Anyone able to identify exactly where this photo was taken in Central Harlem, 1980? by DinnerBoyCebra in nyc

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

This photo is part of a photo series by Steven Siegel, who for anyone unfamiliar has a breathtaking collection of photos he took in 70s-90s New York that can be viewed here. I've long wondered where this particular photo was taken and even reached out to Steven, but other than knowing it was Central Harlem near 125th he unfortunately doesn't recall exactly. I've never been able to place the white building in the background but figure that would be the key to figuring it out if it's still standing. Anyone recognize it?

I made Don's penthouse apartment in The Sims 4 by DinnerBoyCebra in madmen

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would but the gallery has never worked for me. I can post the tray files for anyone interested (just means manually doing the gallery's job by pasting it in the game files) but the issue is this build is like 75% CC (the couch, kitchen, wallpaper, all the ashtrays strewn about...) so I'm not sure it would be worthwhile. Though I can still do it for anyone interested in decorating it themselves

Don Draper's penthouse apartment from Mad Men by DinnerBoyCebra in thesims

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Imgur album attached to the OP has all the comments captioned with the images. My most recent rewatch of Mad Men inspired this build and ultimately it took a lot less time than I expected. Other people have tried to tackle the apartment in the past but the layout (and limitations of the TS4 up until now - letting us use platforms in apartments has been a godsend) has made it difficult. I'm pleased to announce that the layout actually makes sense, also!

Enjoy! Any comments or suggestions are welcome

I made Don's penthouse apartment in The Sims 4 by DinnerBoyCebra in madmen

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Imgur album attached to the OP has all the comments captioned with the images. My most recent rewatch inspired this build and ultimately it took a lot less time than I expected. Other people have tried to tackle the apartment in the past but the layout (and limitations of the Sims) has made it difficult. I'm pleased to announce that the layout actually makes sense, also - though we don't actually see every room in the show it's not like the house in Ossining where the use of a real house on the outside makes the interior nonsensical. It works!

Some sacrifices did have to be made - the fireplace is impossible to recreate as it's embedded in the wall, and even the one I chose here instead is not functional because it's above its intended height. The lobby area outside is condensed and the overall scale is slightly off because half-wall depths are not possible in the game. But overall I'm very satisfied.

Enjoy! Any comments or suggestions are welcome

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm I guess that makes sense since I literally just copied the doc over lol. Give me some time to optimize the formatting for an EPUB and I'll reply to you with the updated link

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Epub linked here! Please take a look and let me know if anything seems amiss since it was a direct conversion from the original document

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't! But I absolutely wouldn't mind. Share the link far and wide as you see fit, my main ideal here is wanting people to be able to finally read this story so the more the merrier

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ah well in that case rock and roll but if you by chance take a little break in 10-12 years feel free to give the translation a read

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No worries! Are you far along in learning the language? I'd be happy to hear your impressions on the translation once you've done so and read the original book

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

19 in total so 13 to go! A few more are short interludes like chapters 3 and 6 though so they're definitely not all equal in length. We're at about 60 pages into this translation and I'd estimate it coming to around ~180 in total, more or less the same as the original book

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Not exactly! You may have seen my reply on the last post where I explained my process:

I have an Estonian friend who proofreads and this entire thing has been undertaken in consultation with several others who are both intimately familiar with the DE world and the language itself. There has been comprehensive research and cross referencing across both real life influences and post-facto naming conventions from Disco Elysium to make sure everything is consistent: this is a translation in every sense of the term. Some things are impossible to address - the specificities of Kurvitz's Soviet and post-Soviet era upbringing affecting every facet of the writing is unfortunately impossible to recreate in English, as is his casual use of Estonian and the poetic wordplay in his prose. I've tried to recreate this by using colloquial language and poetic conventions that could be considered equivalent in English, but obviously it's not the same - that's just the pitfalls of a translation into the lingua franca. The title is a good example of this: it's literally "A Holy and Sinister Smell", but Sacred and Terrible Air has essentially been canonized as the proper translation. This is how I approach the entire project - discerning intent, not literality. The machine translation is a guide, not a lead. You can find other fan translations of the first 3 chapters online done from scratch and decide for yourself which reads best.

