Too cool for subject

posted by [identity profile] mab-browne.livejournal.com at 08:35pm on 16/02/2007
Hmm, I really liked the way that the plot of Alpha and Omega flowed - the situation of apparent betrayal and conflicted loyalties didn't feel at all contrived - it just arose naturally out of the experience of the characters. Otoh, I did occasionally find some of the modern language jarring. I agree that the last thing you want is a 'Cecil B deMille' tone, but sometimes that took me out of the story. But in the end I guess these are stylistic issues that will work for some readers, and not for others, and you pays your money and you takes your choice. Interestingly, I don't find Lindsey Davies approach to colloquial language bothers me in the Falco books - maybe I was acclimatised by lots of BBC costume dramas when I was young and anglophile. *eg*
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Too cool for subject

posted by [identity profile] gillyp.livejournal.com at 11:14am on 20/02/2007
“…I did occasionally find some of the modern language jarring. I agree that the last thing you want is a 'Cecil B deMille' tone, but sometimes that took me out of the story. But in the end I guess these are stylistic issues that will work for some readers, and not for others, and you pays your money and you takes your choice. Interestingly, I don't find Lindsey Davies approach to colloquial language bothers me in the Falco books - maybe I was acclimatised by lots of BBC costume dramas when I was young and anglophile. *eg*”

I guess my point is that historical people didn’t speak ‘ancient’. In their day, their language was contemporary. I don’t personally think adapting speech for an historical character makes sense, unless you’re placing that character into a modern setting, when his/her language would sound different and strange.

If all you have is a bunch of people in their own time, talking together, they would sound the same to each other, as we do to each other. If you have them ‘talking funny’, they cease to be contemporary to their time and become ‘Historical Persons’, which isn’t at all what I *assume* writers want to achieve with their characters.

Thanks for the kind comments on the story, btw; I’m thrilled a writer I admire so much liked it. ::blush. simper:: (o:
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