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

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

This post made me smile because it makes sense in such a relaxed sort of way.

:-)

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Snerk

Whereas gotten irritates me blind.

I don't like the emoting either, but gotten spoken by Lucius...Meeps

I know that my co writer occasionally is disappointed with me for not having my characters emote enough, and I keep splaining they're English, as am I, and I can't. Bless her, she has a lot to put up with.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I'd say I have no connection with it, but apparently my brain associates you with bishops, and in the same way I will invariably say fuck around one of the latter, I will pop up with my only uses of the word around you ;-)

Lucius would never use the word even to tell someone they have been ... Perhaps if bracketed by ill and gains, but even then with a very arch tone.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Cheers dears! Sounds like a good motto for life ;-)

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Tuts.

Not in front of witnesses, certainly not as an admission; only as an accusation.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Also I shall now insert that phrase in your fic, just because.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Describing the Weasley family's resurgent wealth courtesy of Harry's Goblet winnings, perhaps.

;-)

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I love you so much, sweetie, that sometimes I just want to cry'

LOL, that sounds like Draco in my earliest fics. In fact, when Harry proposes to him, they cry and hold each other. Ooh, I think I edited that out some time later. :D

I'm not going to link you to the fic I just read in which the Trio work at Home Depot.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

SNORT! I can just see that: 'I'd like some wood screws, thanks.'
'Sure, what are they for?'
'My wardrobe, the side is coming off.'
'Sounds as though you might have a Boggart in there. Would you like someone to come round and remove it?'

Do normal people cry when they are proposed to? I have ever made excuses and left ... in one case the country.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I was puzzled when I was proposed to - especially because G put the proposal in the form of a math problem that I was not able to solve. But in my fic Harry and Draco have just discovered to their relief that both are alive, and they're in a deeply emotional state. And then, after they stop crying, Harry makes shepherd's pie. And they have sex in the kitchen. All in all, a very believable sequence of events. :)

In the Home Depot fic, I believe they are going undercover to catch Death Eaters. It was the only thing Ron could think of and the others couldn't thing of anything else. And Ron says "“Oh…uh, my bad" and "Don't get so worked up about it."

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I would absolutely have sex with someone who made me shepherd's pie after I'd been crying, you were wholly right there!

XXX BB

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

Christmas eggnog/three bottles of decent whisky and hiding in the stables
Another good reason why the British life-style will eventually, in the bigger scheme of things, win out over globalised Americanism. ;-)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

PS, I think you told me the maths problem proposal before. Your husband is a bit different ;-)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Quite right! Bugger false cheer and enforced goodwill to all; I'll take drunkenness and large piles of clean hay to fall on any day! XXX

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

... especially because G put the proposal in the form of a math problem that I was not able to solve.
This is priceless. Seriously, this makes my day :D.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

Oh yes... just a bit!

I am sure he will have some interesting ideas about child-rearing as well. I think he may be disappointed when he realizes that not all his children may be interested in math and computer science.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

It's absolutely true! I am not sure what motivated him to do such a thing. :)

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

Also, eggnogg! *yuck*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping one of the triplets grows up to be a Luddite stonemason. And only in part so that you will have lovely garden art ;-)

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

My inner nerd wants to know the math problem. Can you share it? Not the solution, just the problem!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

We used to have eggflip when we were ill, but it was laced with loads of sugar and vanilla extract, not cheap alcohol. I think it was quite tasty, but have never been brave enough to try it as an adult ;-)

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I do not remember exactly - I have it in a file somewhere (this was 10 years ago). I believe it was a calculus problem, and I never got past geometry in school.

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

We have egg liquor called Verpoorten. It's slogan is "Ei, ei, ei Verpoorten" which is the epitome of the German hypocritical fifties.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

They will all be "unique" people, that's for sure. We will need to keep the Luddite away from our machines. My fantasy is that they will all be creative in some way. People who are not creative (most lawyers I've met, not you Shiv dear) seem to have no soul.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Knowing kids' propensity to rebel, one will be a gourmet butcher ...