SBD--grammar ??? edition

A few questions.

1. what's it called when a book is in first person and second person? Does it have a name? FSPPOV (First Second Pornographic POV)?
example: you greet me at the door, your double-d breasts jiggling with excitement.

2. When you make grammar mistakes on purpose because you don't want to sound elitist (the "whom" issue) is it really a mistake? Is there a name for that kind of error, other than dialect?

3. If you're consistent about a mistake throughout a book. a lot spelled alot for instance, can it be argued that it's not a mistake but rather a stylistic choice?

4. What kind of a bad comic strip name is General Butt Naked? Did the guy really answer to it? He's now an evangelical type, but they can still be kind of nasty. Maybe he no longer lops off the thumbs of anyone who calls him that to his face. Seriously, is there an offfical title for names that are stupid jokes? Ima Hogg-ian humor?

Happy MLK day. We're going to go read Letter from a Birmingham Jail and watch the speech. First we're going to find some coffee.

Comments

  1. Carrie Lofty12:25 PM

    I totally wouldn't go for letting "alot" slide. "Alot" is not a word. "Allot" and "a lot" are words. That'd be like saying other misspellings were intentional stylistic choices. Mess with grammar, sure, but don't mess with spelling. Not in print. But I make intentional grammatical errors for the sake of the prose--the whom issue. The goal is to keep the reader deep in the story, and sometimes corrent grammar messes with that. Just my perspective...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:02 PM

    1. That's first person POV, as far as I'm concerned.

    2. Dialect. I don't think it has another name, but I could be wrong. (Gee, that sounds like one of my more common spammers. "I disagree with some aspects of [Title of Blog], but I could be wrong.")

    3. That's called an error, mistake, or general fuckup.

    4. I dunno.

    Happy MLK to you, too. We're working today, since we took MLK's real b-day off last Monday (or closer to his real b-day). Lots of no shows. Everyone thinks we're closed, or something.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kate9:43 PM

    1. Okay but what if the narrator isn't a HUGE part of the action? and you are? That make a difference?

    2. okay.

    3. Eventually words get changed and the change is accepted. alright <--as an example.

    Is the moment it becomes real and not a misspelling only after a word appears in print in the OED? What if a literary work of great importance consistently misspells a word?

    Not misuses---I'm NOT thinking of Rowling's enervate

    4. Should have a name. Just like I"m making sure that invoking Terrists in an argument will be called Hoffman's Law, I will work on this one. Ima Hoggian will be spread. "That name's so embarrassing, it's practically imahoggian."

    Hey if Mrs. Malaprop could be used, why not Hogg? At least Miss Ima was a real person, not a character in a play.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lyvvie4:34 AM

    Questions like number one seriously confuse me. So I'll get back to it, later.

    Since when does proper grammar sound elitist? I'd say it would be fine to mistake it if it's the character speaking. As an omniscient narrator, then no.

    Consistent misspelling is just consistent misspelling.

    There's really someone who used to murder children and eat their hearts before stripping down and running off into battle who now preaches the word of God and he's not been sentenced to anything?! Craziness!!

    Oh! Coffee sounds great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. dean7:44 AM

    Does it have a name? FSPPOV (First Second Pornographic POV)?
    example: you greet me at the door, your double-d breasts jiggling with excitement.

    Does it have a name? Hell if I know. You just greeted me at the door, your double-d breasts jiggling with excitement.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

more fun and hi-jinks at RWA.

To the Board of Directors of the Romance Writers of America: It has been brought to our attention, by several of our romance authors, that your organization no longer considers Medallion Press, Inc. a legitimate publisher according to your guidelines. We were surprised we did not receive official notification directly, but instead discovered it was posted on several RWA internet loops. Accordingly, we request this letter be published in its entirety in the RWR Report so all members may understand the nature of the process that eliminated Medallion as an RWA approved publisher. We will also send copies of this letter to all our own RWA member authors. We are dismayed you declared Medallion Press no longer a legitimate publisher. In July of 2004 we met all of your qualifications without incident by showing sales of 5000+ copies of USA Today Bestselling author Nan Ryan's The Last Dance. Several months prior to Book Expo America 2005, we received a call from your office alerting us to ...
Read more

No snark. Bad puppy. No. (Review stuff.)

A two star Amazon review on His American Detective: "Bodice ripper about gay men by a woman." and I'm longing to comment "don't you mean a waistcoat ripper?" God, no. Stop me. The reviews rarely rattle me any longer -- except when I spot a truth in a bad one. When that happens, I actually lose sleep. This means I still care about writing.  Speaking of reviewers and writers: A couple of days ago, a writer said she was tired of getting white ladies writing reviews of her books. She had an excellent point in the long run: her stories are meant for a particular audience and she wants them to resonate with those people and get more reviews from them.  But that first line was just....horribly obnoxious. I say this from my POV of course. Not a white lady who writes reviews -- but as a review grubber.   Anyone who disses any reader (especially ones that give honest reviews) deserves to be cast into the pit of being ignored.   ...
Read more