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blamebrampton) wrote2009-01-17 10:57 pm
Parla Inglese?
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frantic_mice pushed me in the direction of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
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.
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.
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BUT!!! I don't like the FIXATION OF IRRITATION ON AMERICANISMS.
I'm totes prejudiced and biased because Anna Banana doesn't write much for that precise reason. It's not that she couldn't write and then have it Britpicked, but she has that inner voice that tells her, "You're American and it will slip out like a stretched bra-strap and FAUX BLOODY PAS!!" Cause there's sooooooooooooooooooooooo much indignation about hao American authors don't add those SUPAH NECESSARAY ESSENTIAL extra vowels. Because if you Brit-pick it means you care. -_-
IMO it's something rly silly and totes pedantic-o, but then agains I use Le English Language liek other peeps use their toilet plungers.
It makes me go all confusey and I can hear the words "What a silly bitch" just echoing in my head whenever someone goes CHE GUEVARA!!!! over Americano spellage. Which is weirdness because when somfin liek that echoes in my head it's usually about me. But yeah. I just always think that when peeps get rly mad about that stuff it's because they had like nine pet-peeves on their Shit List and wanted to add an arbitrary 10th. Minor bothery is fineness and proportional, cause we can't help what bothers us but we can try to help how we make people feel about what bothers us. I'm a hypocrite THOU cause I think anybody who has made my Anners sad about this and is bothered by what I'm saying can go walk in a lake.
AGAIN! I'm totes Biased. BUT. Yeah.
Point is. My deepest darkest inner feelings say that bitches should step off before I tell them to shove their stoic reserve and their extra vowels.
OverProtective Micie is overprotective. :DDDDDDDDDDD
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But as for the rest of it, for me it came in stages. Learning to write was more important than Britpicking. I did start using the extra vowels pretty early on and using Mum for Mom. You can only pay attention to so many things before you become frozen when writing.
The best thing to do is turn on British English as the default in Word.
I don't get offended if a British reader/author tells me that they use a different word. I find it actually somewhat helpful and interesting. Since most slash stories will have a bedroom scene, I try and use 'dressing gown', which still makes me giggle, and bedside table instead of nightstand. The latter, though, really how was I to know besides looking up every damn object in a British dictionary.
Now for eggnog, this is the first I've heard of it. And I've written plenty of Christmas scenes. It is an English creation. So did they stop drinking it at some point? I'm very confused. http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggnog.htm
The wonderful mods at hd_inspired did some britpicking of my stories when they received it and I found it fun to learn from them. I will be having my story for 10k britpicked, it will be my first time.
As for Anna, Micie, I would say for starters turn on teh British dictionary and just write. There will always be folks who don't like something about any story. For some it might be Americanisms, but for most it will be content. If I worried about what readers thought then I certainly wouldn't write hd compliant stories with receding hairlines, creature fics, mpreg, gender-bending, shibari, snowballing, character death, cross-gen, etc...
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Yeah. I totes understand. I just don't liek the way som people make others feel about their lackage of Britness in spellage. It's the same thing with Canon peeps, and hao they make others who don't conform to what THEY think canon is ===> make others feel their fanfiction is inferior. I hate the thought of som1 having to deal not only with finding their writin' voice but also have that voice inside their heads saying "You are not good enuf because of X. Look hao much X is hated."
Slang has its place. That's liek SUPER OBV. but yeah. It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO great that you're that way, that eager to learn, that open to suggestions, that secure about what critique ull get. But baby newby fanwriters? You teach peeps by encouraging them. Not by pounding them into dust.
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I'm not saying I had it worse than others, or that I'm more secure, what I'm saying is that if the writing will is there, you'll say "fuck it" and write and learn as you go along.
Here's what I finally wrote to get myself going again.
http://community.livejournal.com/harrydraco/3808950.html
Enjoy and buy your friends chocolate. :)
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I AM sry that happened to you thou. :((((((((((((( *pets Roma*
I'm not saying peeps have to be OKAYNESS with American spelling & American culture and whatever. It's totes fine to be bothered, I just. No Che, you knoe? I'm saying don't make peeps feel so terrible about it.
If I had kiddies I wouldn't want them to be taught by teachers that pointed out their mistakes in exquisite detail and mocked them for their flaws. I dunt like it done to my friends either. *pouts*
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*twirls*
Somfin ELSE!! to be happyness about today. ♥
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Glad you liked it! *twirls you*
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It rly worked liek chocolate 4 my rantypantness. ♥
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I would say that. Hmmm. Well. I have a hard time believing that ANYBODY rly does: 'Hi, we've just met, here's my life story and I lurve you!'
Except mebe Hollywood actors who seem to just meet one person and hang around them liek 2 weeks and "fall in love" and then get married and divorced in a year. I dun't find that type of thing believable. Mebe people in some cultures are less effusive than others but. When I see characters behave that way I think it's either bad writin' (the author is having the characters TELL each other everythin so they dont have to go through the bother of showing) or that the emotions are so superficial they're easily contained with wordage or somfin. Not sure if you get my meaning.
When people say too much it makes me feel like they're trying to buy intimacy from each other. EASY intimacy. Liek, here I'll show you this about myself and I'll trust you with this so that there's a bond btw. AND! It might be liek a totes artificial bond çause it didn't come through chemistry and time and effort, just from the quick gratification stylin of CONFESHON. Characters who act this way dunt make me think oh yes true lovage.
RAMBLERAMBLE RAMBLE BLAH BLAH BLAH. *g* Not sure what my point is nao.
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And rants are always fine and acceptable at Chez Brammers! This is a safe ranting place!
As I say, spelling doesn't really bother me much, certainly it bothers me less than people jumping on others re spelling. Anyone acting like an American soap opera character gives me the heebie jeebies (I love that phrase), but then, so do soap operas! I blame them for the whole LURVE thing you're talking about above. I think you love someone when you'll clean up their snot when they have the flu, not when you just want to shag them ;-)
Rambling is fine, too! XXX