Things That Make You Go...HUH?!?
So, aside from the brainless woman near Dayton this week, I've still been scratching my head over the folks wanting to hem leather pants. I never knew there was such demand for that topic. Maybe I should do a blog post on how to hem leather pants. Hmmm, I'd need to bring in a guest blogger for sure on that one, so we'll just can that idea.
However, there was another strange google search that turned up this week:
"What characterizes the person who embodies jen?"
I don't know! What DOES characterize the person who embodies me? I can't believe that my blog would have been anywhere near the top of the list on THAT search! Ha! I hope they found what they were looking for.
And while I'm talking about things that baffle me. I have to share with you how absurd I find it when I read people's reviews of historical fiction and they make some comment like this:
"The book's language makes use of some "old-fashioned" or archaic vocabulary which wears on me a little."
Uhm, it's historical fiction. If you don't like the "old-fashioned" language, read something modern. What were you expecting? "Dude, you down wid that? Meet me at da crib." I'm not trying to be a snob, although I guess I am. I just expect a little realism when I read historical fiction. That adds to the work. If you thought the book was predictable or the characters were unbelievable...that I can completely respect. Disliking something that you should expect to be there is just weird, and I will definitely be saying, "huh?"
Happy Reading! :)
6 comments:
Ok, I agree with your take on the historical fiction review. I'm not really sure what they were expecting when reading that genre, but ok. :)
Absolutely agree with your take on language in historical fiction. I make one exception and that is the celebrated Patrick O'Brian. And don't get me started on him, I can work up a rant in 4.6 seconds flat.
Agreed, Jen.
Jen: wasn't that woman ALSO on her cell phone when she was pulled over?
Corey: heard of the Aubrey/Maturin Series, but haven't read them. What is it about him?
Thanks.
Michael, get this! She wasn't pulled over! Another citizen saw her doing this and called it in to the police. I believe they went to her house - to follow up on child endangering charges...that's when she told them that her baby was hungry and she wouldn't NOT feed her baby. She'd rather kill it in a car accident, I guess. What a moron! On Twitter someone suggested her punishment should be to have her child removed from her and given to the mother of the octuplets! Ha!
I posted a comment earlier in response, Michael, but looks like I screwed it up somehow because it's not here. Second time this week I've done that. Maybe I just ranted too long and Blogger shut me down.
Short version based on reading the first three A/M novels: O'Brian, IMO, doesn't write in the style of the 19th century. Just because every other word is arcane, not necessarily even in the OED, doesn't mean his writing compares in any way to the writers of that period, e.g. Austen, Scott, et al. Naval jargon is not the problem, I'm fine with naval jargon and I love CS Forester and Dudley Pope's stories. His writing comes across to me as that of an intellectual snob doing his damnedest to show his readers how inferior we are.
O'Brian couldn't write a transition worth a damn (shades of Andrew Greeley). If Aubrey orders word be passed for the carpenter, the next sentence is him speaking to the carpenter as if the man magically appeared instantly. He doesn't manage time lapses and scene transitions well and the so the stories always feel awkward and lumbering.
I don't like the characters. Aubrey is an ill-bred oaf with heroic tendencies and Maturin is simply O'Brian looking at himself in a 200 year old mirror. I'd like to flog'em both, no, all three 'round the fleet.
O'Brian gets much praise for his descriptions, metaphors and similes but I thought they were generally commonplace. His writing isn't a patch on James Lee Burke.
But my opinion shouldn't stop you if you want to give the books a try. The man has millions of fans and it's just possible that I'm too ill-educated to appreciate him. That's what some of his fans have told me anyway.
Oh, hell, I told you not to get me started.
Corey: thanks for you comments. I appreciate the candor.
Jen: octo-and multi-tasker mom just give me the shivers!
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