>
> On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:54 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > According to the National Endowment for the Arts, "fewer than 3% of
> > all books published in the U.S. . . . were translations," writes John
> > O'Brien ("A Simple Question," Context, No. 14, 2003, at
> > <http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no14/simpleQ.html>). In
> > contrast, says O'Brien, "In Western European countries, the percentage
> > of translations is about 40-50% each year. Many of these are from the
> > United States, but a significant number are from a wide range of other
> > countries." I submit that American intellectuals are not cosmopolitan
> > at all.
>
> I'm not sure what this proves about intellectuals, because that 3%
> vs. 40-50% no doubt includes lots of mass market stuff.
Plus probably most scientific and technological material gets written initially in English anyway, regardless of the native language of the writers.
-- Andy