Sound Ruthless

'I Began With Sound'

Emily Wilson | Public Books | 2nd October 2023

Wilson's translations of Homer have earned rave reviews and attracted new readers. Here, she provides a note to her new version of the Iliad, which took six years to produce. "Literary translators should not grind the beef, pork, and lamb of their originals into an unidentifiable hot dog. Instead, the distinctive stylistic features of each original should remain distinct in translation" (2,450 words)

Ruthless Cosmopolitans

Adam Kirsch | Jewish Review Of Books | 1st October 2023

Reflections on Susan Sontag and George Steiner. They had much in common, but detested each other. Both modelled a peculiarly detached and European mode of intellectualism in post-WW2 America. "The intellectual took pride in being what Hannah Arendt called a 'pariah': because he belonged nowhere, he could see the world truly, free from parochialism and self-interest" (2,080 words)