Character speak

[pjthompson]

Generally when I write a character, even in third person because I’m usually writing in a tight third person perspective, I like to use language that is appropriate to that person’s worldview and experience. My voice shifts slightly depending on who I am following. A thug will not describe the dewy light of dawn, and a lady of refinement will not curse like a sailor—unless the thug is not a typical thug but one who likes purple prose, and the lady once made her living swabbing decks. I’m not always sure all readers notice these things, but it’s important to me that I get that sort of thing right.

Time appropriate language is important, too. Revising a novel set in 1938 has reminded me how hard I worked to get the period language right. In some cases, this made the prose rather stiff in places, jarring to an early 21st century ear. In this final language polish, I’m trying to walk the line between authenticity and flow. “Twaddle” and “claptrap” may be perfectly acceptable 1930s period substitutes for “nonsense,” for instance—but they make me want to giggle. If the scene is not one in which I wish to evoke giggles, then I have to come up with a compromise that suits the scene, suits the period, and suits a more contemporary audience. In this case, I used “baloney,” which can be somewhat humorous, but isn’t quite as silly. It fits the context of the scene better, anyway, and that’s the important thing.

Then there comes the question of other types of verisimilitude which are not so easy to reconcile. I would have a great deal of trouble using racial epithets in my fiction. And yet in earlier periods of U.S. history those words were used regularly and casually. It was almost de rigueur in certain circles. Can I accurately portray those segments of society without using that offensive language? The words are so hurtful—but they were the way people spoke. I didn’t support removing “offensive” language from Huckleberry Finn, but can I justify using it in a contemporary work, even if it is set in an historical period?

I don’t have an answer, and fortunately in the case of my current novel, it didn’t come up. I know I’m not the only writer struggling with this, and I don’t think there are facile answers to the question. Character speak is always a balancing act between the way things are/were and the effectiveness of the prose in trying to tell a story. I suspect this is one of those cases where everyone has to decide for themselves what’s appropriate.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Comments

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

Coming at it from the other direction, I was hired here in Spain to help translate Krazy Kat cartoons from 1925-1926. As I got into it, I realized that Krazy often spoke in a kind of slang written phonetically that I could understand only because my grandfather used to joke in that same slang -- I'm old enough to have a grandfather that old. I had to "translate" the text into my grandfather's voice to understand it. And giggle at the jokes.

But I wonder how long this text will last before it becomes as hard to fathom as Shakespeare.

The past is a foreign country. They speak a different language there.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

The past is a foreign country. They speak a different language there.

That's for sure. But I imagine there's some specialist scholar somewhere with a PhD in Krazy Kat—or at least that kind of jargon. :-D

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Racial slurs are a problem, sometimes an odd one. I was confronted with trying to find a modern English equivalent for "Wealh" that conveyed "stupid, inferior foreigner". I discarded "Welsh" because... well... most readers wouldn't get the point. I finally settled on "Wog", mentally glossing it as "Wily Occidental Gentleman", partly because it was monosyllabic and began with "w". Someone wrote to chide me "You do know that's a very offensive term, don't you?" and my reply was "Yes! That's the point!" But it's a tricky issue.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

For reference, there is a Bavarian/Latin glossary from the time. I think I was really depressed at the thought of German "barbarians" going up to a barber clutching their little phrase book in order to say "I want a lot of hair cut off/some cut off/a little bit cut off". It's as bad as the Viking with a portable iron - well, smoothing stone - well, a glass globe that could be filled with hot water.

The relevant point, though, is that it uses the "w" word for Romans in such gems as "Romans are stupid. Romans have a great deal of stupidity".

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the more recent past is even more problematic because the language is still current. Using the N word is not something that anyone would misconstrue.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

This is the thing: I was having to translate an ancient slur with a current one, and one that nobody in the UK would misconstrue.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Time appropriate language can make or break a story for me. If I find a modern idiom in a historical piece--gone. Done. I'm out of the story. Put "earth" words in a fantasy novel? Same. Some don't notice. Some don't care. Those aren't the ones we writers need to please, because they won't notice or care if it's done right either. But those who WILL notice? Yup! Those are the ones we must please.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

I won't claim I'm always pure in this regard. Sometimes, if writing about the distant past, I'll do the old "ancient language translated into contemporary English." But even there I try to avoid slang expressions or sayings; definitely contemporary references and anachronisms. All of those cheapen the experience, I think.

Which is not to say I don't slip up, and my first drafts tend to have a lot of linguistic junk in them (which thankfully some early betas point out), but I try to be consistent with the time/place I'm writing in.