Hearing Voices Response - Elliot

 Characterizing the qualities of different writing styles or voices and recreating them is something I'm very inexperienced at, but also something I'd like to improve at. I think even when I'm working entirely in English, I don't know how to modify my style of writing to suit a certain character beyond a fairly superficial level.

I also definitely relate to hyperfocusing on the individual words when just getting into translation, especially since I was relying heavily on a dictionary to understand the text in the first place. As I improve, I think I'm able to get a better handle on which of the ideas are actually important.

Now that I think about it, much of what I read uses the internal monologue of the main character for narration, rather than an objective narrator, so I wonder if I tend to associate that voice with the character, moreso than the author. Translation also tends to obfuscate a writer's style to a certain extent. I think even a very literal, direct translation usually fails to truly convey how an author sounds in Japanese. The baggage of trying to parse that sort of translation makes the stylistic choices seem more like odd incongruities than anything else.

This is also why I was so impressed with the prose in the translation of Full Metal Daemon Muramasa so much. Not only is it far less stilted and far more creative in word choice than many other VNs I've read, it's one of the most distinct in terms of style. I'm very interested in reading it in Japanese just for the sake of separating the translator's voice from the author's.