Category: Latest Post

From Six Parts to Five (and a pre-part)

I thought Sea of Intimacy was going to have six parts, and I was writing that fourth part for some time as a long-ish essay after George Steiner’s Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, a fine book with a smart contrast at its heart. My two points of contrast were going to be the two would-be masters of… Continue reading From Six Parts to Five (and a pre-part)

The Translator After AI

While Sea of Intimacy proceeds — I expect to have a full draft by later this summer — I seem to have another project developing. Pulling together some of the threads on this site, and looking at other pieces here and here, helped me to see it. At this point, my working title is The… Continue reading The Translator After AI

AI and Literary Translation: Key Questions and Experiments

AI has begun to reshape literary translation, not only in how texts are rendered but in how we understand language, meaning, and interpretation. Over the past several years, I’ve explored this problem through talks, teaching, and a series of experiments and reflections collected on this site. The results are not conclusive. But certain patterns—and certain… Continue reading AI and Literary Translation: Key Questions and Experiments

Free Speech and the University: A Post Script

It’s the usual race to the finish at the end of the school year, and I’m not in the lead (as usual). But I’ve been passing significant milestones, grabbing water as I can. One was the recently completed TBS (which stands for “The Bloomington Symposia”), sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study, the subject of… Continue reading Free Speech and the University: A Post Script

Looking for Lucy

I just finished an essay that feels freestanding and that could fit in three places in my Sea of Intimacy. I can’t tell whether its potential multifarious placement is a good thing or not. “Looking for Lucy” begins in Split, Croatia, where a sign that says “Lucy” hangs outside the cathedral (once the mausoleum of… Continue reading Looking for Lucy

Adespota on Valentine’s Day

There is no Saint Russell. So I am, as my Italian friend Vanessa once told me, adespota. Vanessa, who is from Le Marche, knew because she is too. With all the names in the world, and a limited number of saints to go around, many of us are. I love the word. It means both… Continue reading Adespota on Valentine’s Day

Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College

I’ve been thinking through the stimulating couple of days I got to spend at the invitation of Kristin Dykstra at St. Michael’s College (SMC) last week. The subject of my talk, and the reason for my visit, was AI and translation. The presentation, entitled “Is It Good? AI Tools, The Practice of Translating, and Inter-cultural… Continue reading Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College

The Sea’s Direction

My book lacked a direction. It was all facts and curiosities and vignettes. A lot was interesting, but coherence kept escaping me. When writing about a river, you can start at the source and make your way to its outlet, a bit like Claudio Magris does with his Danube. But a sea? Where do you… Continue reading The Sea’s Direction

H is for Hawk

During the breaks at the ALTA conference in Tucson at the beginning of November, I found myself often answering questions about my Sea of Intimacy. This makes a lot of sense, as it was at the ALTA in Tucson in, I want to say 2021, that I first spoke about it with friends there, sitting… Continue reading H is for Hawk

My Roman History: A Review

Alizah Holstein’s 2024 book My Roman History: A Memoir (published by Viking Penguin) takes a long view of the author’s journey to a failed academic career as a historian of medieval Roman history. The journey is the main story, the drive and wonder behind it especially, including what otherwise might be esoteric questions of power,… Continue reading My Roman History: A Review