THE FILTH NOTES / NOTE A THE FILTH

di Nicola D'Agostino 

The Filth e' un fumetto tosto, intricato e complesso. Un fumetto che ha diviso, perchè c'è chi ci ha trovato molto, e chi niente.
È anche un fumetto maledettamente difficile da tradurre, visto il numero di riferimenti e, in generale, l'amore di Grant Morrison per la scrittura "strana". Nicola D'Agostino, il buon adattatore dell'opera, è una persona che ama condividere gli aspetti del suo lavoro. Per questo ci ha fatto dono delle sue annotazioni per l'adattamento di The Filth, con tanto di indicazioni dello stesso Morrison.
Eccovi quindi questo documento, in inglese e (nella pagina seguente) in italiano, contenente informazioni preziose sia sull'opera tradotta, sia sul processo di adattamento della stessa.

English version

What follows is a mix of trivia, notes and precious explanations provided by Grant Morrison: I collected this during the translation of Morrison's The Filth into italian and I'm providing it here, in a per issue list, in the hope some of the readers of the series will find some interesting and/or useful info.

The Filth 1 - Us Vs Them

Page 2-4: shop owner's speech

Nicola D'Agostino: Is the "Late Night Shopper" guy supposed to be and hence speak as some kind of non-UK Indian or Pakistan shop-owner? His speech patterns points me in that direction...

Grant Morrison: He's a first generation pakistani immigrant retailer and so has a heavily-accented voice which i've hinted at by using the specific speech patterns you mention.

Page 8 baloon 2 "World In Reaction"

NDA: Is "world in reaction" some kind of TV show?

GM: 'World In Action' is a British current affairs show. i changed the name slightly.

Page 11 baloons 3, 4: "European Red Hot Blue"

"European Red Hot Blue" is an actual Satelite TV programme.

The Filth 2 - Perfect Victim

Page 3: first occurrence of "Status: Q".

GM: 'Status: Q' stands for 'things as they are' - in the hand classification system, each letter of the alphabet stands for a social 'temperature'. Status: q is ideal, status r and above are 'fever' states, while the letters below Q signify various degrees.

Page 12: "Status: V alarm"

GM: Status: V simply means things are more out of control.

Page 17: Sharon Jones speech

NDA: the speech lines of Sharon Jones taken over by i-life creatures. "crackle water" means...?

GM: 'Crackle water' is the phrase the primitive i-life creatures use to

describe the lymph flowing through the human body.

NDA: "we am" infers the loose grip on english language and/or the many/one nature of their new human "bio-ship"? "bad you am": do they mean Hughes?

GM: 'Bad you-am' is Hughes, yes. 'we-am' is the i-life creature's generic term for themselves as a race. 'you-am' is everyone else and can be qualified with 'bad you-am' (Hughes) or 'good you-am' (Greg Feely)

The Filth 6 - The World of Anders Klimakks

Page 19 baloon 5: "All you need is fuck, yeah?"

A play on The Beatles' "All you need is love".

The Filth 7 - Zero Democracy

Page 9 baloon 4: "The old trouser snake"

NDA: "I intend to unroll the old trouser snake and wouldn't want any of you to become fainthearted" is this a pun involving the penis and pissing such as "syphon the python"?

GM: Yes it is. It's also Justin Timberlake's nickname in the British press - 'Justin Trousersnake'

The Filth 8 - ・*%S Police

Cameron Spector slang

Grant Morrison on translating The Filth (vs. The Invisibles', the bulk of which I also did)

GM: 'The Filth' should be easier to translate than 'the Invisibles' as there are fewer made-up 'alien' words. the only real hurdle in 'The Filth' might be the phonetic glaswegian speech of the Cameron Spector character who makes her first appearance in issue 3.

Here's some Cameron Spector slang "decoding" (when there is no GM comment it means Morrison gave me thumbs up):

Page 4 baloon 13

"witzy git wains wi ant heedz fur?"

"what's he got WAINS (ones?) with ant heads for?"

GM:'WAINS' or 'weans' means 'children' or 'kids'

Page 4 baloon 14

"cunt's affeez fukken chump!"

"cunt is off his fucking chump!"

GM: 'Off his chump' means 'off his head', crazy.

Page 8 baloon 11

"injiz honessly hink embdy's geein a fuck abit the prezidint, ya fat cunt?"

"and just honestly think anybody's giving a fuck about the president, you fat cunt?"

GM: 'and do you honestly think anybody's giving a fuck about the president you fat cunt'

Page 13 baloon 10

"annurrz zumhin fukken weerd abit the wiy thurr waukkn."

"and there's something fucking weird about the way they're walking"

Page 13 baloon 18

"wurr no polis, hen, wurr clennzin!"

"we're no police, ???, we're cleansing!" ?????

GM: 'we're not police, love, we're cleansing'

Page 19 baloon 12

"time tay get tay fukk"

"time to get to fuck"

Page 19 baloon 13

"the sharks kin deliver the moral ut thay end"

"the sharks can deliver the moral at the end"

The Filth 9 - Inside The Hand

Page 6 and following

Man green/man yellow are an homage to the couple of artists GIlbert and George.

More Cameron Spector slang:

Page 4 baloon 1:

"yih day wye too much hinkin, slade."

"you do way too much thinking, slade."

Page 4 baloon 3:

"yuv loast yir tits it least."

"you have lost your tits at least." ??? ("lost your tits"="got annoyed/pissed off"?)

GM: no. it just means what it says - Slade's healthier and fitter and has lost his man-breasts

Page 4 baloon 7:

"aye well the fukken cat's deed noo, ya daft, soppy cunt yih."

"yeah well the fucking cat's dead now, you daft sloppy cunt, you."

GM: Pretty much except that it's 'soppy cunt' meaning wet, weak, emotional

Page 4 baloon 8:

"moeanen get yir kit oan"

"come on and get your kit on"

Page 5 baloon 5:

"an noo wur shutten it doon tay stoop yoo fay losing the fukken heed awthegither."

"and no, we're shutting it down to stop you from losing the fucking head altogether."

GM: "and now we're shutting it down to stop you from losing the fucking head altogether"

Page 10 baloon 1:

"pridey the horns" ???

GM: "The pride of the horns"

Page 8 baloon 10: "where there's brass, there's muck"

NDA: Can't find an italian equivalent for this and not sure: is it a way to say there's always a bad/unpleasant side to things? Something like "can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs"?

GM: The actual saying is 'where there's muck, there's brass...' meaning that where dirt is, there you will find money (the phrase was used in Britain to describe nouveau riche landowners who profited from the mining industries - i reversed the meaning to say 'where's there's money, there's always dirt')

The Filth 10 - Man made God

On Mercury's look

NDA: Is it just a coincidence that Mercury looks like someone from theAkira Toriyama "Dragonball" comic book?

GM: Not entirely. He's meant to be a cross between a manga character and comic writer Mark Millar.

Page 15 baloons 2, 3, 4: Dolphin speech

NDA: The speech pattern of the dolphin is intentionally messed up, right?

GM: Yes. It's dolphin syntax

Cameron Spector slang:

Page 20 baloon 7:

"aye in by ra wey, yir cameras are "broadcasten" straight oantay an internet snuff site, pal."

"and by the way, your cameras are "broadcasting" straight onto an internet snuff site, pal."

Page 20 baloon 8:

"thurrz sick basturts whakken aff right noo, tryentay time thurr cum tay yoor last breath."

"there are sick bastards wanking off right now, trying to time their cum to your last breath."

GM: Yes. Lovely image, isn't it?