Translations of CCFS

Alex says:

Hello Ms Puddle,
Nagita and Igarashi have been most generous in their portrayal of Albert-arguably, even more than Terry. Even the TOEI/anime version of him is flattering (they make Terry look like a midget next to him). From all the CC/CCFS characters, Albert is depicted as the tallest, most beautiful, most intelligent, bravest and kindest. It’s odd that the Terry-fans find it so difficult to fathom that Candy would ever become infatuated with a Nordic-tall and athletic ‘Thor’-like male. Let alone the fact that he’s all beauty, brains, and brawn, having studied at the most prestigious of UK universities and also being so highly respected by all the main characters of CC/CCFS. Even Terry holds Albert in the highest esteem and wishes to emulate him. A few of my colleagues were telling me that such ‘perils’ of misconstrued romance between Candy and Albert somewhat reminds them of the misunderstood and long-term relationship between Prince William and Kate Middleton. Those two had initially begun as flatmates and ‘sibling-like’ friends at St Andrews Uni. William (very much like Albert) always preferred remote places (St Andrews is a very remote place albeit beautiful) and enjoyed doing manual labour and carpentry as his part-time job. William also used to look a lot like Albert during his youth (his bro-Harry-resembles Terry in character, hehehe). The queen (akin to Aunt Elroy) had continuously placed severe impediments between William and Kate so that they would never be together. They endured quite a lot of long-term troubles before finally being able to get married and have that beautiful family they have now. I enjoy the way you depict Albert (in your fan-fic) as a respectable human-being but also fallible with his own weaknesses and angst. This gives him so much depth.

What really annoys me with some commenters is that they desperately try to define Albert as some of ‘ethereal’, ‘non-human’, ‘Messiah/Zen Master-like’, intangible divine entity devoid of physical traits and sexual drives. That is so condescending and delusional. Had this been Nagita’s intention, I would have accepted it since it’s her novel. However, Nagita delineates Albert as a man (NOT divine entity) of high moral values but with human weaknesses as well. Albert is not an ideology, religion or some spirit. He’s a human-being in all versions of the CC/CCFFS with his pros and his cons. Albert is far from perfect. He has his own ‘demons’ to battle like all the characters in CC/CCFS. What makes Albert stand out, however, is his personal integrity and self-effacing dignity. Nonetheless, Albert is a guy who is capable of sexual desire, jealousy, anger, aggressiveness, excessive pride and recklessness. For example, his decision to abandon Candy, Terry and George and head for Africa leaving all his responsibilities behind is downright reckless and irresponsible. Arguably, if he had stayed in London to continue supervising his start up businesses as well as Candy’s progress in school, Terry wouldn’t have had to renounce his family name and leave for the USA so harshly. Both Candy and Terry needed Albert as their mentor because they were devoid of any family guidance. As a protective guardian (he was too young to be a dad), it was Albert’s responsibility to both Candy and George to maintain his post at all costs. Being fair to Terry, I consider Albert to be more in the wrong for heading to Africa than Terry deciding to leave for the USA, given the fact that even if Terry had made a mistake, he was just a kid himself. In contrast to the older CC versions (novels/manga/anime), I consider that Nagita attempts to make Albert even more human than he already is in the CCFS, the characteristic example being the removal of the lion scene. However, even in the older CC versions, Albert can get angry and when he does, he’s scary. He’s not violent at all as Terry is, but Albert can get iceberg-cold when angered (his enraged glare against Aunt Elroy in the CC manga during the attempted Neal-Candy forced engagement speaks more than a thousand words). Albert’s distance and frigidity are worse and far more powerful than Terry’s emotive fire. Robert Frost’s poem, ‘Fire and Ice’, is worth a read regarding such frigid rage:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice

As for the lion scene, when I was a teen I enjoyed it although I had found it a bit over the top. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Here’s another ‘real-life’ Albert who thrives in such a relationship with wild beasts. His name is Kevin Richardson:

All Best,
Alex

Alex says:

Hello Ms Puddle and Hello Fay!

