After that, I made my way to a panel called Manga: Lost in Translation. They were talking about issues of translating manga and what it’s like working as a translator. Most translations are done by freelancers. There are not many translators getting steady work in the US.

They also talked about the origin of the word “glomp”. The earliest usage of the word glomp goes back to Matt Thorne. He’s the one who coined the phrase glomp.

They considered Japanese onomatopoeia to be one of the hardest parts of translating. The Japanese has onomatopoeia for everything… even things like passing a sheet of paper. These are things where we may not have a sound word for in English.

There was also a discussion of the merits of 100% translation vs. perfect English translations. Most fan translations are done as a pure Japanese-to-English translation. And there’s merit to that as you don’t lose a lot of intention from the language of origin. However, it reads very awkwardly. Also, some Japanese puns may not translate as well in to English. Largely because the puns are based on Japanese wordplay and those jokes may not translate as well because it works in the language of origin.

They also went on to discuss issues with working as a translator. When you work as a translator in Japan, you’re largely having your translation edited by people who don’t necessarily speak or understand English. However, it’s also hard to start as a translator in the US. You need to build up your credibility. And build up your own voice and style as a translator. There are also plenty of companies

that will pay ex-scantalators pennies instead of a fair rate. This alters the economics of translation.

The last panel of the evening was called the Psychology of Cult TV. This panel was one of the most interesting panels. Instead of tearing apart cult TV shows for psychological content, they talked about the therapeutic merits of using cult TV in therapy. This is interesting because I have never had a therapist who engaged me through television.

They started the panel with the discussion of whether TV is useful or a waste of time. They concluded that TV can be therapeutic in moderation. It can help us deal with more traumatic or difficult things in life. It can also help create connections in real life.

It can also teach you lessons vicariously. This is largely because you’re dealing with some of the harshest lessons without having to actually experience them. It can be helpful with dealing with issues like death and bullying.

Representations on television can make people more compassionate and more capable of understanding bigger atrocities. It can be a way to work through issues with PTSD. It can also help give context to issues through another lens.

The entire discussion was incredibly enlightening. It was an interesting panel and one that I would love to go to again to get more perspective on using television in a therapeutic practice.

After the Psychology of Cult TV, it was time to head back to the room. We ate in the room (I managed to bring some extra food so we didn’t have to go out to eat). I was planning to go out and attempt to do some networking, but that wasn’t to happen. Before I got a chance to go out, I received a call from the person who said they were going to watch our dogs. They couldn’t make it. Since no one was going over to feed them, I got incredibly nervous and no longer felt like going out to network and drink.

If there’s one thing that I wish that I could have done, it’s do more networking.

So, we stayed in and kept on checking on the dogs on our puppycam, then went to sleep.