Talk:Peter Wessel Zapffe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Norway Portal
This article is part of WikiProject Norway, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to Norway. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
Socrates
Philosophy Portal
This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Philosophy, which collaborates on articles related to philosophy. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Low This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale.

Contents

[edit] Zapffe

Great author. If you're norwegian, read Måke-egg By the way, there's alot more coming on this one, as I'm presently writing a major task on P.W Zapffe and his life as an author and philosopher. I have a question, though, can we go public with bibliographies written by other people?

Added an extended introduction to Zapffes philosophy. Alot more coming..Sigg3.net
A question to all Norwegian users: kan 'Om det tragiske' med rette oversettes til 'About the Tragedy' eller er 'About the tragical' o.l en bedre oversettelse? Jeg skal se om jeg kan finne noe i Zapffes egen "oversettelse" av innholdet i verket. Tips mottas med takk! -- Sigg3.net
I would follow literary tradition and translate it to "On Tragedy" or perhaps more precisely "On the tragical". Actually, perhaps "On what is tragic" would be more in keeping with the content Espen
No, no and yes. "On what is tragic" is probably the best translation, yet this is really beating about the bush. What we need here is a greater general outline of what the treatise advocates, more on Zapffes environmentalism (which I've seen someone added, to which I don't fully agree, but well,) and maybe some more biographic stuff. Added a couple of external links. - Sigg3.net 15:51, 20 May 2004 (UTC)
This page by Gisle Tangenes uses On the Tragic. Don't know what's up with that capital T, though. - Sigg3.net 15:55, 20 May 2004 (UTC)
In English you use capital letters in the beginning of important words when in the title of a work. Short prepositions (such as 'to', 'for' 'by' but not 'between', 'towards', 'during') and articles are not capitalized in the title. So "On the Tragic" is suppose to have a capital T as Tragic is deemed an important word. --User:Sentius
In addition NORLA's webpage on selected titles in Norwegian Non-fiction (Philosophy, religion, ethics): ON THE TRAGIC from 1941 is Zapffe's PhD dissertation in philosophy. It is among the very rare masterpieces that possess both philosophical and literary qualities beyond what is considered the standard academic norm. In ON THE TRAGIC Zapffe elucidates the foundation for his particular philosophy which is..
Read the whole thing here. I think we should stay with On the tragic. - Sigg3.net 11:40, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

How about changing 'the fixing mechanism' to 'Anchoring' as I have seen it referred to elsewhere? Zukix

It's done. - Sigg3.net 10:40, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

I've got the English summary of On the Tragic on my homepage, but I don't know about copyrights and stuff, so I'm a bit uncertain as to add it to the links on this page. Anyone? - Sigg3.net 10:15, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Are there any of his works available in English translation? --JBellis 21:59, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Not except from the Summary noted above, as far as I know. You could find essays, if you search hard and ask people. Translating Zapffe is very difficult, as he writes in Norwegian anno 1907, and writes very lyrically too. I've tried. But look out for a translation of The Last Messiah, which can be considered a compact version of the key to Zapffe's philosophy. - Sigg3.net 11:32, 16 February 2006


[edit] Some Quotes

This is Mr.P. I've added a couple of quotes from the documentary that was made about Zapffe in 1990. I hope no one minds.

It's Mr.P again. I've put up the English translations for the titles of Zapffe's major works that previously had no translation. I don't speak Norwegain, but these are the translations that I found in a few Arne Naess works.

Mr.P again. I separated the list of Zapffe's works into 'greater works' and 'collections of shorter writings' to make things clearer. Having them all together makes him seem more prolific than he actually was. Mr.P (the Zapffe enthusiast) 06:35, 20 October 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Some more changes

Mr.P again. Apart from a couple of translation 'attempts' that I have put up over the last few months, I have also changed 'Wits and witless' to Wit and whimsy.

The word, 'wits', is almost always understood as someone's senses or alertness (to have your wits about you, as they say). 'Vett' probably means wit, as in clever humour.

Also, the word, 'witless', has a connotation of someone or something being stupid or dumb, rather than unwitty or silly. There probably isn't a correspinding word in English for 'uvett', which literally translates to 'un-wit' or 'non-wit' (but you couldn't use either of these as a translation). I have used the word 'whimsy' (meaning odd or silly humour) instead . Apart from it probably being closer to the meaning of 'uvett', it also has an antiquated feel to it, which fits the style of writing that Zapffe reputedly wrote in. What do you think? Mr.P (the Zapffe enthusiast) 00:55, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More changes

I have put up two more quotes from the Zapffe documentary made in 1990. Also, I have re-translated a word of two in the quotes (from the English subtitles in the documentary), which seemed confusing or out of place. Mr.P (the Zapffe enthusiast) 03:57, 20 October 2007 (UTC)