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Subtitles: When One Title Just Isn't Enough

Deborah Friedell on subtitles, surprisingly

Recently published (and possibly available from the London Review Bookshop):

Fire: The Spark that Ignited Human Evolution

Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent

The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw Emotional World of Male Teens

William Golding: The Man Who Wrote 'Lord of the Flies'

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals

The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father

Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionised Ocean Science

The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr Beddoes and his Sons of Genius

The Making of Miranda: From Gentleman to Gentlewoman in One Lifetime

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace

Mr America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation through Sex, Salad and the Ultimate Starvation Diet

The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me about Life, Death and Pretty Much Everything Else


Comments


  • 9 July 2009 at 11:12am
    Doghouse says:
    Maybe during the current bombardment of PR for Sacha Baron Cohen's new film, we should mention his previous film.

    'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'

    Also, John Sutherland's LRB report on the 1993 MLA convention included some subtitular whoppers from the list of talks and panels.

    ‘Star Power: or, How to (De)Flower the Rectal Brain: the Increments and Excrements of “Influence” in Dorian Gray and Edward II’

    Teledildonics: Virtual Lesbians in the Fiction of Jeanette Winterson’

  • 10 July 2009 at 8:21am
    Martin says:
    There've been some classics in the past:

    Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets and Highways (1987)

    Wall-to-Wall America: A Cultural History of Post-Office Murals in the Great Depression (1982)

    Benedictine Maledictions: Liturgical Cursing in Romanesque France (1993)

    and the unforgettable

    Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South (1996).