Jitterbug Perfume, Week 17, Daffy Yum
JITTERBUG PERFUME
Week 17, Jan. 26 – Feb. 1
Page 114
This is the first sentence of my thoughts about page 114. This is the second sentence. This is the third sentence which tries to really express my ideas about page 114 but fails. Finally this sentence succeeds in expressing the thought that Priscilla takes a spill on her bicycle whilechecking out the Last Laugh Foundation where i assume Alobar will soon show and another connection is made with New Orleans and her parfumier Stepmom. This sentence sighs with relief. This is the next to last sentence. This is the last sentence. Nope. Now.
Dale
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Well said, Dale! I am excited to be pulling in to New Orleans...knowing that however many of us are reading JP at present, that many consciousnesses will be reveling in pan-sensory descriptions of that still recovering city, we'll be grooving with the denizens, all that focused, positive energy has got to help in some small way to revivifying New Orleans! May it be so!
Gem
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Page 115
I really liked the opening of this page, "When we accept small wonders we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders."But I have to admit that I hate dialect in a novel. I especially find a white southern writer doing black dialect to be icky no matter how good the intentions. "Mouf" for "mouth" and "libber" for "liver" just sounds bad to me. Am I missing something?Creating studio apartments out of your own secretions sounds interesting though. I'd tell you how to do it but it's "TOP SECRETE".
Dale
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Ha! Dale, your secrete slays me!
I understand your distaste for ethnic dialect in general; however, it does go a long way in making a character come alive--regardless of ethnicity of either the writer or the character. When I read dialect spoken by rich white hipster techno speak geeks (regardless of the writer), a vivid picture comes to mind. Or worse--the dialect of corporate lawyers, whose inflated nonsense lingo is spoken to identify and separate themselves not by ethnicity, but by class. That said, when we read dialect spoken by a character in a novel, it helps them come alive. You can hear V'lu speak and the aural image of her is completely different than if she spoke without the dialect, e.g.: "I eat liver with you, made from goose livers, but I won't eat any slime." TR in no way allows her to be condescended or demeaned, and in fact, the reader identifies more with V'lu than Madame Duvalier. (At least I do--especially when it comes to eating slime. ) Iguess my point is, that I see written dialect as an identifier and expression of the character's personal and cultural style. It is a credit to the author who does not cringe or succumb to flatlining the language into one "correct" way of speaking. (I'm not saying one word about "shrooms," because I know that if a character said "shrooms" TR would tell it like it is. I just know it.)
Mary
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It emphasizes the two extremes of V'lu...and that she's laying it on real thick so her true intellect and sophistication is guarded by her cloak of the general public's underestimation of her...gives her plenty of wiggle room to fly under the radar...
Messy Kat
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You make some good points, Mary as usual. I personally find thick dialect to be distracting. A few words to suggest the dialect is sufficient for me. This particular dialect makes V'lu seem simple-minded to me, which may be Tom's purpose as messy kat suggests.(Is Tom putting us on, by having V'lu put us on?) Southerners are usually kinda sensitive to people "doing" Southern accents anyway. Anyway as hot as V'lu sounds from Tom's descriptions I wouldn't be attracted to her because of the way she talks. Oral non-sex I guess. Now I will "Shut my mouf." :-)
Dale
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Ah, that's interesting. I have totally forgotten the details of this novel. I keep expecting them to rush back into my brain at any moment but they don't. I expect the details to get back, messykat. It makes it like I'm reading it for the first time (now I know how Ronald Reagan felt on entering the bedroom with Nancy each evening). I'll watch for V'lu's secrete agent personality to emerge.
Dale
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Hey Dale....for me, the dialect draws a distinct picture, one I wouldn't necessarily have without dat moufpiece.....i mean, she could have had a bloody Br-ish accent...but no, our gal was Southern...and she musthave smelled good too, to pass the Bunny’s nose.Remember...."Don't trust anybody who'd rather be grammatically correct than have a good time."
Michael
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