Re: Is fiction important?
Eric, without disagreeing with any of your points (as I don't), I'm not sure what one can do about it.
One reader here or there won't make a difference to how much gets translated, translated books just don't sell well in the UK and thus those that do get to be translated tend to be the more obvious. We have no history here of reading Central or East European literature (to pick an example), so other than Pushkin Press who is bothering to translate it?
But learning a language to read literature is a hell of a goal, really to get to that level you need to live in a place for a while, immerse yourself, and that's a level of commitment most will struggle with. I speak fairly good Italian, but I still struggle to read novels, and that's just one country's literature. The prospect of learning Polish to read their literature is rather daunting. Sensibly, one would learn German, which would open their national literature and I strongly suspect would open up a huge wealth of Central and Eastern European literature in translation (to German) - that being their near abroad and all (to use that remarkably menacing Russian phrase).
But, learning German itself is a big ask, personally I don't even like the language. So, I agree with you, but I don't think it's a problem which permits of easy answers, save to buy more books from Pushkin Press perhaps.
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