Another Way To Breathe

Usually.

Two reasons:

Firstly, I’m terrible at them. 

Secondly, takes more explanation.

I was reminded of this by Marie Nixon (ex-Marie Du Santiago of Kenickie) about the coded-language in the first reviews of her current band, the Cornshed Sisters. Specifically, with its link to the piece by Emma Jackson (Ex-Emmy-Kate Montrose of Kenickie) “Classy: Kenickie, Northerness and Femininity”.

(Scroll towards the end of the pdf for Jackson’s piece.)

There’s lots to read in there, but this section reminded me where my particular aversion to Phonetic accents originated from:

“Our northerness was also accentuated in the way our speech was transcribed in newspaper articles. There is a tendency in the music press sometimes to write the speech of people from ‘Oop North’ phonetically - I have never heard anyone say ‘oop’.” 

In other words,  anyone from the South is written in perfect English and anyone from the North is written as written as an exotic, Neanderthal other. As if someone from London doesn’t have an accent, while someone from Manchester does. And there’s a mass of assumptions in there, none of them pretty.

And that’s why I don’t do it, in a nutshell.

Unless you’re going to write everyone with a splash of phonetics, you’re implying that a number  of your characters are so separate from the language everyone else is speaking that you have to bastardise the words to show it. 

The exceptions are telling. When I’m working on a pre-existing character who’s always been written with semi-phonetic flourishes, I follow suit. Normally in a relatively minimal fashion, but enough to recognise that I’m playing in the tradition. The second is when I’m explicitly trying to turn someone into the Other, which is really about  critiquing that (She in Phonogram 2.2 speaks in a complete mass of gibberish. But she’s just a voice in Marc’s head, and the story is about the way he viewed her, etc.) And thirdly… oh, there’s ways when someone really is completely and utterly unintelligible. I don’t think I’ve written one, but Arseface in Preacher would be a good example of that particular type.

But being a guy with his face shot off is a completely different thing than someone being Glaswegian. 

(In passing, Ennis a good example - probably the best in comics - of a writer who pulls off phonetics, because he does it so widely and because he does it so well.)

I play with syntax, slang, structure, whatever - but I consider the words themselves sanctified. It’s the basic level of dignity the characters deserve. And frankly, because it isn’t my strongest card, I sidestep the possibility of just doing a really shit and offensive accent. To me, the rewards are small to negligible and the risk is enormous.

In short: if you’re not really 100% sure you’re hot shit, I’d advise writers to think carefully before going there.

I really have no idea how many people who follow me know me from my previous life as a game critic, so me getting together with my comrades in arms from my old site and doing a podcast on games may surprise some of you. Or maybe it doesn’t.

Either way, it’s here, if you want to hear us all yabber about stuff and things regarding games. Inevitably, involves me talking about Deus Ex and making questionable gags.

Ker-listen!

“Hunted is set in a recognisably British landscape. Its inhabitants are a mockery of the aristocratic country gent and his ecosystem. Robots that ape tea-drinking, poachers that lurk in reed-beds, and red-eyed hounds that patrol the moor: these are the things you will be dealing with as you fight for survival. The game gathers up elements of my favourite things: exploration, AI interaction, survival, robots, hot drinks, and blends them into a rich pixelly pulp. (A “British indie S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” might have been something we said in the design meetings…)”

My good friend Jim Rossignol’s company BIG ROBOT has announced Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Even without the connection, I’d be looking forward to this anyway. It’s exactly the sort of thing I wish came from the Indie scene more. With the connection, it seems that Jim’s making public his half of the conversation which I exposed in my reimagining of Mister Sinister and the forthcoming Manchester Gods in JIM. More like this.

mckelvie:

Here’s the story I did for the Art Brut Brilliant! Tragic! comic anthology featuring stories by Bryan O’Malley, Hope Larson, Marc Ellerby and more.  

(If it’s too small on your dashboard go to original post to read.)

“It’s the biggest statement of intent so far, really – me saying yes, in this comic I am Russ Meyer. That’s when you laughed, Bruce! That scary laugh of yours! “Sure, we’re Russ Meyer!” you screamed, like a deranged monkey, “We’ve always been Russ Meyer! We have to be Russ Meyer!” Except Russ Meyer would have had a bit more sex in it by page eleven, so I was obviously holding back. Never mind, violence is the new sex anyway.”

I’m highly enjoying Al Ewing’s gonzoid writers commentary for his JENNIFER BLOOD spin-off, the Ninjettes.

I run a Formspring. Just hammered out a response someone asking me what my take on Buffy The Vampire Slayer was, and wrote this. Strikes me as the sort of thing which is Tumblr-able.

*****

Q: thoughts on joss whedon’s buffy the vampire slayer?

A: The TV show?

Every girl I dated since it came out is a fan.

I watched the first episode when it was shown in the UK, recommended it to a couple of friends, and never watched a broadcast episode again. The two friends who I recommended to it followed it religiously. Neither realised I wasn’t watching it until about 2003, and both were horrified that I’d sell them their first wrap of cocaine and then swore off it myself.

The second episode I watched was Once More With Feeling, which I decided to give a try after following some interesting conversations circa then. I got it. I suspect it may be in the very long list of Phonogram influences.

I watched the episodes on a girlfriends VHS tapes as she watched them. Entirely out of order. I think I’ve seen all of Buffy now, but I can’t be entirely sure. I approached it as a fractal.

While I’m not a fan - it’s not one of my texts - I think it’s capital “I” Important in terms of pop culture. I think it’s got a case to be the most important pop fantasy work of the period. It’s both good and influential.

Whedon’s probably the one famous person I’d ask for an autograph if we ever met, because it would mean the world to my wife. I may even get some for my Exs. He was very important to all of them.

The comic?

I haven’t read any of them. I buy them for my wife though.