Fics and languages and languages and fics
I usually try (very hard) to hide it, but the truth is that, sometimes, only sometimes, I'm a bit of a snob. If that's the word. I don't know.
In any case, I was hesitant to talk about this because it's a potential can of worms and my intention is never to wank or encourage the use of the term "bad!fic", which I hate with a passion, but the fact is that I don't always like some things, and I wanted to speak about one of them.
I like languages. I really do. And I think that sometimes they can be beautifully mixed in a story and make sense and add to it and be awesome, but I have an irrational hate for the way some writers intersped (is that a word?) foreign words into English dialog, and I wanted to explain why.
First of all, because some people don't give a fuck about how the word is correctly written in that language. And it actually gets on my nerves when I see Spanish words that need to have an accent (because in Spanish it's the way you know which syllabel you have to stress when talking) without it I want to kill someone. And this is quite of hypocritical of me, since I mangle the English language on a regular basis and don't particularly give any kind of damn about it (sorry, English-speakers, for kicking your mother tongue so). But the fact is that I don't like it.
Second, because every language has its own set of grammatical rules and trying to construct a sentence choosing only one set is bound to create jarring combinations. Because adjectives have no number or gender in English, but they do in Spanish. For not talking about declinations in German, depending on the sintactical function of the word. Spotting this kind of inongruences drives me crazy and takes me out of the story in fractions of a second.
Third, because, let's face it, if you're used to talking in another language and want to revert to your mother tongue at some point of another, it's never going to be on the "yes" or the "no" words. Unless you're utterly distracted and thinking in your own language at the moment. But that has to be reflected somehow in the story or I won't buy it. It's nice that you think of your readers and put in another language the words they're likely to know, but it's a bit (a lot) artificial and thus, it takes me out of the story.
Fourth, if you feel the need to translate every fucking foreign word with brackets, please, please, please, reconsider if it's really adding to your story or substracting from it. Because, as a reader, I find it, to be honest, annoying. And I think it's probably my problem and not the writer's fault that I'm like that, but still, there's something somewhat insulting from my point of view in that kind of story-telling choice.
And the thing is that, in spite of everything I've just explained, I actually love it when a foreign language comes into play in a story. When it fits the character and there's no patronizing translation and it makes sense, I FUCKING LOVE IT. Because I love languages. And, maybe, just maybe, because I'm lucky enough to be able to catch most of what's being said in German, French, Italian and Spanish (not because I'm fluent, but because French and Italian are very close to Spanish and that's my mother tongue), or at least be given enough hints to catch a whiff of what it is that's being said but without being totally certain, which makes it all the more interesting because I'm only half guessing. Or, precisely because I don't understand shit of what's being said if the characters are actually talking in Russian, for example, it pushes me deeper into the story because in that case, the subjective point of view makes me relate to the character who is witness to the exchange without getting shit of what's being said, just like me, so it's actually aiding me to put myself in his/her skin or whatever. Because I don't need to understand everything in a story. In fact, I don't want to be given all the information because, if that's the case, I can't make the story mine, since my interpretation is not needed, if that makes sense. There's no complicity between the writer and the reader, no way to reach the right conclusion because there's no reaching for something you're just given on a silver plate all the time. There's no moment of realization or empathy or shit when you're just being told everything. I don't mind a translation at the end of the chapter if the writer really wants us to understand what has happened, but hey, I'm reading online, it doesn't take me more than two minutes to copy/paste and use a translator. But I really get that some readers would want the explanation (and in fact I think I'd offer it if I were the writer, just to please everybody -you can always ignore the notes).
And I think that's more or less my opinion about it. Because yesterday I read an amazing fic (on many, many levels), and there was French and there was German and it was correct and only explained when needed inside the story, because one of the characters didn't speak the languages and the important parts were mentioned whereas the rest didn't, and I think it was masterfully done and I loved it.
So, it's not what, it is how. Like always, really.
Also posted at http://lauand.dreamwidth.org/99952.html, if you'd rather read it there or want to enter a discussion with
comments.