atlantic monthly review

[Michele A Berdy]

I did get on line and read the Atlantic explanation of book review policy, 
and, as you say, they don't ban reviews of translated works from their 
pages, but they note that they run "fewer reviews" than other comparable 
publications.  In that same issue is a review of a new translation of Don 
Quixote.  Although the reviewer does seem to know Spanish, he doesn't 
write much about the translation or focus on the language in English; he 
says the superb new translation is good reason to reread the book, and 
here's what you'll find -- and then follows the focus of the piece, a  
cheerful cajoling of the reader to pick up the book. 

But Mona Simpson's "review" focused in large part on the language of the 
English translation itself.  And it's bizarre to do that without any touch 
point for the comparisons and judgments she makes -- the touch point being 
the original language of the novel.  

Okay, it's tilting at windmills to fight this, but... editorial and 
broadcast policies do change under concerted pressure.  This is not quite 
the same thing, but even here in Russia, which is not exactly a model of 
bottom-to-top, civil society, grassroots activism these days, when one of 
the major TV networks started airing in prime time a 52-hour (or 65-hour, 
or 175-hour -- can't recall; it was really long) series called Zona, a 
less than cheerful romp through the delights of the prison camp system, so 
many outraged citizens wrote and called the station to complain that they 
bumped it to a late-night slot. The trick is in the numbers and 
consistency of complaints.  

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