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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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