Petrik 1

Anton Petrik

Professor Bocchino

WRIT 2

22 February 2021

Long ago, in a place far away, there was a kingdom united as one. This kingdom was

known as Radiator Springs and their primary source of magic was gas. All was peaceful until a

power known as electricity was introduced to the kingdom. Many refused to use the new power

in their kingdom, but others saw this as an opportunity to make their magic more powerful.

There was an ongoing debate on whether or not this power should be used and questions

surrounding whether anyone could be strong enough to wield it. However, there was one man

who found the ability to wield electricity after he was struck by lightning one night. This man

was called Manny. Eventually, these debates led to war, splitting the once united kingdom into

two divided kingdoms. One kingdom stayed using the conventional source of magic, gas. While

the others progressed into using electricity as their new power with Manny as their leader.

Magical wizards from the south started to intervene, trying to persuade the once united kingdom

to switch to electricity. They offered many wealth and riches, such as gold and silver. The

wizards did not help, as they created more division between the two new kingdoms. Over the

years, more and more people started to choose electricity, but the conventional kingdom still had

a breathing heart. One night, there was a full moon, and the prophet of the gas kingdom saw a

vision of the future. He saw that the world was going to melt if they did not switch its magic

from gas to electricity. Because of his vision, many people started begging to switch magic. The

gas kingdom decided to think about switching its magic. It will take some time, slowly but

surely, the gas kingdom will turn to electricity, and the world will be saved… or will it?
 Petrik 2

Genre Translation: the Elements and Concerns

When reading something difficult, such as an academic article, it is often challenging for

the reader to grasp some of the key concepts presented. This is because an academic article may

use specific jargon, which addresses the particular audience, and uses a certain tone throughout

the text. The article “Simulating demand for electric vehicles using revealed preference data”

does just that. However, a translation of an academic article into a less complex genre, such as a

fantasy, is easier for the reader to understand and might even be more interested in reading it.

Translating an article is the hard part, but the use of examples from readings assigned in class,

such as “Literary Genre Translations” and “The Puzzling Nature of Academic Articles: An

Analytical Comparison Between Crossword Puzzles and Academic Writing” gives a better

understanding of what should be kept from the original text to give meaning to the translation.

When translating an academic article into fantasy, it is necessary to incorporate the conventions

of the fantasy genre, as well as stick to the important key elements of the original text.

The article that the genre translation is focusing on is “Simulating demand for electric

vehicles using revealed preference data”. This article is focused on the economics discourse

community. By reading the article, you can see that it uses very specific jargon. For example, it

states “The market share is the ratio between the unit sales of the car model variation and the

total unit sales in the market in year t.”​1​ The article reports about a formula that sounds very

foreign to someone outside of economics and only someone within the discourse could

understand it. The reason for introducing this formula is that the author who wrote the article

already assumes that the person reading it knows economics. Due to this assumption, the article

does not make sense to anyone outside of economics. Not only is the jargon revealing to the

1
Driscoll, Lyons, Mariuzzo, and Richard S.J. "Simulating Demand for Electric Vehicles Using
​
Revealed Preference Data." Energy Policy 62 (2013): 686-96.
 Petrik 3

discourse community that is being used, but so is the tone. The tone is very informative, forcing

the reader to possess more information as they read. The tone of the article leaves the reader with

information on what economic benefit that electric vehicles bring in comparison to conventional

vehicles. The audience is also a contributor to the discipline, as it attracts people who are

interested in the profits of electric vehicles and care about the market for electric vehicles. These

three factors, audience, tone, and jargon, show that an economics discipline is a group who care

about the money that electric vehicles can save families and the profit it brings to society.

The genre I am translating the academic article into is a fantasy novel. The conventions

of a fantasy genre include using the likes of magic within the story. When looking at examples of

fantasy, such as “The Hobbit”, “Harry Potter”, and “The Wizard of Oz”, we see multiple

conventions used throughout these stories. In “The Hobbit”, there are wizards who use magic as

their source of power. A second convention that all fantasies use is a fictional setting where the

story takes place. An example where we see an imaginary setting is in the “Harry Potter” series,

where we see the world known as “Hogwarts”. Another convention that is used in all fantasy

genres is the idea of a conflict, whether it is internal or external. An example of a conflict is

found in the fantasy “The Wizard of Oz”. In it, we see an internal problem within all the

characters trying to find themselves, and an external conflict in which Dorothy is trying to find

her way back home. Throughout these three texts, we see these three universal conventions being

used. There are other conventions seen throughout these three fantasies, such as having a wise

elder or teacher in the story, and a main character. The purpose that these conventions is to have

the reader imagine this new fantasy world they are reading and imagine themselves in a world

where there are no limitations. Therefore the reader is a part of the storyline, and because of this,

it makes the reader more involved and interested in the story.

