Marvel's Thor in Arabic - Not a God

This post is also available in Macedonian
- на македонски на Блогспот: Марвеловиот Тор на арапски - не е бог
- на македонски на Блогерај: Марвеловиот Тор на арапски - не е бог 
 
Egyptian journalist and blogger Azza Moghazy related an interesting inter-cultural fact regarding the Arabic translation of Marvel Comics about Thor, which was subject to religious censorship:

When translated into Arabic we never learned that he was an old Nordic god. The Arabic translation introduced Thor as a fighter not a god...

By the way here is a discussion in an Arabic forum for comics about Thor. most of the participants agreed that Thor comics mustn't be translated or published in Arabic because it recognizes a pagan god.

The following scan of an Arabic Thor comics is from the that site, Arabcomics.net. According to Azza, the translation is:  "Thor .. the (master) of thunder. The legend becomes true." The comics was translated and published in Lebanon and distributed all over the Arab world (22 countries with Arabic as a native language).

Arabic version of Marvel's Thor

Monotheism--denial of existence of all other gods but one--is one of the fundamental common tenant of Judaism, Christianity (Old Testament, the First Commandment, Exodus 12: 1-17 & Deuteronomy 5: 6-21) and Islam (Qur'an chapter 47:19, 28:70). People living in secular societies might find it hard to imagine how such doctrines might be applied literally to the extent of controlling or modifying access to artworks or other products. There's no evidence that uncensored comics using stories about ancient gods as templates for superheroes lead to revival of the polytheistic religions of old, either Norse or Mediterranean (as in DC's Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, etc.).

My own experience as a kid who grew up under what we called socialism and what westerners call communism or totalitarianism in 1980s Yugoslavia is also censorship-free, at least concerning superhero comics. Even though the system was officially promoting atheism, there was no widespread persecution of religious people - in fact, "national" religious institutions such as the Macedonian Orthodox Church and Islamic Community were part of the system. Neither did this official atheism (denial of all gods) require censorship or altering of stories about religious figures, pagan or monotheistic. Especially in comics. World heritage and local ancient mythologies and the pagan past were also freely re-used by domestic authors, both state-supported and alternative. (Note: Experience of Yugoslav Communism was much different in degree of repression and censorship from the countries of the Warsaw Pact.)

--- Elsewhere in Sci-fi ---

Norse, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon mythology is often used by American science fiction writers, due to the obvious links of that culture to England. Two of the most interesting works based on exploring the links between the Norse ("Viking") and Arab/Middle East cultures and mythologies also use the same word in the title:

• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Chrichton, the basis for the film The 13th Warrior, depicting contact and cooperation between Vikings and a man coming from the Caliphate of Baghdad. The film has its moments, but the book is much richer in (pseudo-historic and historic) details which make it somewhat juicier.
• The Life Eaters - graphic novel written by David Brin with art by Scott Hampton, based on and expanding the storyline of Brin's amazing novella Thor Meets Captain America (Hugo winner).
  

The Andromeda Strain in Macedonian

The previous post referring to Michael Chrichton's The Andromeda Strain prompted me to look up the ways this title has been translated by the Macedonian media. I reviewed several articles about Crichton, which appeared upon his recent and untimely death.

The novel has not been translated into Macedonian yet, and the translators who had no official yardstick to compare circled through various meanings of the English word "strain," failing to use the right one.

The word "soj" in Macedonian designates a breed, or lineage (of microorganisms). Thus, the proper Macedonian translation should be "Sojot Andromeda" (Сојот Андромеда). The book has actually been translated in Serbian several decades ago, as "Andromedin soj". The two South Slavic languages have the same word for this term, and Macedonia and Serbia were constituent parts of the Yugoslav federation then, making this issue accessible to Macedonian sci-fi fans at the time. But current translators display quite low level of general education, and probably have little experience with science fiction. Thus the translators from the Macedonian media translated "Andromeda Strain" as:

• Andromeda's Thread (Vest daily - „Нишката на Андромеда“)
• Andromeda Chain (TV M - „Ланецот Андромеда“)
• Andromeda's Pressure (Nova Makedonija daily - „Притисокот на Андромеда“)
• while the translators from Utrinski vesnik daily, and the Macedonian Science Fiction Portal "solved" the dilema by putting simply "Andromeda" as title of the book.
  

Fireballs, Satellites and Andromeda Strain

It turned out that the recent fireball that streaked across the Texas sky wasn’t debris from the satellite crash over Siberia, but a meteor.

In context, I recommend (re)reading The Andromeda Strain, a great novel by Michael Chrichton. The plot is about a cornered group of people trying to confront the danger due to a satellite crash. It's very quick read, fast-paced and up to the point.

A seasoned sci-fi fan can also view it as prototypical piece of work that influenced numerous copycats, to the degree of turning into cliché. The recently deceased Chrichton should be credited more often as a major influence on popular culture in general. Bellow: trailer for the 2008 TV-series based on the book.

The book was published in 1969 and it's also interesting to compare the visions and interpretations of some then-futuristic information and communication technologies, which are commonplace today, such as automatic biometric identification, voice recognition, and instant communication.