Bibliograph

Fifty sounds, a memoir of language, learning, and longing, Polly Barton

Type

Label

Fifty sounds, a memoir of language, learning, and longing, Polly Barton

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references

resource.biographical

autobiography

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Fifty sounds

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1252845100

Responsibility statement

Polly Barton

Sub title

a memoir of language, learning, and longing

Summary

"Fifty Sounds is a genre-defying meditation on language from an electric new voice. When Polly Barton moved to a remote island in Japan at twenty-one, she did not anticipate the total sensory bombardment: "It is a possession, a bedevilment, a physical takeover." Divided into fifty onomatopoeic Japanese phrases, this elegantly written and deeply introspective memoir recounts her path to grasping the basics and becoming not only a literary translator but fluent in one of the most difficult vernaculars in the world. From min-min, the sound of air screaming, to hi'sori, the sound of harboring masochist tendencies, Barton renders these foreign sounds to reflect on the meaning of being an outsider, cultural conformity, and even the transformative philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. A classic in the making, Fifty Sounds unearths the distinctly human act of learning to communicate and think in a new way"--, Provided by publisher

resource.variantTitle

50 sounds

Classification