tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post5781278638531200029..comments2024-01-19T13:24:15.734+00:00Comments on ::Acquired Taste: Tim Strettonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post-20663940639970215142009-03-03T10:10:00.000+00:002009-03-03T10:10:00.000+00:00Tricky one, Alis!If the location, the 'Welshness',...Tricky one, Alis!<BR/><BR/>If the location, the 'Welshness', is important to the story I can see why you'd want them because they add to that atmosphere.<BR/><BR/>Kate Mosse uses the trick of translating them in the dialogue, so a character will say "Bien. Good." I'm not convinced that works either but it's at least serviceable.<BR/><BR/>I seem to watch a lot of American films which have huge chunks of subtitled Spanish dialogue. In a sense what you're doing with the footnotes is perhaps a novelistic equivalent...<BR/><BR/>~TimTim Strettonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post-83788802626706665922009-03-03T09:57:00.000+00:002009-03-03T09:57:00.000+00:00Interesting. I've currently got three or four foot...Interesting. I've currently got three or four footnotes in the work in progress but they're all translations of Welsh phrases where these weren't easy to weave into the text. I'm still uncomfortable with them, though and they may go (along with the phrases) in the next edit.Alishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18406189984167289987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post-82918266499566036702009-03-03T09:16:00.000+00:002009-03-03T09:16:00.000+00:00Hi Amanda,I certainly agree with you on dialect--a...Hi Amanda,<BR/><BR/>I certainly agree with you on dialect--a very high risk strategy because there is a real danger that the reader simply won't understand what you're saying. I can just about put up with in short bursts, but if all the dialogue is like that it rapidly becomes wearing.<BR/><BR/>It's also risky because the register is such a narrow one - if you're only fractionally off, it's embarrassing. And there's also the danger that it comes across as patronising if you're writing a dialect which is not your own.<BR/><BR/>All in all, best avoided unless you're very good and very confident (and the two don't always go together!)Tim Strettonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post-7716813794777482292009-03-03T08:57:00.000+00:002009-03-03T08:57:00.000+00:00Okay, maybe total exclusion of footnotes is taking...Okay, maybe total exclusion of footnotes is taking things too far ... but I can only accept them when there's a really, truly good reason (and Tim's convinced me that for scifi there sometimes is).<BR/><BR/>It reminds me of a sometimes-rule of not writing dialogue in heavy dialect, because readers mightn't understand. Plenty of people break these rules, but I've given up reading Irvine Welsh because the dialect just slows the reading down for me too (frustratingly) much. I guess novelists can do whatever they want, but should be aware they might alienate some readers in the process. My 2 cents!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post-42790095471100925592009-02-25T08:30:00.000+00:002009-02-25T08:30:00.000+00:00The Church of the Novel is a pretty broad one. Wi...The Church of the Novel is a pretty broad one. With a sufficiently charismatic priest you can get away with just about anything. If you outlined the structure and method of "The Sound and the Fury" to someone who'd never read it, they'd think you were mad. Particularly when you told them it worked...Tim Strettonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21671128.post-10383336095124900542009-02-24T21:14:00.000+00:002009-02-24T21:14:00.000+00:00Insisting on the exclusion of footnotes is like in...Insisting on the exclusion of footnotes is like insisting that all novels ought to use only a single font, or that characters in a movie should never address the camera. Having five or six fonts can make you more aware you are reading a book; having the character address the camera makes you aware you are watching a movie.<BR/><BR/>But so what? If these are risks the artist elects to take, so be it. Nabokov's "Pale Fire" couldn't work without the footnotes, and in Wallace's "Infinite Jest" th footnotes are the best part.<BR/><BR/>All in all, it's a bit like insisting novels oughtn't digress. Well, it's a risk--but what is "Tristram Shandy" other than a series of digressions?David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.com