Grokking the Subaqueous Consigliere John Clute

Given the near constant "WTF-is-this"-itis afflicting those who comment on John Clute's reviews---ever since that feature was added when SciFi Wire and SF Weekly merged---I thought I'd perform a public service by explaining Clute. Thus, a few sentences from his review of The Wind-Up Girl...ORIGINAL: Like so many of the mad scientists and realpolitiking consiglieri who claimed sovereignty over the rest of us throughout the literature of the past century, he is a Faustian entrepreneur, a transformer of the planet for gain.ROUGH TRANSLATION: Like so many of the mad scientists and pragmatic politicians/advisors whoruled the rest of us throughout the literature of the past century, he is a Faustian if you don't know this one, shoot yourself, a transformer of the planet for gain.ORIGINAL: This time round the name of Faust is Gibbons. For much of the indurated durance vile of The Windup Girl---which is set in the energy-depleted corporation-dominated world adumbrated in Bacigalupi's "The Calorie Man" (2005), and in the hyper-saturated Bangkok featured in "The Yellow Card Man" (2006)---he serves as a MacGuffin, though an exceedingly deadly one...ROUGH TRANSLATION: This time round the name of Faust is Gibbons. For much of the unfeeling wretched confinement of The Windup Girl—which is set in the energy-depleted corporation-dominated world foreshadowed by Bacigalupi's "The Calorie Man" (2005), and in the hyper-saturated Bangkok featured in "The Yellow Card Man" (2006)—he serves as a MacGuffin, though an exceedingly deadly one...THE ORIGINAL: The subaqueous intensity of The Windup Girl is, perhaps, in the end, slightly deceptive, as it is entirely possible to be so circumambiated by Bacigalupi's quite extraordinary, virtuoso, shock-immersion rendering of his transformed world that one misses what might seem obvious in full synopsis: that The Windup Girl is a Thought Experiment.ROUGH TRANSLATION: The It's water, people. It means underwater for fuck's sake intensity of The Windup Girl is, perhaps, in the end, slightly deceptive, as it is entirely possible to be so Don't any of you wankers have dictionaries or google or an education? Stelllaaaaa! Stellllllaaaa! by Bacigalupi's quite extraordinary, virtuoso, shock-immersion rendering of his transformed world that one misses what might seem obvious in full synopsis: that The Windup Girl is a Thought Experiment.***The problem, of course, is that my translations are substitutions---and substitutions change meaning. No word means exactly the same thing as another word. Even if you were to argue that some synonyms are exact, their origins will always be different, and thus all words will always be different. There is, for example, a vast distance between "realpolitiking consiglieri" and "pragmatic politicians/advisors"---so much so that, as a reader, I'm willing, then, to accept the possible overkill of "indurated durance vile," especially because "durance vile" is a very specific way of saying "imprisonment." Although I think it's quite possible Clute just wanted his consonance, I can't be sure there isn't some more functional purpose for using that term.In an age when we have not too much sophisticated analysis of books but too little, it is hard to fault a reviewer for expanding our vocabulary even as he explicates a text. The fact is, the ways in which his words seem stand out like a flashing siren or fit in as if part of an intricate mosaic will always depend on the brains of each individual reader.(Now, on other hand, if Clute would stop writing about Story like, as a friend said to me, it's "some old guy who lives next door to him and not a ridiculous simplification-confabulation dreamed up during a particularly passionate night of self-regard" I'd be quite happy...but, we all have our foibles.)