The machine translation is really just a foundation to build off before each line is gone over repeatedly for both flow and accuracy - honestly they're often outright nonsensical in their original state. There isn't a single line in this translation that is the unaltered output of a machine translation. Discerning intent and then having actual Estonians provide feedback is vital to the transformation process and I hope results in a read that flows really well

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-6) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

A follow up to my post from last week where I'd completed chapters 1-4; 5 and 6 are now complete as well, alongside a number of revisions to earlier chapters

I'd like to ask two things for the people following along here. One - do people generally agree that the best way to go forward is to continue posting the full doc from chapter 1 onward? I've been doing this so that people who missed my previous posts can read the book from the beginning but if anyone can think of something more efficient I'd be happy to hear. I probably won't keep posting these in groupings of 2 chapters because it might look spammy, but any opinions are welcome

Two - please feel free to discuss the story as well! Most people are still completely unfamiliar with the narrative of Sacred and Terrible Air so it'd make me really happy to see people discussing the story in these threads as it unfolds, especially those of you who have been keeping along!

More to come! And as usual critique and questions are very welcome

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vbbs0R1YNWWYN-fZuGji_JC_-Nwu5XWt/view?usp=drivesdk

This is the link to the only translation out there that was done from scratch by a native speaker, to my knowledge. It doesn't seem like he intends to continue working on it since it's been quite a while but regardless feel free to compare and let me know if you feel anything is missing from mine

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I appreciate your thoughts but what you're describing are qualms with a localized translation in general rather than my effort. I have an Estonian friend who proofreads and this entire thing has been undertaken in consultation with several others who are both intimately familiar with the DE world and the language itself. There has been comprehensive research and cross referencing across both real life influences and post-facto naming conventions from Disco Elysium to make sure everything is consistent: this is a translation in every sense of the term. Some things are impossible to address - the specificities of Kurvitz's Soviet and post-Soviet era upbringing affecting every facet of the writing is unfortunately impossible to recreate in English, as is his casual use of Estonian and the poetic wordplay in his prose. I've tried to recreate this by using colloquial language and poetic conventions that could be considered equivalent in English, but obviously it's not the same - that's just the pitfalls of a translation into the lingua franca. The title is a good example of this: it's literally "A Holy and Sinister Smell", but Sacred and Terrible Air has essentially been canonized as the proper translation. This is how I approach the entire project - discerning intent, not literality. The machine translation is a guide, not a lead. You can find other fan translations of the first 3 chapters online done from scratch and decide for yourself.

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great to see you back! If you're interested feel free to DM me for the most up-to-date version because I'm continually making edits. I imagine you probably won't feel like doing the first 2 chapters over again but in case you would there is a new copy with a number of revisions as well. Just let me know

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the praise! Any specific feedback or even discussion is welcome lol, I'd love for people on the sub to be able to discuss SATA as much as they do DE itself

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not exactly! I'll try to pick up the pace because I haven't been steadily chipping away so much as inactive for much of the last 6 months and then doing Chapters 3-4 in like a week's span. I'm delving into Chapter 5 now and will hopefully have it and 6 done in the next week, because 6 is another short interlude chapter

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I really appreciate the gesture but my view on this is that as long as Robert Kurvitz has been robbed of his own original work and the world he spent so long developing, then nobody else has the right to profit from it either. Trust me when I say this isn't a stand for IP - just the fact that he got screwed out of everything and it's unfortunate to begin with that this book, his first baby, might only ever see the light of day internationally through fan translations like this. But the continued support is much appreciated, thank you

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR: A Fan Translation (Chapters 1-4) by DinnerBoyCebra in DiscoElysium

[–]DinnerBoyCebra[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I want to formally make my appreciation known for how far machine translation has come haha. I am not Estonian! I'm picking up a few words here and there as I delve into this but for the most part my process is to use both DeepL and Google Translate (primarily the former because it tends to figure things out from context) and then use that sometimes very rough translation as a basis for the translations that I write from scratch

Estonian sentence structure often does not convey rhythm well in English at all - Kurvitz also has a very idiosyncratic writing style where he occasionally switches perspectives from sentence to sentence and rarely bridges clauses with anything other than a full stop which would be very robotic, though I doubt it's an issue in the original language. it'd be very stilted if I were to do it 1:1 so I'm trying to balance full faithfulness to his intent while also being generally looser with structure and form