¿Qué el protagonista desea?

I was pleased as punch that What Does The Protagonist Want? was been linked to by the popular Spanish-language comics blog La Carcel de Papel.free stats

I admit I was a little confused when I discovered the reference to me the other day — it’s exceedingly rare that anyone confuses me with an authority on comics, much less someone from the Spanish-speaking world.  I read the piece with great interest, but alas, my Spanish is no better than what I have picked up by watching Dora the Explorer with my daughter.

The piece begins:

¿Está todo dicho en el género de superhéroes? La pregunta no es baladí y, si se me apura es bastante capciosa y admite múltiples respuestas. Uno tiene la tentación de contestar casi en automático con una inmensa afirmación, contundente y categórica… Y sería una respuesta correcta, a tenor de lo que está pasando actualmente en el género: no es difícil encontrar opiniones variadas de lectores antiguamente irredentos que ahora comienzan a abandonar a sus amados superhéroes ante la evidencia de historias sin interés. Aunque también es cierto que algunos podrían ser todavía más malvados y relacionarlo con la dificultad del género para estructurar un discurso adulto, como comentaba hace poco Todd Alcott.

Gosh! That all sounds important, I thought — I would do well to find out what exactly they think I said. Luckily (O 21st century!), Carcel’s site offers an automatic translation into English!  But wait, what scandal lay in hiding for me behind the "translate" button?

Is everything that the genre of superheroes? The question is not trivial, and if I hurry is quite tricky, and it supports multiple responses. One is almost tempted to reply automatically with a huge statement, forceful and categorical … And it would be a correct answer, according to what is happening now in the genre: it is not difficult to find varied opinions of readers who formerly irredentism beginning to abandon their beloved superheroes to the evidence of non-interest stories. It is true that some might be even more wicked and relate to the difficulty of structuring a speech genre for adults, as recently commented Todd Alcott.

If I hurry is quite tricky, indeed.

To clear the air, let me state, forcefully and categorically, that I have never abandoned my beloved superheroes to the evidence of non-interest stories, and it is not true that I am even more wicked and relate to the difficulty of structuring a speech genre for adults.

I demand a retraction of this scurrilous libel. 

 

Comments

10 Responses to “¿Qué el protagonista desea?”
  1. black13 says:

    There is only one thing you can do: pitch your Spider-Man idea to Marvel. Because when Spanish-speaking editors ask whether you’re a threat or a menace, that is the time to do what every Hollywood writer seems to be doing right now: flee the sinking movie ship and make the switch to superhero comics.

    Hurry, or is tricky!

  2. Soy culpable por la asociación.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Hey Todd, it’s “¿Qué desea el protagonista?”, not “¿Qué el protagonista desea?”.

  4. Anonymous says:

    From La Cárcel

    Dear Todd,
    My post is a little reflexion about the troubles of superheroe genre to move away the label of “adolescent”. And I refer to your interesting post because I think that 1)there is no trouble with an adolescent consideration and 2) I think that the limits of the genre are impossed by industry and tradition.
    I’m afraid of google translation gives a curious version of the post, because the sense of the paragrapah is that someone (not you! 🙂 ) could use your arguments in a “wicked way” (i think that a best traslation in english could be in a “twisted way”) to establish an incorrect theory about the inherent adolescent nature of superheroes…

    I’m hurry and quite tricky… :))
    Álvaro

    • Anonymous says:

      Re: From La Cárcel

      reflexion?… a little analysis about…
      I’m sorry, I can’t write in english and develope a coherente thinking in spanisg at the same time…

    • Todd says:

      Re: From La Cárcel

      Thanks for the clarification!

      I mean no offense to you and your fine blog — I am here only to poke fun at free online translation services. Keep up the good work!

  5. ndgmtlcd says:

    I translated it into French with Google translate and Babelfish, and in both cases it was all Greek to me.

    http://bobmitchellinthe21stcentury.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/its-funny-panel-friday-2/