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|    rec.arts.sf.composition    |    The writing and publishing of speculativ    |    144,800 messages    |
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|    Message 144,379 of 144,800    |
|    Jim Hetley to William Vetter    |
|    Re: Linguistic voice woes    |
|    22 Jul 15 04:35:55    |
      From: jhetley@hotmail.com              On Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 6:25:32 PM UTC-4, William Vetter wrote:       > William Vetter wrote:       > > Because I'm bored, I am going to let you all kick me around.       > >       > > Below is a fragment from a 1900 word story I completed today. 50 years in       > > the future, soldiers in a jungle firebase are hanging around, talking to a       > > captured teenaged male Vietnamese insurgent. The 1st person POV is their       > > lieutenant. There is only one foreign phrase in the manuscript, which you       > > will notice below.       > >       > > You can tell me how you react to the way I inserted it. There is no other       > > reference to it, or translation of it present anywhere else in the       > > manuscript.       > >       > >       > > "What's your name?"       > > The journalist was talking to my prisoner now. Crap.       > > "Don't speak to him," I said.       > > "That's what I came to Vietnam for -- the inside scoop."       > > He turned to back to the kid. "Ko thane la zee?"       > > "You come here and speak our language," the kid accused,       > > "and your Vietnamese _sucks_."       > > I had to turn my face away not to laugh.       > > "He's right," Miller said. "That's what you say to a       > > girl."       >       > Do you think it's more accessible to the reader if the last line is       > changed to:       >       > "He's right," Miller said, "that's what you say to a girl,"       > because he had sort of called the kid Miss.       >       > or with other punctuation:       >       > "He's right," Miller said. "That's what you say to a girl." Because       > he had sort of called the kid Miss.              I'd like more of a translation, perhaps Miller mocking the journalist with the       literal version.              One warning, if you use Vietnamese written characters, some of them don't       display properly in some ebook readers or reader programs. I had that problem       with names in GHOST POINT.              Jim              --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05        * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)    |
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