On Blue's Waters (Initial thoughts)

António Pedro Marques · 11 Jan 2012, 14:11 · from 2012-January.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gUGVkcm8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:11:46 +0000
Subject: (urth) On Blue's Waters (Initial thoughts)
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Jerry Friedman wrote (11-01-2012 06:04):
> From: Ant?nio Pedro Marques<entonio at gmail.com>
>> With the possible exception of Pig's 'eye dialect', how can those
>> characters' specific ways of speaking be presented other than as they
>> are? You may say you'd rather they didn't have specific ways of
>> speaking, or that their ways of speaking weren't so conspicuous (like
>> those of thieves, soldiers, councillors, and so on), but there I'd just
>> have to disagree, as I quite like Remora and just love Oreb, for
>> instance. The one I feel is a bit forced is Incus, but that's in
>> character also.
>
> I'm not sure what you're saying here.  I think Wolfe did a good job
> distinguishing the speech of the characters, except for the ones I
> mentioned, which are too mechanical for me.  (There might be other
> exceptions that I don't remember.)

Well, my point is that the characters you mention are done that way on
purpose. Wolfe could have made them distinctive in ways more similar to the
ones you like, but he chose to do it that way for those. And I can't believe
I'm the only one who likes the result. The reason I somewhat dislike Pig's
speech is that it does get in the way of comprehension for me, and while
that is also true of that of thieves, there it's just my ignorance of
english, whereas with Pig it's really a graphical thing.

>>> I have the gravest possible doubts that either the h's or "yer" for
>>> "you" are part of the dialect Wolfe seems to be aiming at.
>>
>> There is no Scotland in the Whorl.
>
> Okay, why wouldn't it be better to use one's best imitation of a real
> Scots dialect (or literary Scots) than a combination of Scots with a
> feature from Classical Cockney?  Or just let the simple sentences and
> third-person self-references characterize Pig's speech?  On the other
> hand, maybe few people beside me were annoyed that they didn't know
> whether Pig pronounced the "r" in "yer" and "ter".

I think my answer is that it could have been done that way, but it wasn't, 
so it was a matter of choice, not ignorance or hastiness (this can also be 
my reply to Thomas, I think). Far from me to suggest that any human work is 
perfect, but ot1h I don't feel equipped to complain about the choices made 
by the author of the BSS and otoh it doesn't get on my nerves - except for 
the <'>, that is.

Getting back to Thomas's point: I personally know people who talk like 
Remora. How can one express the way they talk if not as Wolfe does? Sure, 
one may hint - but at some point it isn't the same thing.

And I think Olivine's speech is an important part of her characterisation, 
one I don't see achieveable by other means.

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