CCBC-Net Archives
RE: Language
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Robin Smith <smithr_at_ensworth.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:44:37 -0600
Interesting question. My father has very very little formal education (to grade three, maybe)and was not raised by literate people in the foster homes he lived in. He has always had great vocabulary and perfect grammar, aside from the coll oquialisms of rural Nova Scotia. I worry more if the voice falters in a novel. It is jarring and drags me ri ght out of the narrative if that happens. I find myself folding down the co rners of the pages and waiting for it to happen again instead of enjoying t he novel. Robin
________________________________________
From: Elsa Marston
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 10:13 PM To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject:
Language
Melody Allen raises an interesting point in her discussion of CALPURNIA TAT E (which I have not read yet): about the diction of the narrator and wheth er it fits with that individual's level of education and other formative in fluences. When I read a novel narrated by an almost illiterate teeanager, and keep saying to myself: "this is a 45-year-old Radcliffe graduate speaki ng," it does nothing for my appreciation of the book. Maybe it would be in teresting sometime to have a discussion of authors who have successfully wr itten in the voice of a young person of very limited background, while stil l producing fine prose.
Elsa www.elsamarston.com
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:44:37 -0600
Interesting question. My father has very very little formal education (to grade three, maybe)and was not raised by literate people in the foster homes he lived in. He has always had great vocabulary and perfect grammar, aside from the coll oquialisms of rural Nova Scotia. I worry more if the voice falters in a novel. It is jarring and drags me ri ght out of the narrative if that happens. I find myself folding down the co rners of the pages and waiting for it to happen again instead of enjoying t he novel. Robin
________________________________________
From: Elsa Marston
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 10:13 PM To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject:
Language
Melody Allen raises an interesting point in her discussion of CALPURNIA TAT E (which I have not read yet): about the diction of the narrator and wheth er it fits with that individual's level of education and other formative in fluences. When I read a novel narrated by an almost illiterate teeanager, and keep saying to myself: "this is a 45-year-old Radcliffe graduate speaki ng," it does nothing for my appreciation of the book. Maybe it would be in teresting sometime to have a discussion of authors who have successfully wr itten in the voice of a young person of very limited background, while stil l producing fine prose.
Elsa www.elsamarston.com
---Received on Fri 29 Jan 2010 10:44:37 PM CST
