Poll: Does anyone here like reading dialect in books? (Dialect heavy enough you sometimes have to say it out loud and from one or more characters who speak frequently.)
Like it? No, I prefer that the dialect is conveyed more subtly, through syntax and idiom, than through deformation of the spelling.
That said, I'm in the minority who didn't hate it. (I'm pretty sure three-quarters of the people I've met who have read Zora Neale Hurston's fiction got nothing out of it except "man, I could not understand a word her characters ever said, that was torture.")
Also, modern dialect is a lot easier -- some of those 19th century or early 20th century writers are unintelligible when they try to be phonetic; it's easier to grasp what a contemporary dialecter is trying to get you to hear.
One last thought: about once a year I think back to G. K. Chesterton's suggestion that if a writer is going to write "working-class fiction," then shouldn't the protagonists' dialogue be written normally? And instead you try to convey the upper-class characters' accents phonetically?
I've tried it on a small scale a few times and got nowhere. Still, makes perfect sense in theory!
Well, realizing now that the above was the most smartypants comment I have ever made in my entire history of The Internet, you may feel free to share my response verbatim…
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That said, I'm in the minority who didn't hate it. (I'm pretty sure three-quarters of the people I've met who have read Zora Neale Hurston's fiction got nothing out of it except "man, I could not understand a word her characters ever said, that was torture.")
Also, modern dialect is a lot easier -- some of those 19th century or early 20th century writers are unintelligible when they try to be phonetic; it's easier to grasp what a contemporary dialecter is trying to get you to hear.
One last thought: about once a year I think back to G. K. Chesterton's suggestion that if a writer is going to write "working-class fiction," then shouldn't the protagonists' dialogue be written normally? And instead you try to convey the upper-class characters' accents phonetically?
I've tried it on a small scale a few times and got nowhere. Still, makes perfect sense in theory!
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