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"fantasía mecánica"

English translation: Callous fantasy

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:"fantasía mecánica"
English translation:Callous fantasy
Entered by: esing (X)

16:00 Dec 3, 2009
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / lit crit (with political reference)
Spanish term or phrase: "fantasía mecánica"
Hi, I'm having trouble with a sentence used to describe two writers' contrasting views of the (aftermath of the) Mexican Revolution. The author is contrasting the ateneísta Torri with Aguilar Mora, and the way they view/portray the Rev. He says, "Escritor que ama la pintura, A.M. se detiene reverente ante el fusilado. A partir de su Pasión, quiere saberlo todo sobre la Resurrección del Pueblo. Un Torri, que vivió la Revolución, poco quiso averiguar. Para el ateneísta, el fusilamiento es una fantasía mecánica; en Una muerte sencilla...(which is a book by A.M, and thus the point of contrast), es un drama cósmico que cae sobre la salvación de cada campesino."

I am really stumped by the "fantasía mecánica". I can't quite figure out if "fantasía" is being used like "nightmare", and what he means by "mecánica" (ie if it's an age of technological advance? if it's ... I just don't know. For now, I have "A writer who loves painting, Aguilar Mora pauses reverentially before the executed hero. After his Passion, he wants to know everything about the People’s Resurrection. Someone like Torri, who actually lived through the Revolution, had little urge to investigate. For the Ateneísta, execution was a mechanical nightmare; but for Aguilar Mora in Una muerte sencilla, justa, eterna, it’s a cosmic drama about the salvation of every campesino."

Any light that could be shed would be much appreciated! Gracias de antemano.
ldillma
United States
Local time: 10:10
Callous fantasy
Explanation:
mecánico, ca = Dicho de un acto: Automático, hecho sin reflexión. -- DICCIONARIO DE LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA
REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA
Selected response from:

esing (X)
India
Local time: 19:40
Grading comment
Thank you, Esing. And thank you all, very very much. In honesty, I still feel as if several of these answers are really really valid and my choice is in part based on how my editor will read it. I am very appreciative!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +3a mindless pantomime
claudia16 (X)
4 +1Callous fantasy
esing (X)
4mechanical whim
Julie Waddington
3"a clockwork fantasy"
Emiliano Domenech
3mechanical fancy
Carol Gullidge


Discussion entries: 4





  

Answers


1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
"a clockwork fantasy"


Explanation:
I like this option because of the precision of an execution as regards method, efficiency and goal (as in "A Clockwork Orange", which, incidentally, was translated into Spanish as "la naranja mecánica".) There's a good contrast almost oxymoronical between the words.

I hope it helped,

EmilianoD

Emiliano Domenech
Argentina
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Spanish
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
mechanical whim


Explanation:
I think you should definitely retain the word "mechanical" as you suggest already as it contains the sense of technological and repetitive with regards to the firearm.

For me, "whim" captures the sense of futility conveyed in the original and also contrasts well with the overblown description of the cosmic drama idea presented by the author of the book mentioned.

Julie Waddington
Spain
Local time: 16:10
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8
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33 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
a mindless pantomime


Explanation:
mecánica=mindless, as when you do something mechanically without thinking.
fantasía= pantomime, a farse, something that is not real

Just an idea

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Note added at 1 hr (2009-12-03 17:28:34 GMT)
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Collins Dictionary

pantomime n
1 (in Britain)
a a kind of play performed at Christmas time characterized by farce, music, lavish sets, stock roles, and topical jokes, (Sometimes shortened to) panto
2 a theatrical entertainment in which words are replaced by gestures and bodily actions
3 action without words as a means of expression
4 (in ancient Rome) an actor in a dumb show
5 Informal (chiefly Brit) a confused or farcical situation

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Note added at 4 hrs (2009-12-03 20:51:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

franglish, thats fair enough

claudia16 (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:10
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 27

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  ormiston: this sounds VERY good!
29 mins
  -> thans very much ormiston
neutral  franglish: mindless is fine but pantomime definitely not, the dead are real enough. A mindless fancy or whim, maybe.//I'm familiar with the word pantomime, Claudia, I just don't agree with its use in this particular context.
29 mins
  -> Pantomime is a word soooo used inEngland (especially at Christmas) that it could almost be considered an English word. It certainly appears in all English dictionaries
agree  philgoddard
1 hr
  -> thank you philgoddard
agree  Fiona Hale: I also think this works well.
2 hrs
  -> Thank you Fiona
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7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
mechanical fancy


Explanation:
I don't think this "mechanical" actually has anything to do with technology or machines, but is perhaps more of a mechanism of the plot/story - but without human drama/feeling.

There are some here:

On Reading Law as Literature
... pervade current literary and theoretical movements) are likely to encourage us to see analysis as mechanical fancy, rather than robust imagination--or ...
www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=76959511 - Similar


by PC HOGAN - 1998 - Related articles - All 5 versions
Fantastic literature: a critical reader - Google Books Result
by David Sandner - 2004 - Literary Criticism - 357 pages
Coleridge's distinction of the imagination from the fancy marks a new claim for the creative powers of the mind, leaving to the "mechanical "fancy ...
books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0275980537...

[ electronic ] titles at Aquarius Records
Those rigged turntables have given way to even greater flights of mechanical fancy, that's right...ROBOTS. For 'Mecanoid' Bastien has constructed various ...
www.aquariusrecords.org/cat/electronic6.htm

Fancy, Imagination, and Death
mechanical fancy. Where the novel's characters, or Dickens himself, seem to operate at some liminal edge between fixity and fluid ...
www.jstor.org/stable/3200670
by A O'Keeffe - 1988

Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:10
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 315
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18 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Callous fantasy


Explanation:
mecánico, ca = Dicho de un acto: Automático, hecho sin reflexión. -- DICCIONARIO DE LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA
REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA


esing (X)
India
Local time: 19:40
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in TamilTamil
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thank you, Esing. And thank you all, very very much. In honesty, I still feel as if several of these answers are really really valid and my choice is in part based on how my editor will read it. I am very appreciative!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kevin Melody: Very good. I like it!
5 hrs
  -> Thank you, Kevin
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