Comments on: How to translate “Rausch”?

By: multivalence

multivalence — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:44:15 +0000

Hi, realise this is a very late response, but I just got here through the “Rausch” tag after using it in a post I’ve written. I try to think of the origins of words when I come across a concept that’s difficult to translate.

The problem with Rausch is that it wasn’t always used in association with substance-use. In the olden days it would’ve meant something more akin to “thrill” or even “a state of bliss”. So in a sense it has more happy life-affirming connotations than “intoxication” (not that alcohol is any less happy or life-affirming, but the “toxi” in intoxication kind of plays that down!)

An obvious slang translation would be “high”. You can get “on a high” drinking alcohol, or even be “on a natural high”. Depends on context. But don’t think there’s a word in English that carries the different meanings of Rausch regardless of context.

By: anaj

anaj — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:38:03 +0000

Yep, being pissed works (in the UK and South Africa)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=60210&dict=CALD

In the US this merely means to be angry
http://m-w.com/dictionary/pissed

1 chiefly British, sometimes vulgar : DRUNK 1a
2 sometimes vulgar : ANGRY, IRRITATED — often used with off

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:09:24 +0000

I just remembered a slang word for being drunk – being pissed.
But that´s not a noun, sorry.

By: anaj

anaj — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:06:33 +0000

Yihaaa! Until the
real
is
real’

By: skunkcabbage

skunkcabbage — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:57:42 +0000

We could all perhaps write a song, a ditty really, about drinking until the real is real.

By: anaj

anaj — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:01:44 +0000

Hey. All I can say is that I did my best to live up to the expectations of the project. I went to see “The Missouri Break” (great movie) and then drank 1 litre of beer. I am now at home and too psyched up to go to bed and ready to drink my quarter litre of red wine before i go to sleep. In this state, i find my imaginary happy to reunite with me – we both know that this is only going to be a nocturnal communion, but a communion nonetheless.

On the subway, I grimaced into the window in the tunnels (when I could see my face), because my face looked so nondescriptly sad, I had to make some grimaces to make it look more real to me. Also, the age off 33 is an issue to be constantly revisited in a woman’s mirror.

More 2morrow.

Just spilled my wine. Not nice.

By: cerebraljetsam

cerebraljetsam — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:33:01 +0000

I’m sorry I, of course, meant: “a return from the Symbolic into the Imaginary”

By: cerebraljetsam

cerebraljetsam — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:31:58 +0000

Ah, yes. Rausch-consciousness is an interesting way of redefining this state not as the absence of but an alternative relation of self to context/reality (i.e. consciousness). Hence, I think it is the intricate structure of the development into this post-, or maybe even pre-linguistic state that needs to be explored. I believe a Lacanian model that points out the relationship between consciousness, socialization and the acquisition of language (entry into the symbolic) may be well suited for this project. Especially, since the often proclaimed aim, as I know it, is :”saufen bis zum Verlust der Muttersprache” (“drinking until you lose (the command of) your native language). The interesting thing for academics to explore along the way, since we are all capable of speaking multiple languages, is at which point we begin to lose these second, third, etc. languages. Also, I am interested if pre-linguistic, Rausch-consciousness constitutes a return to the symbolic (I have been in several situations that were defined by fetus position, preceded or followed by long staring into a mirror, trying to recognize the person in it or freaking myself out expecting my mirror image to wink at me).

As this seems to be such an important question/research project, I think it is indeed important that we lay aside our dissertation work for one night next weekend and put our bodies on the line for science at the Chi Oktoberfest. We can justify it as a scientific experiment for anaj.

By: anaj

anaj — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:25:17 +0000

Not quite the same. Komasaufen is mainly used by the critics of those practice (quite a discussion going on about it at the moment, or rather 2 months ago still), whereas Kampftrinken was a reappropriated term, i.e. reappropriated by those who practiced it, in an attempt to give it a positive notion. Komasaufen is used by the same people who’d also use the term Unterschichtenfernsehen.

And according to the sociologist on the panel, Kamptrinken (competitive drinking) occurred in a group, while Komsaufen is also practiced by lone individuals.

By: lenina

lenina — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:06:30 +0000

it never used to be called ‘Komasaufen’ when I was young. They called it ‘Kampftrinken’ but I guess it’s roughly the same :p