Anton Parks Books In English
Maria Houchins
In 2012, Anton Parks established his own publishing company Pahana Books, in order to publish his new books and republish revised editions of the previous ones. This allows him to enjoy total control on the editing and publishing of his work.
Translations in English and Spanish of Anton Parks' books have been underway since 2010. So far, the English version of Le Secret des Étoiles Sombres (The Secret of the Dark Stars originally published by Nouvelle Terre) is the only volume of The Chronicles of the Gírkù to have been published in a foreign language. An English version of the essay Eden has also been published.
I\u2019ve always complained about embargoes and secrets in the publishing industry. What was up with all these demands to keep book titles secret, book covers secret, or even the fact that such-and-such was working on such-and-such? Who cares? It\u2019s just books! Why can\u2019t we just let it all hang out?
This essay isn\u2019t about the arduous process of translating the book; what I wanted to focus on here is the \u201Csecrecy\u201D aspect of the work. The fact that I couldn\u2019t tell anyone about what I was working on quickly became a huge daily inconvenience. I suddenly became extremely unavailable, not just to the industry and to friends and family, but life itself\u2014all the beautiful parks I liked to walk in, all the bookstores I liked to haunt, sunlight, sleep, eating, and sometimes, breathing. My entire life ground to a halt as I was completely and utterly consumed into the BTS content production machinery. But the busy-ness was one thing, what really killed me was not being able to talk about this book. That I was working on what might be the biggest book of my translation career, the absolute crest of the tsunami. I am a naturally extroverted and excitable person, and this was one piece of news I was dying of excitement from. How were we ever going to keep it a secret?
The management of dead bodies is the ultimate preoccupation of a man who waits for a god to heal him of his pain. What is the last sound a man makes before dying? A vibration, sometimes audible, sometimes not. This sound continues, even after death. No prophet could hear this sound. They thought God spoke to them through words unfolding in time, words that appeared as angels, spirits, books, tablets, or maybe, demons. It is not the word through which the cosmos expresses itself; it is the resonance of vibrations, sounds confused as words, without meaning, only music.
"The books competing for the prize numbered 52, all of an outstanding quality. There was a great variety of subjects: bibliographies on individuals, typefaces, genres of books, authors, printing presses and printing houses, on wood engravers and illustrators, maps, charts, geographic areas, libraries, bookbinding, religion, on book and printing history, and there were excellent studies on publishing histories. Many of these books are wonderfully produced and finely illustrated. The Jury was honoured to be able to see, study and discuss even books from China, Japan and Russia - a novelty in the history of the Prize. We cannot stress enough what a great pleasure it was to be surrounded for two days with so many works executed with great quality, intellectually challenging and bibliographically very interesting. We have been amidst a group of books produced by people who have very often worked or collected for many, many years (and in some cases worked AND collected for many, many years), who have mastered their subject to the fullest extent and who devoted time, money, intellectual curiosity and a great love to their books and subject. All of these books, due to their quality, were individually perfectly capable of presenting and defending their claim for the Prize!"
Providence voters reported that they are generally satisfied with public services in the city. For example, 79 percent said they were very satisfied or satisfied with garbage collection, about 64 percent (63.7) felt the same way about neighborhood police presence, nearly 89 percent (88.7) felt similarly about fire and ambulance service, and 60 percent replied similarly regarding parks in Providence. Respondents were most dissatisfied with Providence public schools and upkeep of roads throughout the city.
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