The Foreign Language of Mad Men

[Elaine M.M. Bell]

*More on the "I need to" issue...it, was, i think, in the early 80's that
"I Statements" came into vogue.  Instead of saying, for instance "You hurt
my feelings when you did that", we learned to say "I really feel hurt when
you do things like that".  "Owning" one's own feelings was about the
coolest thing going.  Then it seeped (insidiously) into parenting styles,
for example:  "Connor, Mommy really needs you to use your indoor voice when
she's writing".  And now that I think of that example, when did "parenting"
get idiomized?  Earlier or later than the obnoxious "skill sets"?  Anyway,
"needing", especially in the first person spoken by Someone In Authority,
swiftly became a handy euphemism for "do [whatever] or there will be hell
to pay", as in a boss telling an underling "I really need you to start
getting into work on time."  Not all language evolution is forward.  I
really need you to understand this.*

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 2:31 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Not saying I disagree with you points about Mad Men, Paul, but I found the
> article interesting for what it says about the subtle, imperceptible shifts
> in usage across decades.  One can see shifts over a longer period - "have
> you got" becomes "do you have" - but the shifts over smaller periods of
> time - "I have to" becomes "I need to" - are really hard to spot.  I was
> alive back then, but I'd never have caught that subtle (still in progress)
> shift.  Certainly can't blame the Mad Men writers for not catching it
> either.
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
> >Sent: Mar 22, 2012 12:21 PM
> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: Re: The Foreign Language of Mad Men
> >
> >On 3/22/2012 10:56 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> >> How easy is it to recreate 60s language?  Not so easy, it turns out.
> >
> >It's not easy if the writers didn't experience the period first hand and
> >they probably wouldn't still be in so arduous a line of work if they
> >had. But to me anachronisms and mistakes in language usage aren't the
> >most glaring "problem." I'm a big fan of the show but am constantly
> >reminded of how impossible it is the give an adequate feel of the
> >past--even a past as recent as the 60s. To overcome the difficulty the
> >writers have to take simplistic short cuts. Some examples involve
> >smoking, drinking, and littering.  True, people did more of these bad
> >things back then than now, but to depict this seems to require ludicrous
> >exaggeration. This makes the show seem too self congratulatory, and of
> >course the result just doesn't feel like the 60s. We didn't think of our
> >behavior back then as quite so egregious, but we probably would have if
> >we'd have had Don and Betty Draper around to show us how silly we looked.
> >
> >P
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/the-foreign-language-of-mad-men/254668/
> >>
> >> LK
> >>
> >
>
>


-- 
Elaine M.M. Bell, Writer
860.833.2625
Have Laptop/Will Travel
(but wicked good to be back in Massachusetts)
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