Ten Little WHAT?

Full disclosure:  I am an Agatha Christie geek.  Or worse (better?), an Agatha Christie in Spanish translation geek who speaks English as his first language.  Oh, the horror. The horror!  I don't go around looking for Agatha Christie novels in Spanish translation since finding anything in Spanish in Canada can be grueling enough.  I have fortunately lucked into a couple of second hand bookstores (Spartacus Books, and the Paper Hound) that both offer a couple of shelves each of Spanish books, and Chapters also has maybe three shelves of overpriced offerings written in El Lenguaje de Los Angeles (the language of the angels, nothing to do with that horrid city in California) as well as the Book Warehouse which carries sometimes a couple of Spanish books.  We used to have in Vancouver a Spanish book store run by my friend Enrique but that closed due to rising rents and was predated by Sophie's Books, an international bookstore that also carried a respectable Spanish collection.

Twice in as many weeks, more or less, our own central branch of the Vancouver Public Library has held a huge (big ass) book sale from where I have gleaned twenty-two books in Spanish for less than fifteen bucks.  I also rely on my annual vacations in Latin America (Mexico City the last few years, Bogota, Colombia for next year) as sources for purchasing as much Spanish language literature as I can haul back in my luggage without injuring my back.

I suppose it could be said that I have a book addiction and may be ready soon to seek out a twelve step program or maybe start my own.  I have been steadily building my personal library for the past fifteen years since no longer being homeless.  I have to admit that this is like creating a sense of ballast for myself.  For me it feels very grounding as well as gratifying to see myself surrounded by four big crammed to overflowing book cases in my tiny apartment.  Everything eventually is going to get read and I do tend to read an average of four books (sometimes one in English) or five  concurrently.

The Spanish books (I might have now around two hundred) are of course to help me remain fluent and improve my Spanish language skills and they are very useful this way.  I also never know when there might be a sudden prolonged drought of available Spanish literature in this town and that maybe I won't always be able to make these trips to Latin America.  So, please understand why I forgive myself for hoarding.

Agatha Christie in Spanish translation is rather interesting reading.  Of course there are many Spanish language authors whose books I read in Spanish and there is no substitute for reading it in the language it was written in.  But I love Agatha Christie's work and there is something about reading her books as well as those by other beloved English language writers that help me transform my native English language reality into a Spanish one and this actually does deepen me in the Spanish language, especially if the translation happens to be a good one.  Another feature of interest is in the way Christie wrote her thrillers with such delicate and intricate plot twists and surprises making it absolutely necessary to carefully heed the Spanish translation so as to not miss anything.  This really gets my brain working and it is possibly even better for my little grey cells (as inspector Poirot famously called them) as a workout than crossword puzzles or Sudoku. 

I have just finished reading Ten Little Niggers, purchased two or three weeks ago from the aforementioned Paper Hound.  I know, you must be shouting "Ten Little WHAT!"  The woman who runs the bookstore (she also speaks Spanish) warned me that the Spanish title "Los Diez Negritos" is a direct translation from Ten Little Niggers, and her comment seemed to suggest a kind of buyer beware.  I replied cordially that I was already aware of this and willing to take the risks.

I just finished the novel today and decided to have a little consultation with Uncle Google before writing this post.  There has been, as I would guess, quite a bit of controversy about the title of this book.  The American edition was recast as "And Then There Were None."  I can understand of course the need to do this.  I also find the original English title, unlike the Spanish translation, to be offensive, but it is very helpful to consider context before reinventing and branding Dame Agatha as a frothing at the mouth white supremist and honorary member of the Ku Klux Klan.  She lived in a different era so naturally much of what she took for granted could be seen in the twentieth century as quaint or offensive, just as much of what we currently hold dear and sacred in the early twenty-first century is going to be laughed at or deleted as offensive by our own children and grandchildren.

I don't think we ever really are going to get it right.