Parla Inglese?

[blamebrampton]

frantic_mice  pushed me in the direction of fanficrants  (which I can see lasting another week on my watch list, if that). One of the more interesting of the many rants was from someone who, in essence, said 'Look, we live in a globalised age, is it really the case that reading American spellings in a fic set in the UK and vice-versa is worth making that much of a fuss about?'

And I have to agree. I can easily overlook gotten and alright if  no one over the age of 20 cries and if people only talk about their deepest feelings when they are in extremis. But for some, including a long list of commenters, there are certain Americanisms that are like a dictionary to the 43rd President of the USA and have them running at first sight.

I can somewhat sympathise, because I can find it very hard to read when characters start acting American, talking at great length about their emotions and so on. While I adore my American friends, my closest ones know that they will receive one brief hug on meeting and departure, and I will probably never tell them any of my deepest feelings. Which is not because I don't love them, but because deepest feelings are only for personal perusal so that no innocent souls will become aware of the full extent of my inner lunacy.

But for spelling and so on ... well, I regularly read books and magazines published in America and sometimes set in the UK or elsewhere in the English speaking world, and I cope with them. In fact, the YA novel I just finished changed spellings depending on whether scenes were set in New York or Sydney and it read as very very odd indeed (though it's a good novel). Dealing with such spelling anomalies is commonplace: most of you do the same.

I do like a good Britpick for things like truck/lorry, stall/cubicle, Christmas eggnog/three bottles of decent whisky and hiding in the stables, and were I writing fic set in the US, I would make certain that my characters said Dude and asked for the check. However, my authorial voice would still sound like me, which I believe is appropriate. Wodehouse and Conan Doyle both have long sections of novels (Psmith, Journalist and The Valley of Fear respectively) set in the US where they follow this rule, and these were great successes on both sides of the Atlantic.

All of which is my lengthy way of saying, I can cope perfectly well if you're an American and you write alright, color and aluminum. But if you could hold off on having the lads say 'I love you so much, sweetie, that sometimes I just want to cry'*, I would take it as a personal favour.
 

Finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY suonguyen !


*If you have actually written a fic that contains this line, obviously it worked well in the incredibly clever context you created for it.

Comments

[potteresque_ire]

I was a faithful watcher of fanficrants in the earlier days of fandom. Generally I'm as uncomfortable with the ranting as with the offense (it's the attitude), but it does tell me a lot about what to look out for - in fandom etiqutte more than in writing :).

Ah. Britpick. The spelling rarely bothers at all (I learned English as British English and then switched over to American), but I smile when I encounter vocabularies that are distinctly British (like lorry , lifts). If the author uses truck and elevator, however, I would have not noticed them. The slangs though ... that's what can raise flags in my head. If they're too casual American (such as Dude), I would go O_o, but at the same time, if they're too British, I, well, I'd probably have trouble understanding them, authentic as they are ...

So, does it mean I should become very familiar about the UK culture? As a reader and someone who casually calls on her 12 typing monkeys? To an extent, yes, but since I am a very casual fandomer, have no professional writing / editing responsibilities and have things much more immediate on my to-learn list, chances are I will never go deep enough to hide the American in me (I would have missed the eggnog vs whiskey).

When it comes to writing, Britpick also ranks relatively low on the list of my concerns *ducks sheepishly from calanthe_fics* – there are many areas in the art of storytelling that I must struggle with and I see getting through those as much more important; by the time I'm done with those, chances are I'm too tired of the fic to have the drive to request extensive Britpicking.

I am totally guilty of make the men cry - though it usually calls for rather dire circumstances :). As for the "I love you" and sharing the deepest feeling part - I don't think I have committed them in a fic yet, not because I know for sure that's how the Brits behave but because my own culture makes it difficult for me to find a right place to put them on paper - stereotypically speaking, Chinese are a stoic bunch :D.

[frantic-mice.livejournal.com]

I don't read all of it. Or. Almost any of it. Not that I have to defend myself for having it in my Flist. BUT! Yeah. Every once in a while?

A RLY cool rant. Like the one that spoke about Bathroom Behavior for men and women (and how different it is) written by a trans who had experience in both Girl-loos and Boy-loos.

[potteresque_ire]

I pick and choose topics to read nowadays - there are definitely something to learn here and there, but I am a resolute lurker because the talking members there are a little ... too aggresive for my taste.

Girl loos vs Boy loos. I have got myself kicked out of the girl's loo several times in my life and so I got to visit the boy's. :DD

Speaking of flist, I did finally remove someone ... we've discussed that before, so I think you know who that is ;)

[frantic-mice.livejournal.com]

YAY! Yeah. They totes sucked butt. They were trying to SELL their stuff nao. Can you believe it?



After my little micierant down there peeps will liekly remove me. WOE!! :DDDDDD But yay for you!!!

[frantic-mice.livejournal.com]

OH AND YEAH!! I lurk. It's not the type of place to rly participate AND peeps get mad @ the oddest things. o.O I'm always WUT?!?!? that deserves angers?!? Ooooookaaaaaaaayyyyy.

[potteresque_ire]

The angers is one thing ... then there's the occasional sporking, which, I dunno, sometimes I find to be almost as fanficrant worthy as the original offence. In general though, I just feel that the posters tend to try so hard to be sarcastically funny and when one puts in so much effort to be comical ... the humor is prone to fail. In Some posts reflect as poorly on the ranter as the rantee :)

[frantic-mice.livejournal.com]

Very true. That usually happens when you point out in detail hao much another person sux. As soon as you go all elaborations you say moar about urself than you say about the other peep.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That would be worth reading!

[frantic-mice.livejournal.com]

Do you want me to link you?

I will anyways:

http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/7700254.html#cutid1

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yes ... I can see my car-crash level of interest lasting a very short time. Though I've taught someone how to type tricky punctuation, so my time was not wasted ;-)

And you make an excellent point about going too far down the Brit path with slang! I usually try to pull back a little, or have things that are easily understood in context, because there are any number of slang terms that I end up looking blankly at, too, given that no one in my comfortable South-East England world would ever say such things.

I think that eggnog vs whisky is something that I'd notice but not care deeply about in a fic. Having characters act like soap opera characters is something that would be much more obvious (you don't!) and much more likely to make me stop reading.

And if something horrible has happened: death, threats to children, loss of all worldly possessions, it's all right for the boys to have a little cry. They would probably pretend they hadn't afterwards ;-)

[potteresque_ire]

Harry did cry after Dumbledore's death did he? Trying to remember :)

From reading your fic, I never get the feel that you're deliberately trying to get a British feel. It's so very natural to read. :) There are fics that, IMHO, use way too much "bollocks", "Shite", and "bloody"... it's British, but not gentlemenly, and I love my men to be very cordial. :)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

He's teary several times in canon, IIRC. And teenagers just are! It never bothers me when it's young muppets. As they get older, there should be alcohol involved, or deep embarrassment later ;-)

And YES! Wholly agree with you on the swearing!