Azione pulviscolare
English translation: Distributed (individual) actions
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| 17:00 Sep 2, 2008 |
| Italian to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Pompeo Lattanzi Italy Local time: 21:55 | ||||||
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Answers
38 mins confidence: 
Distributed (individual) actions Explanation: IMHO, it refers to the fact that individuals carry out very small actions (positive or negative) with respect to the environment, but these actions are spread everywhere (=distributed) and their sum has a large total effect. |
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38 mins confidence:
"nebulised impact" Explanation: Either use or leave the Calvino translation or I think you have to "think round" the term as a "fine dust" action doesn't really make much sense. Alison |
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46 mins confidence:
campaign or movement of singles and families against the pulverization of traditional values Explanation: it´s IMO a campaign against the transformtion of traditional values in our life, cioè contro le trasformazioni di tradizionali spazi del lavoro, del tempo libero etc. que producono combinazioni inaspettate non tanto del punto di vista spaziale o formale ma sopratutto atmosferico. Constant changes in all fields (architecture, fashion etc. are felt to be detrimental to the quality of life |
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4 hrs confidence:
speckled dust effect Explanation: Un altro suggerimento. Si trovano diversi esempi in letteratura. |
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Reference comments
13 mins |
| Reference Reference information: pulviscular (puhl-VISS-kew-lurr) Dusty; resembling fine powder. The only place I've seen this word is in a book by literary critic Italo Calvino. Perhaps Calvino's translator coined it himself, based on the Italian word pulviscolo, which means "fine dust." (It's a relative of pulverize.) Pulviscular may not appear in English dictionaries -- yet -- but its use here was so lovely, and so apt, that we can only hope word-lovers everywhere will make sure that this evocative term enjoys wider use. "A classic is a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off." -- Why Read The Classics? by Italo Calvino, translated by Martin McLaughlin. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 15 mins (2008-09-02 17:15:26 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Times Higher Education - Capturing particles of literature from ... Or rather, the object of reading is a punctiform and pulviscular material". ... discontinuous, unstable, a pulviscular cloud of heterogeneous phenomena". ... www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=157084&s... - 28k - Cached - Similar pages -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 17 mins (2008-09-02 17:17:50 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Returning to Invisible Cities, it would seem that the idea of the “cosmological-epigram” applies very well to Calvino’s miniature urban sketches, very brief portraits that attempt to express the nature of an imaginary city. In this respect, they are probably best imagined as “mini-utopias,” or even the cosmological epigrams of various imaginary, utopian universes. In 1973, just after the publication of Invisible Cities, Calvino wrote an essay about the French utopist Charles Fourier that contained a section entitled “L’Utopia pulviscolare” in which he describes his “Utopia of Fine Dust”: -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 28 mins (2008-09-02 17:28:35 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- I would go for "fine dust action"....I think "pulviscular" is one of those rare words....few people know what it means, acc. to the research (and my own personal views!!).. |
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