Thank you both for your insightful commentary. Apologies for this rather lengthy comment, in advance, but I would like to answer to the astute feedback provided by both Ms Puddle and Fay.

I’ll begin with certain CC anime misconceptions circulating online. Since Nagita has already made herself perfectly clear (in writing and in her interviews) that she utterly distances herself from the anime and wants her readers to focus predominantly on HER OWN writing/narrative and also take into consideration the beautiful manga visuals by Igarashi, there’s really no point in discussing the matter any further. It is beyond any shadow of a doubt that the anime Terry bears extremely little resemblance to the CC manga and CC/CCFS novel Terry. It’s an indisputable fact that Nagita retains the ways in which Terry is depicted in the (circa 1970s- circa 2003) CC manga/novel(s) when redacting her 2010 novel-CCFS. If certain fans persistently cling to the anime-Terry, that’s their issue and not mine. Therefore, the anime-Terry is solely TOEI’s creation and not Nagita’s. Case closed.

Secondly, I had mentioned in a previous post that the anime Terry is simply a dimension of Albert himself. TOEI animations had simply morphed some of the beautiful Albert-archetype attributes within Terry. I do not consider that the anime Albert is diminished but he’s been ‘Matrix’-like multiplied into two figures (Terry-Albert). I agree with you that the manga Albert is by far more beautiful than the anime one. However, I have loads of friends who find the anime Albert immensely beautiful and even more beautiful than Terry. Personally, I always found his beard and tinted-specs so badass and cool in both the manga and the anime. I think that all the anime characters began to look awful in the final episodes of the CC anime. I’ve heard it was due to financial issues but I’m not sure. I’ve noticed a technique in anime and manga art that superior characters are always depicted as taller than the others (a bit of height-ism..); Albert is always taller (apart from George) than all the male characters, including Terry. Stear appears to be the second tallest of the lot (also taller than Terry but not as tall as Albert). I would have claimed that the anime rendered Albert as less sensual and less sexual than Terry but I would be wrong here. In the original Japanese anime, Makio Inoue is the voice actor behind Albert and Kei Tomiyama is the voice actor behind Terry, both voices of which are insanely attractive. I’ve heard the voices of both Terry and Albert in other languages as well and they both sound fantastic. Anyway, I won’t elaborate on this any further since Nagita has made her point-and I repeat-CRYSTAL CLEAR to the CC readership about her disassociation against the anime version. It’s worthy of note to specify that Nagita has furthered intensified Terry’s violent and self-destructive disposition in the CCFS whereas Albert is even more highly revered irrespective of his human and ‘humane’ flaws. I’ll discuss this issue on how Terry remains a stock character following his departure from St Paul’s (in stark contrast to Albert’s multi-dimensional and dynamic character) in the CCFS later on..

Thirdly, I’ll specify that all my analysis and interpretations of the CC/CCFS are solely based on Nagita’s novels and NOT the anime. I also avoid the CC manga in order to maintain Nagita’s voice as the exclusive source of my commentary. Therefore, in my commentary on the CCFS, my methodology focuses exclusively on the close reading of the original 2010 Japanese text without alluding to the CC novel and/or CC manga. I consider it essential that CCFS is studied as a separate text independent from the previous CC manga and CC novels of the past (circa 1970- circa 2003). I’ve also acknowledged the accuracy and veracity of Nagita’s historical references as well as geographical locations. I also take the historical and socio-political setting (time and places) of the CCFS into serious consideration as that is specifically what Nagita has done. When asked the reasons why she preferred a North American and British setting for her CC/CCFS novels instead of her native Japanese, Nagita clarified her position that her intention is not to remain within the confines of a particular national (or nationalistic) identity but to encompass and respond to a wider (international and multi-national) readership. Nagita has clearly specified that she considers Candy to be international as her feelings of love, respect and freedom constitute universal themes and not regional or provincial ideals. Hence, when I discuss about the CCFS I take the following into account and nothing more than the following which are thus: Nagita’s narrative voice (the original 2010 Japanese CCFS text itself), the historical setting and the in situ geographical locations as such during the late C19th (circa 1898/1899-early C20th (circa 1937/1938, the Interbellum prior to World War II). I am impressed with the ways in which Nagita has retained such historical accuracy throughout her CC and CCFS texts.