 Petrik 4

When translating the academic article into the fantasy genre, I incorporated many of the

elements found in fantasy. I use the convention of magic, wherein in the story, I have written the

use of two different types of magic, gas and electric, as they are the two types of cars seen in

today’s world. I also use the kingdom Radiator Springs, which splits into two. Radiator Springs

is a made-up world that binds to the convention of using a fictional setting in your story. Finally,

the conflict that is in the genre translation that I have written is the division between the use of

different powers which is an external conflict. The internal conflict is whether the gas kingdom

wants to switch to the use of electric magic. As stated in the academic article, “Very high

subsidies required to reach government targets for market penetration,”​2​ governments try to

include premiums when people buy electric vehicles. This could be related to the wizards in the

story trying to convince the gas kingdom to switch their power to electricity. There are other

conventions that I have not included in the genre translation, such as the main character. All the

examples of fantasy I have listed have the main character, while my story does not. I tried to

incorporate the two sides of fuels for electric cars as kingdoms instead of characters, thinking

that it is a group of people who use electricity as their “power” rather than one person. Another

convention that I have decided to not include in the story is the idea of a wise elder or teacher in

the story. In “Harry Potter,” it is Dumbledore, in “The Wizard of Oz,” The Wizard, and in “The

Hobbit,” Gandalf. In my story, I did not have this archetype. Instead, the story had a kingdom,

which could be said to be is a substitution for a wise elder. The kingdom is interpreted as the

“wise elder” in the story, as people have to obey the commands set forth. I used some

conventions that are used in the fantasy genre in my story, to illustrate the division between the

2
​Driscoll,
Lyons, Mariuzzo, and Tol. "Simulating Demand for Electric Vehicles Using Revealed
Preference Data." Energy Policy 62 (2013): 686-96.
 Petrik 5

two sides of fuels for vehicles. Even though the new genre is not written the same as the

academic article, they still bring across the same idea of electric vehicles.

One concern that I had to keep in mind when I was writing the story was making sure to

incorporate key elements discussed in the academic article into my story. This concern is

highlighted in the article “The Puzzling Nature of Academic Articles: An Analytical Comparison

Between Crossword Puzzles and Academic Writing”, where the author talks about an academic

article that they are trying to convert. The author mentions that it is important to highlight the

key elements in your translation, as it will not benefit the reader because they still will not

understand the academic article in the translation. Another concern is to not make each idea too

long and inconvenient for the reader to read. In the article mentioned above, Stedman states “A

two-paragraph long clue is not acceptable in this new genre.”​3​ This means that in your

translation, you have to obey the constraints not only to fit the new genre but to also make it

more convenient for the reader to understand. When writing the story, the one major element I

had to keep in mind is imagination. The reading, “Literary Genre Translations” mentions a

simple sentence such as “I ate the sandwich and looked out the window”​4​ and turns it into

multiple genres. One of the genres was fantasy, and the translation read “My dragon, Ralfarus,

and I, Genflowfla’ii, choked down the hardened cheese curd and two-part-moons-old bread as

we peered out of the meeting cavern.”​5​ It took a simple sentence and made it much more magical

3
​Grisco. “The Puzzling Nature of Academic Articles: An Analytical Comparison Between
Crossword Puzzles and Academic Writing.” Essay. In ​Starting Lines: An Anthology of Student
Writing,​ edited by Aviga McCellend-Cohen, 19th ed., 148–51. Santa Barbara, CA:
Hayden-McNeil, 2020.
4
​Dunlap, Wood, Alterman, Pollack, Bicks and Ephraim, Grober, Delaney, et al. “Literary Genre
Translations.” McSweeney's Internet Tendency, November 28, 2011.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/literary-genre-translations.
5
​Dunlap, Wood, Alterman, Pollack, Bicks and Ephraim, Grober, Delaney, et al. “Literary Genre
Translations.” McSweeney's Internet Tendency, November 28, 2011.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/literary-genre-translations.
 Petrik 6

and imaginative. I tried to do this in my story as I incorporated magic and non-realistic worlds in

the story.

In conclusion, the two different genres, the academic article and the fantasy story discuss

the same key concepts about electric vehicles. The fantasy story decomposes the academic article

and makes it a genre where anyone reading it can understand it. There is no specific jargon,

audience, or tone used in the new genre. The key conventions that fantasy uses are important to

keep in mind, with those conventions being the use of magic, a fictional setting, and a conflict

within the story. The concerns that are presented when translating are incorporating key elements

and shorting the idea you are trying to present. All these factors are kept in mind when

translating a difficult text such as an academic article into something simple such as a fantasy

story.
 Petrik 7

References

Driscoll, Áine, Lyons, Seán, Mariuzzo, Franco, and Tol, Richard S.J. "Simulating Demand for

Electric Vehicles Using Revealed Preference Data." Energy Policy 62 (2013): 686-96.

Cirocco Dunlap, Stephen Wood, Liz Alterman, Neal Pollack, Caroline Bicks and Michelle

Ephraim, Eli Grober, Emily Delaney, et al. “Literary Genre Translations.” McSweeney's

Internet Tendency, November 28, 2011.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/literary-genre-translations.

Grisco, Marie. “The Puzzling Nature of Academic Articles: An Analytical Comparison Between

Crossword Puzzles and Academic Writing.” Essay. In ​Starting Lines: An Anthology of

Student Writing​, edited by Aviga McCellend-Cohen, 19th ed., 148–51. Santa Barbara,

CA: Hayden-McNeil, 2020.