September 30, 2018

Slang dates your writing. And that's OKAY.

I'm following the facebook page for Just Write Chicago, a group where I used to be an active member but these days not so much.  Mostly, I ignore what they post, so I probably shouldn't be following them, but every now and then they link to an interesting article about craft.  A couple weeks ago, though, they linked to an article called "Writing with Slang."  It's from Grammar Girl, which has the lay/lie chart that I always google and gives some good tricks for remembering homophones, which I suck at.  This article, however, gave me THE RAGE.

It's about how using slang in your writing dates your writing.  Yes.  This is true.  Using language particular to a time and place, sets your work in a time and place.

HORRORS!!!

The article starts with a list of slang phrases, all of which are either derive from African American communities or from teen girls.  Huh.  It's almost like their language shouldn't be taken seriously.
It goes on to give an example of Lord Buckley, who translated Marc Anthony's funeral oration for Caesar into slang used at the time by beantniks. 

A screenshot

I beg your pardon?

That passage is great!  Do you feel the way it flows?  How it perfectly matches the meter?  How it's poetry that washes over you, even if you don't know what every word means?

It reminds me a lot of listening to...what am I thinking of?...hmmm...oh wait.  Shakespeare.

Is this article serious telling me that Shakespeare, with its many many footnotes, makes more sense?  Surely they're not saying that Shakespeare's writing is more timeless because he doesn't use slang.  Surely they're not saying that his writing isn't dated by the language it uses.  They're saying here that Shakespeare is easier to understand (I would argue it's not), and they're arguing this without getting into the fact that we have accepted Shakespeare's slang due to linguistic imperialism: slang from cultures that beat all other cultures into submission ends up not being considered slang anymore.

I'm so mad.
 
Then it goes on to tell me not to use slang in my writing, except sparingly in dialogue.  Because this person has never heard of a first person or close third person perspective.  Or maybe they have, but they've only thought about it if an upstanding character who does not use slang (or whose slang is not considered slang) is the point of view character.

I get it.  Language changes fast, and there's a chance a new term or a phrase won't survive more than a few weeks or months, or that it won't find a place outside the niche culture in which it was conceived.  There's a real threat that no one's going to know what you're talking about by the time the book you wrote gets published. 

However.  Sometimes those niche cultures need representation.  Those people need to see themselves.  They need to see the way they talk and the way they think.  And anyway, teen girls are not a niche culture.

I'm also done with this idea that your Great American Novel can be timeless by making it not apparent what time period it's set in.  I run into this idea a lot in writing meet ups, and I'm sick of it.  Let's look at the white dude cannon: Hemingway, Falkner, Fitzgerald, etc--they set their books in a particular time and place, which gives their settings and characters a distinct richness.  Let's look at sci-fi set in the future or in second-world fantasy not set on Earth.  Within a decade, these become clear products of the times in which they were written.  They can bring baggage of biases about race or sex or gender or colonialism, or they can date themselves with ideas about where technology will progress or with the lack of technology that has progressed, or they can date themselves by what they see as a threat: fascism, nuclear annihilation, climate change...Okay, maybe that one's a bad example as those threats have all made a comeback. 

This idea that you could possibly write something that wouldn't show its age is the height of hubris.  That's not what being "timeless" is about.  To attempt to do this, you would have to suppose a world where you could remove all things that would change, where biases and power structures remain stagnant or are so far removed from the characters' experience as to be non-existent.  Or both.

Yeah, it's natural to cringe away from things that feel a decade old, things that are at the point of being embarrassing instead of nostalgic.  It's easy to make fun of Elaine Benes's shoulder pads or the language in Clueless.  But if the things that set your story in a certain place and time are too much to look past, maybe you have bigger problems. 



And by the way, Clueless?  Still a great movie.  Know what else?  Similar to the example that started off this rant, it's a retelling of a classic work of literature. 

September 27, 2018

I Read Crazy Rich Asians

This week's novel is Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan.  I've been hearing all sorts of good things about the movie and decided to check out the book.

Rachel Chu, an economics professor in New York agrees to go with her boyfriend, Nick, to his home in Singapore for his best friend's wedding and to meet Nick's family.  Nick does not warn her that his family to filthy rich and Rachel gets swept into decadent homes and ostentatious parties full of people who think Rachel is a gold digger and are determined to break them up.

This is a silly book. 