Yet, there have been some minor details readers have questioned, for example, Albert’s sun-glasses and dyed hair. For ‘tinted’ or ‘tainted’ glasses, historical references to such rudimentary forms of ‘sun-glasses’ date as back as the mid-C18th in the West but even earlier in China (circa C12th): [ http://www.glasseshistory.com/glasses-inventor/who-invented-sunglasses/ ].
As for dyed hair and tattoos, especially darker hues, all that stuff goes back since the antiquities.
Moreover, there’s been some controversy over the Mexican guy coming to take Candy to Mexico for the aforesaid forced child labour. There’s really no clear indication whether this guy had travelled all the way from Mexico to Illinois and then back. Such a claim would be outlandish. It would be sensible to assume that he was simply covering a specific trajectory until he handed Candy over to someone else en route to Mexico. There’s a further issue here that American citizen orphans such as Candy had been protected by law against forced child labour since mid-C19th [ http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/save/clin1910s.html ], however, there was no federal law uniformity for the ratification of child welfare laws until after World War II (circa 1950s onwards). The conflict between federal laws and state laws tend to be one hell of a migraine headache for lawyers and legal historians (I know that pain all too well as I’m one of those unlucky folk to study all this stuff..) and this cannot be resolved nor rectified in a few sentences, so I’ll leave this issue here as I wouldn’t intend to transfer this migraine pain to all of you..;-)

As for the so-called ‘World War I’ related bomb explosion within the Italian vicinity which Albert sustained his life-threatening injuries (amnesia), this may allude to the socio-political strife within Italy and amongst Italy and its neighbouring countries during the tumultuous period of 1913-1915. There is no clear indication in the text that the train was actually within Italian territory when the explosion actually occurred (perhaps it had been in transit..) [ https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/warfare_1914-1918_italy ] / [ https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/making_sense_of_the_war_italy ].
If you have found some clear indication, by all means, please let me know. I may be a ‘hawk’ when it comes to the ‘small print’ and the ‘devil in the details’, but I’m also only human and thus something may escape my notice..;-)

Ms Puddle-I’ve really enjoyed reading your fan-fic, especially ‘A Peculiar Relationship’ and the story about the ways in which George, via his own stream of consciousness, perceived the misconstrued and unobtrusively undercurrent romance between Candy and Albert. One doesn’t have to be an English lit major in order to be adept at writing. On the contrary, quite a few English lit majors tend to be awfully verbose and digressively garrulous without ever getting to the point. This is where the phrase ‘less is more’, could apply as a useful piece of advice to certain literature folk (not to everyone, apparently..). There’s nothing wrong in developing one’s argument in an extensive manner, provided that the crux of one’s argument and the required congruence are both maintained from the beginning until the end of one’s analysis whether it be brief or extensive. As for Albert’s venture to Africa, I don’t recall it having been ‘approved’, but let me re-check that one just to be sure. My apologies in advance if I am wrong about this. If I’m not mistaken, Albert had explained to Candy (CCFS/Volume 2/Epilogue/Letters) that he had been looking forward to being away from his elders during his academic studies at prestigious UK universities, however, he was frustrated that even in the UK he would continue to be supervised and monitored. After elaborating a bit on his light travels and his start up businesses in Southern England and London (in which he was also somewhat monitored albeit not as intensively as in the USA), Albert discussed the reasons why he wanted to head to Africa because no one would be able to monitor him there. Albert wanted to be utterly independent and he considered Africa to be his grand escape, especially reliant on the fact that his start up business in the UK were doing fine and George could provide his long-term expertise and adept supervision thereafter. I hope George had demanded for a raise at this point..;-) Nevertheless, I’ll re-check this aspect in the CCFS and compare the original Japanese text to the translated Italian one. The fact that Albert did regard his leave to Africa as ‘reckless’ elevates him to a self-aware and self-introspective individual. It takes class to admit one’s error of judgement and Albert sure has loads of class and personal integrity. His true class derives from his moral calibre and laudable ethos-not from his financially opulent lineage. As for Terry, I will continue to somewhat ‘defend’ his asinine action due to his adolescence at St Paul’s. I consider neither Terry nor Albert had any intention of hurting anyone by leaving the UK. I agree with you that Terry appeared to have intended to cut ties with Candy when he left the UK and later on when he briefly visited the orphanage in the USA. Nonetheless, this is where my defence or ‘apologia’ for Terry ends. In both the CC manga/novels and CCFS, Terry made no effort to stand up for Candy. Instead, it was Stear and Archie who urged him to defend her honour. Without Stear and Archie, Terry would just be moping in his room pacing up and down doing absolutely nothing but whine and nag. In the anime, however, Terry makes tremendous efforts to defend Candy by even dispelling his pride and beg his father to intervene. The anime Terry does whatever possible to defend Candy. However, this anime version is not reflected at all in either the CC novels/manga nor the CCFS. This specific and crucial aspect must be made clear to all CC/CCFS readers irrespective of their preferences and biases. We should also take into account that Terry always wanted to leave the UK (he detested his father and his step-mother) and pursue an acting career in the USA. All these three elements-Stear/Archie/USA acting career prospects-constituted instrumental factors in Terry’s decision to leave the UK.

