Top posting: I just noticed that this thread was marked OT. But I'd like to move it On Topic, by discussing how Steve writes hard-boiled USAmerican style prose & stylized 19th century English translation of French prose in an environment that doesn't know English. He has people from various countries and species, peoples with big cultural differences, and includes various expressions that fit one culture or another. Many of those expressions are familiar to us - because he is writing in English. The balance needed seems to work, and I'm wondering what tricks and methods work best. In the quote below, we see an English language depiction of a Lithuanian speaking Russian in English. I liked the results, others didn't (or sometimes missed what was being attempted). Steve has similar goals that he has to achieve in his books. Who has good quotes from the Dragaeran cannon that illustrate what is happening here? Jeff G. wrote: >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Howard Brazee" <howard at brazee.net> >To: "Dragaera" <dragaera at dragaera.info> >Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 5:13 AM >Subject: Re: evolution in languege: OT > > > > >>Besides the criticism of Costner's Robin Hood accent I mentioned, there >>is another accent which I have read people were bothered by - that is >>Sean Connery's accent in _Hunt for Red October_. I thought that >>couldn't have been more appropriate, as he was *not* as the critics >>claim, portraying a Russian. He was a soviet - the same way as >>Connery is a Brit. (I forget - was he Ukraine?) Still, many fans >>were put off by his entirely appropriate translated accent (when other >>Russians were speaking Russian in English with American and English >>accents, he spoke Russian in English with a Scottish accent - not a >>strong Scottish accent, but that of someone who has lived most of his >>life outside of Scotland). >> >> >> >Sean Connery's character Marko Ramius was from Lithuania. In the novel, his >nationality was used to show the racism that was present in the old Soviet >Union, for any one who was not a true Russian. As is so often the case, this >was left out of the movie for the most part. > >Jeff > > > >