteenth call to volunteer translators from Italian (or Spanish) to English. And it's been several months since y'all received any news from us. We apologize for that.
What happened is: we just basically gave up the idea of running a regular newsletter in English in the 2006-07 period. No way we could keep up with that task. Too much work for and around the new novel. Writing Manituana kept us so busy we didn't even have the time to wipe our arses. It kept us so busy we didn't have the time to be tired.
Now, after three years of literary toil, the book is out (in Italy). Indeed, it's been out for more than two months and it's doing great. Now that we have a little more time, we understand that we're the next thing to shell-shocked veterans (and our arses are dingleberried). And yet we're jumping from city to city for an extensive book tour, and we're already working on the next novel of the "Atlantic Trypthic" ('cause that's what it is: a kind of trilogy, although each book will be 100% independently readable).
That's the reason we haven't been able to select and translate stuff for inclusion in Giap/digest.
Moreover, we were too focused on something else to ask favours and "crowdsource" the newsletter.
And what's more, we've come to believe that sending no issues at all is better than sending a half-arsed piece of work.
All we can do now is summing up what happened to us.
Manituana was published in March and climbed the national Top 10 charts, reaching as high as #4.
The book has been much talked about, also because it's part of a transmedia/participatory project centered around the official website,  manituana.com (unfortunately it's only in Italian so far, the Spanish version is almost ready).
The website is very rich, and it's divided into 2 levels.
Level 1 includes information on the book, the trailer (*), outtakes and short stories related to the novel, news and reviews, maps (the possibility of visiting the places of the book via Google Earth) and an audiotheque/podcast, with contributions inspired by the novel, sent by amateur and professional musicians, performers, sound poets, actors etc.
Level 2 goes way beyond. People can access it by answering a question. They have to prove that they've already read the novel and aren't afraid of spoilers.
Once inside, one can find a lot of stuff: there's a section we called "Officina" [Factory], where readers can find:
a. all the chapters we took out of the book during the second-last revision.
b. a selection of the most significant e-mail conversations we had while working on the novel.
c. a selection of mp3 files from our meetings, key moments when we decided the fate of the characters or read fresh chapters aloud.
Another section is called "Diramazioni" [Ramifications], where we publish Manituana-inspired fanfiction written and sent by the readers, and even make precise story proposals (i.e. we exhort people to fill intentional gaps in the book).
Yet another section is called "Conversazioni", it's a forum, sort of, where we and the readers discuss any possible aspect of the novel.
The "Maps" (and Google Earth) section is more complete than the one on Level 1. The other sections are a little bit more commonplace (links, biographical pages of the characters etc.)
Since the publication of Manituana, more than 1,000 users have registered on Level 2.
If you want to visit the website and watch the trailer, here's the translation of voiceover:
In the morning she could hear the earth breathe.
At noon she could hear the grass grow.
In the night she could see where the winds lied down to rest.
Many invisible things were clear to Molly Brant, and as limpid as calligraphy.
Beyond the prow, a labirynth of isles, seaways and drifting logs.
Their people called that place "Manituana", the Garden of the Great Spirit.
A glance was enough to grasp the meaning of the name: water, trees, land and light all around.
A story that crosses the Atlantic,
as wide as a valley, as flowing as a river, at the beginning of the revolution that generated America.
A story from the wrong side of history, from a time when everything was yet possible. |
And here's an interview (in English) where we answer questions about our transmedia/participatory work around the novel.
We just sold the rights for a French edition. So far, no publisher from the English speaking world has made any offer.
Now that you know that our silence was only lack of translation (while we were speaking and yelling!, and chanting!, and belching! in other languages), we hope we can stay in touch with you poor monoglots for the time to come. We're alive and kicking and back with a joyful vengeance. Watch out!
That's all for now.
Bests,
Wu Ming |
