The Sword and Laser discussion

I was extremely excited to read something described as Faulkner with Fey-- and now that I'm halfway through the book, I'm really invested in the plot, the world, and these characters. Southern Fantasy, with all its preachers, charms, ghosts, and grotesques is definitely something I want more of in my life, and I'll probably go on in this series.

That said, one thing is dragging me down, enough that I'll probably need a break for the next installment-- the dialect and, more generally, the dialogue. I read a lot of southern literature; my dissertation is even in part on Flannery O'Connor. So I'm familiar enough with Southern literary voices and attempts to capture southern dialects. My problem is that here the dialect feels so over the top, particularly in direct dialogue, that you can't go a page without a "reckon" or an extended Glib Southern Simile. "Paw Ah Reckon Ewe'd laik tah read that there book ceptin you only had bout as much edumacation as a rabid possum rollin about in Betsy Devos' poorly kept front yard" sorts of stuff.

Maybe it's the audiobook narrators who are really leaning into it, or maybe the dialect is more over the top in 2016 than it was in the mid-century, or maybe Tennessee is more exaggerated than the more Easterly South, which is the more typical Southern Lit Setting. I just know that Faulkners' Snopeses, even when hyperbolically depicted as uber-hicks, still sound like real people. A lot of the characters here, to my ear, do not.

Is anyone else struggling with this? Or do y'all reckon I'm just a yank with an ear not worth a wooden nickel at Christmastime?

Hmm, I don't remember this being a problem on the printed page. Maybe it'd be better to read the book if the audio is no good.

The print edition doesn't overemphasize dialect. I found it easy to read.

I didn't get the sense the dialogue was over the top, either. I have cousins from the holler (that's Kentucky for you Yankees) as well as Oak Ridge (TINNAsee!), and I grew up surrounded by a strong Appalachian influence, so it read as natural to me.

The longer I'm away from Ohio the more I notice the accent whenever I return. But I still use words like "davenport" and "sigogglin". The one thing that made me pause was when he said a building was "catty-corner" from another. In my neck of the Midwest, the word used is "kitty-corner."

Yes it would be "kitty-corner", from one another, if it wasn't "cattywampus" to begin with.

In my upper midwest (or as my friends from North Carolina like to call it "Southern Canada") its is primarily the first, but everyone knows what you are saying if you use the second.

I never noticed the dialect in the book. Sounds like a good thing I didn't listen to the audiobook.

I did notice the dialect in the book in the but being from the west coast of Canada had no real idea if it was authentic or overdone. I have found myself talking to my son with a (probably bogus) southern accent over the last couple days though.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Yes it would be "kitty-corner", from one another, if it wasn't "cattywampus" to begin with. "

Interesting. I've never heard it used as cattywampus, just catawampus, but in the use I'm familiar with it's more akin being "out of true", like a chest of drawers or a kitchen chair that's crooked but not leaning over.

Similar to sigogglin, which means "leaning over", in an unintentional state. Such as stalks of corn in a field that were knocked askew in a wind storm could be said "blown all sigogglin." Although it's usually used for inanimate objects, I *have* heard it applied to someone who was drunk and tipsy. "After drinking cask-strength bourbon during the Goodreads podcast, Veronica stumbled sigogglin to the kitchen, bumping into the walls."

One book I encountered years ago claimed that sigogglin meant "leaning to the right" whereas "anti-sigogglin" means "leaning to the left." I've never heard anyone say the latter, though, so I don't know where that guy got that.

Also, there was the bar or whatever named Catamount, which is an old-timey way to say cougar or mountain lion. (Cat of the mount.) I had a book of mythological/supernatural critters like the Jersey Devil or chupacabra, and the Catamount was an especially large, vicious wild cat.