It doesn't really have an end.  There's several characters who we are following, who each have their own arcs that ramp in intensity.  But instead of the usual rom-com ending where there's a definite happy bow put on the end that ties everything up, in this one, they all get to places where you can see where they'll go from here and then the book doesn't waste your time showing it to you.  Two of the story lines have very obvious parallels, but the book ends without any of the characters realizing it or learning from each other.  In many ways, it feels like a fizzle.  It feels like things happened, and I read about them and was entertained, and then it was over.

And I think that's the point.  This book is much more "Look at these weirdos!" and "What a whacky situation!" than it is about characters learning and growing and coming together.

That comes through in the descriptions too.  There are are sooooo many descriptions of buildings and decor and houses and planes and cars and jewelry, which all go to show how much money is being spent on everything, but sometimes you have to stop and ask if it's classy or supposed to be classy, if a dress is beautiful or if a fancy dinner would taste good.  Sometimes, the answer is clearly that the people have money but not taste so they're just flaunting their wealth.  But then other times there are people who look down on those who are flaunting their wealth, only for their bathroom to be described and for me to squint and ask if that's supposed to be classy.  Is any of this supposed to be classy?  The lines start to blur.  This is the heart of the novel, so the book's ending is just another moment of strangeness.

I don't think they could get away with it in a movie.  I wonder what they did.  Don't tell me.

***

Next week: The Belles, YA magical beauty standards, by Dhonielle Clayton.

September 25, 2018

Chicago Center for Supernatural Support, Episode 11: August





The Twenty Percent True Podcast

Season 3: Chicago Center for Supernatural Support

Episode 11: August





September 20, 2018

I Read Crooked Kingdom

Wow, I got very far behind writing these up.  Mea culpa.  Hopefully by the end of the day, I'll have the next month queued up.

This week's novel is Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.  This is the Sequel to Six of Crows, which I read a while back.

The team has to rescue Inej, who was captured at the end of the last book, and then they must take their revenge on Van Ek, get paid for the job they pulled in the last book, and help a bunch of Grisha get out of town before they're kidnapped by super soldiers created by the Shu.  Multiple complex heists ensue!

I was impressed by the ensemble cast and the complicated heist of the last book, and those certainly continued in the second half of this duology.  I got to know the characters enough to celebrate their growth and cheer for their moments of triumph.  (Jesper gets this moment...it's so good.  I'm still pumped about it.)

But there's an added layer to this second book, because as the characters grow to rely on and trust one another, a sadness and uncertainty is built into the story, because if the plans all go perfectly, the team members will go their separate ways and never see each other again.  When they hated each other, this wasn't a problem, but now they've been through a lot.  It reminds me a bit of the last few weeks of senior year in high school, when everyone was excited to leave and start their lives, but with that came the looming realization that friendships weren't going to be as strong and many wouldn't survive.  This was like that, only maybe they would die or be tortured, and also the city where they all cut their teeth is way more horrible than a high school.  And yet they were still a little sad to leave.

This book also had an added layer in that they each had to make something of themselves.  In the last book, they all thought that the money from the pay off would fix all their problems.  It would pay off their debts and get them out of indentured servitude and get them passage back to their various homelands.  In this one, the money would still do all that, but they also needed to step up emotionally.  Nina, the drug addicted Grisha, has to accept that her powers will never be the same and she'll never be the same.  Matthias has to get over his biases against Grisha, rather than the "love the sinner, hate the sin thing" he had going on at the end of the last book.  Jesper has to get out of debt to save the family farm, but he also has to accept that his gambling addiction got him in debt in the first place, and he needs to work on that. Wylan needs to get away from his abusive father, but he also needs to accept that his father was wrong and Wylan has worth.

***

Next week: Crazy Rich Asians, a rom-com set in obscene wealth in Singapore, by Kevin Kwan.

September 18, 2018

Chicago Center for Supernatural Support, Episode 10: Regina





The Twenty Percent True Podcast

Season 3: Chicago Center for Supernatural Support

Episode 10: Regina





September 11, 2018

Chicago Center for Supernatural Support, Episode 9: Trish

 



The Twenty Percent True Podcast

Season 3: Chicago Center for Supernatural Support

Episode 9: Trish





September 4, 2018

Chicago Center for Supernatural Support, Episode 8: Alice





The Twenty Percent True Podcast

Season 3: Chicago Center for Supernatural Support

Episode 8: Alice