Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 21:54:15 -0600
From: Ron Day <dayr-AT-sirius.com>
Subject: Re: Help with translation


I'm not sure since I'm on the road without a copy of A Thousand Pateaus
available, but if memory serves me correctly, I believe this is from one of the
longer endnotes in the book that is accompanied by a diagram of various types
of becomings (becoming-man, becoming woman, etc)--a very distinctive, long, and
very useful note.  If not there, perhaps the citation can be traced back into
the text proper from said endnote.
    Good luck, Ron

Gretton + Willems wrote:

> I am currently translating a German article on psychoanalysis into English.
> The writer quotes a section from the German translation of
> Deleuze/Guattari's "A Thousand Plateaus" (Tausend Plateaus, Berlin 1992).
>
> In such cases, the normal procedure for the translator is **not** to
> translate the section but to insert the "official"  English version. Can
> anyone provide me with a copy of this?
>
> The section involved starts "Weißer Mensch, Erwachsener-Mann etc. Mehrheit
> setzt einen Herrschaftsstatus voraus, nicht umgekehrt. Es geht nicht darum,
> op es mehr Mücken oder Fliegen als Männer gibt, sondern darum, daß 'der
> Mann' im Universum einen Standaard aufgestellt hat…"
>
> Roughly translated (I'm only on my first draft!), this means "White person,
> adult male etc. Majority implies a state of dominance, not the contrary.
> The point is not whether there are more mosquitoes or flies than men but
> that "man" has set up a standard in the universe."
>
> The text goes on to talk about man/woman relationships, the Black Panthers
> and Judaism. It ends (about 25 lines later):
>
> … aber er ist dieses Subjekt nur, wenn er ein Minoritär-Werden beginnt, das
> ihn aus der Mehrheirtsidentität herausreißt." (…but he is only this subject
> when he begins a process of becoming a minority which tears him away from
> the majority identity.)
>
> I would be grateful for any assistance, if only to identify the precise
> place in "A Thousand Plateaus" where this occurs.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul Gretton
>
> 1:52 PM CET
> 21 January 1999