dialectic-despair

[Monte Davis]

> Did anyone else find _Mason & Dixon_ tedious-going in places due to its
insistence on 18th-century spelling and dialect? 
 
For the first 50-100 pages, yes; after that, it became transparent. That
certainly wasn't because of extensive practice; I don't think I've read more
than a dozen pre-1800 novels in English (plus occasional exposure to the
Declaration of Independence & Constitution, Tom Paine, sermons, etc.)
 
Even if AtD makes a comparable effort to adopt the narrative prose flavor of
1890-1920, I'd be very surprised if many readers find it that obtrusive. For
all our reflexive talk of how fast our world is changing, in important ways
mass literacy and publishing have *slowed* deep linguistic and stylistic
change. Do you have a problem with spelling and dialect in  Mark Twain or
H.G. Wells?
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