Re: slang/regionalisms


Steven Sparks wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm an American Lit. student in Italy. I'm writing an essay on the influence
> of slang and regionalism in modern am. lit. (esp. novels). I'm trying to
> put together as many titles as possible. I've found a great and lasting
> source in Damon Runyon's "Guys and Dolls" (New York), and George V.
> Higgins's novels (Boston). I would really appreciate other suggestions, esp.
> as far as southern and western slang/regionalisms, or Italian/American
> writers (I have already researched John Fante's novels).
>
>
> Grazie e arrivederci
>
> Steven
>
>
> PS. I'm trying to retreive novels that have inherent literary value per se

John O'Hara is a classic source for the Northeast in the '30s. I
consider his short stories to have more literary value than his novels,
but no doubt some critics more famous than I am disagree. (There are
no critics less famous than I am.)

Sinclair Lewis's _Arrowsmith_ includes a minor character whose main
feature is his use of "slanguage".

Cormac McCarthy is magnificent in his West Texas and southern New
Mexico dialogue. I've never spent much time in that area, but I had a
student from Texas who sounded just like John Grady Cole and Lacey
Rawlins. (Charles, I hope you've tried McCarthy, the living writer
most often compared to Faulkner. If not, I recommend starting with
_All the Pretty Horses_.)

Turning to northern New Mexico, where I live, the best novel I've read
for the local half-Spanish slang is _Bless Me, Ultima_, by Rudolfo
Anaya, though some people don't like his writing. I glanced at one of
his "Sonny Trujillo" mysteries and was disappointed to see no New
Mexico flavor in the dialogue. Again, if you can branch out to short
stories, try the late Jim Sagel. He wrote parallel English and Spanish
versions, so you can study how he translated "Ahi te guacho" as "Check
you later".

For Chinese-American dialogue, one that I've read and liked is
_Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book_ by Maxine Hong Kingston. (Obaue:
that's /'feik ,buk/, not /,feik 'buk/--it refers to a book of tunes and
chords for popular songs.) For Northwestern Native Americans, there's
Sherman Alexie.

For African-American slang, I don't need to point out Toni Morrison and
Alice Walker. I'm a fan of Walter Moseley's Los Angeles (and Houston)
books.

Speaking of whom, I hope by "inherent literary value" you don't mean
"not detective stories or sf" (though I don't particularly like
Moseley's sf). Detective stories are a rich field--say Dashiell
Hammett and Rex Stout. I haven't read many American police
procedurals, like "Ed McBain", but they might work even better.
There's a regional mystery writer or three for every region of the
country.

I suspect you're skipping the invented slang of sf, but if not, you
might try Robert Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_ and the much better
_The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_, Alfred Bester's novels (my favorite is
_The Demolished Man), William Gibson's Sprawl novels, and others that
aren't coming to mind, but you could ask in rec.arts.sf.written. Even
that great despiser of regional and slangy dialogue, Nabokov, has some
invented and revived recherche slang in _Ada_.

Of course, some sf, especially fantasy, writers use contemporary
slang--say Albert Cowdrey for New Orleans, or Avram Davidson for
Ashkenazic Jews (in short stories such as "The Golem" and "Goslin Day")
and Belize I mean British Hidalgo (in the Jack Limekiller stories) and
various other places. And regional sf--oh, gosh, New York City and
upstate in John Crowley's _Little, Big_; midwestern college towns in
his _The Translator_, Pamela Dean's _Tam Lin_, Steven Brust's _Agyar_;
Berkeley in Peter S. Beagle's _The Folk of the Air_; Ray Bradbury's
nostalgic Midwest (including the non-sf _Dandelion Wine_) and Ireland
(_Green Shadows, White Whale_--does that have literary value?); Kim
Stanley Robinson's Orange County and high Sierra; Ursula Le Guin's
northern California and Oregon...

I hope that gets you started.

--
Jerry Friedman

.

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