Ms Puddle, I agree with you that if Terry wanted to maintain contact with Candy, he could have done so with tremendously great ease and as you’ve precisely indicated. I’ll proceed even further and state that if Terry wanted to defend his (otherwise awfully brief teenage) relationship with Candy, he would have stood his own ground and clarified the nature of his relationship with Candy to Susanna and Mrs Marlowe. Yes, Candy was right and honourable to decide to leave New York (I ought to admit that I identify with her 100% here and I would have done exactly the same). Candy proved to have far greater ‘balls’ than the so-called ‘masculine’ and ‘hunky’ Terry. Where’s Terry’s ‘toughness’ and so-called masculine ‘roughness’ during the St Paul’s School scandal and then the Broadway tragedy? Terry sure is ‘tough’ (full and unapologetic sarcasm intended here) when hitting and dragging Candy all over St Paul’s campus. He sure acts like a ‘tiger’ against the wee lass.. But when it comes to serious and crucial life-changing decisions, Terry suddenly recoils to a kitten and silently leaves the scene to escape any notice.. I wouldn’t expect him to be dynamic because he’s clearly not. I’m just having a bit of a chuckle that douche-bags like Terry can so easily be reduced to a puss when cornered a bit.. There were two most opportune moments (St Paul’s/Susanna) for Terry to demonstrate his so-called ‘testicular’ fortitude and state his clear-cut position as a true and honourable gentleman, but he didn’t.. Terry’s toxic masculinity is nothing but fragile and feeble. It’s worthless. Such men deserve no respect. A woman who respects and honours herself focuses on finding a partner who is her equivalent; the same applies to all genders and ethnicities. The person we are with and the company we prefer reflect the quality of our own character. It’s sheer common sense. Nagita herself is married to an honourable man and she has stated that the man she wants by Candy’s side is a man of the highest quality as Candy herself is of the highest quality with regards to her sublime character. And we all know who that genuine and honourable gentleman really is..;-)))

Fay-It’s so kind and commendable of you to put so much effort in translating the CCFS material into Greek and English. The Greek language is such a beautiful and intricate language with such a plethora of linguistic nuances and subtleties. I have profound respect for Japan and Greece as both countries have such an enriched history and culture. I am grateful to have been given the invaluable opportunity to study and delve into both countries and their immense contributions to humanity.

Ms Puddle and Fay, I would like to thank you again for your insightful commentary and I’m looking forward to discussing further with you.

Take Care and Peace!
Alex