Random Literary Observation

I just read Travesuras de la Niña Mala, and I am in the middle of Bel Canto. And a few years ago I read A Heart So White. It occurs to me that one of the under-the-radar archetypes of the modern era is the put-upon translator. With the various corners of our civilization becoming more interconnected by the day, could this be our era's version of the mad scientist or the ambitious wife pulling her husband's strings?