Another smalltown librarian

[john wells]

Jules Siegel wrote:
> 
> At 09:33 AM 07/3/97 -0400, Sojourner <sojourner at vt.edu> wrote:
> 
> >Oh my word... you sound as if you are almost proud of the fact you lived in
> the mega-slang factory of "dope-dealing" northern California!  Are you?
> 
> Very much so. And not "almost," either.
> 
> >Did it sadden you so much that an author wrote a book of fiction which
> >INCORRECTLY used the slang and euphemisms of some dope dealers?  Did that
> >put a tear in your eye and an ache in your heart for them good old damned
> >days when you couldn't throw a rock without hitting some drug dealers?  I
> >am so sorry it annoyed you, you purist, you seeker of truths and honesty.
> >I'm sorry that poor Mr. Pynchon offended your sensibilities and ruined your
> >ENTERTAINMENT and enjoyment of his work.
> 
> I didn't deplore his inventions. I said that they made it impossible for me
> to enjoy Vineland. You live in Virginia. Do you speak with a southern
> accent? Do you use regional idioms? If so, how do you feel when some Yankee
> jerk imitates all this on the basis of having read Mark Twain in high school?

Now, now, let's not pick on Twain. He was one of very few people who,
reportedly, could write local dialects. But even he commented on the
difficulty of writing dialects and mentioned other writers for whom it
was apparently impossible, ie Joel
Chandler Harris, if memory serves. Still, Pynchon's dialects are, from
my limited exposure, positively juvenile. And Jules is right, a poorly
written dialect makes it
impossible to enjoy a book because, I think, it kicks the reader out of
the mind of the character and into the mind of the writer when he (the
reader) stops to wonder "what the hell is he writing?" when he reads
poorly written dialect. It takes him out of the experience created in
the book and puts him at the desk of the writer, which is NOT where the
writer should want him. Simply put, it inhibits the flow of the
narrative.  
> 
> >I also pine for the lost and
> >misrepresented integrity of that honorable bunch of thieves which you are
> >so proud to announce to the world were your neighbors and companions during
> >your long and gritty life.
> 
> These people were better to me and to each other than were most of the
> straight people such as yourself who seem to enjoy indulging in boorish
> rhetoric to the exclusion of real social contact.

AMEN to that! Jackie Mason said it best, 

"Honesty is nothin' compared to decency."
     
From: "THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I'VE LEARNED IN LIFE..." ed.by Bauman,
B. Fireside Books/Simon & Schuster Inc. copyright Beau Bauman, page 18.

> 
> >Sam Reames
> >Technical Services/Serials Receiving
> >University Libraries
> >Virginia Tech
> >Blacksburg, VA  24060
> 
> What is it with these smalltown college librarians? Too much time on their
> hands?

...and not enough life under their belt. (They should keep their heads
down, they're liable to get wind-burn in their nostrils.)

john
 
> --Jules Siegel Apdo 1764 Cancun QR 77501
> http://www.yucatanweb.com/siegel/jsiegel.htm