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annundrielThis morning I finished reading Christopher Moore's Fluke: Or, I know Why the Winged Whale Sings. It was enjoyable, but reading his work this time around I noticed something I hadn't before.
He has the habit of using phrases like "the scientist/researcher/young woman/brunette/etc." to indicate characters instead of their names or a perfectly good pronoun. Now, is it fanfiction that has made me aware of this particular practice? Or did he not use it as much before?
And is this sloppy writing?
Maybe it's harsh to call it sloppy, but it annoys me. Lately the practice pulls me completely out of the story and I have to stop and think, "Now why did the author do that?" I understand that as a writer you don't want to constantly be using the same things over and over, but in real life I have never thought of someone I know as "the librarian" or "the older man."
What really gets me is that I can understand the practice in slash, where you have scenes with two characters of the same gender, making the clear use of pronouns difficult and opening up the possibility of too much name repetition. But I don't understand why you'd do it in scenes with a man and a woman, other than because you were bored using "he" and "she."
Though it is somewhat allowable, I guess, if the characters have only just met or don't yet know each other's names. Or if the author is making a point about the character's profession. Which, okay, Moore seemed to be doing once or twice. That doesn't change the fact that I read it and went, "What are you? Posting on fanfiction.net?" And, yes, I'll admit that that's harsh. (Nothing against fanfiction.net! Just, y'know. It's not the first place I would go for quality.) But, at the same time, that's the way it felt once or twice.
Not to say that I didn't enjoy Fluke. I really did. Even laughed out loud several times, as Moore tends to make me do. And the protagonist, Nathan Quinn, is maybe my favorite Moore character so far. But I did feel that the book had some flaws. Besides what prompted the mini-rant above, I thought the end was a bit anti-climactic. Or maybe a lot. It was like I was reading and tension was mounting and then all of the sudden...smooth sailing. Little bit weird.
Also, I started to find some of the humor a little sophomoric. In a "Really? Did you really have to go there?" kind of way. Sometimes holding some things back is much more interesting, and funny, than going all out. (This is my small problem with The Whitest Kids U Know.) Although, in the acknowledgments at the end of the book it turns out that a few of the more outrageous incidents happened in real life. So maybe it's just me.
Now I'm going to have to get other people to read it so I can see what they think.
He has the habit of using phrases like "the scientist/researcher/young woman/brunette/etc." to indicate characters instead of their names or a perfectly good pronoun. Now, is it fanfiction that has made me aware of this particular practice? Or did he not use it as much before?
And is this sloppy writing?
Maybe it's harsh to call it sloppy, but it annoys me. Lately the practice pulls me completely out of the story and I have to stop and think, "Now why did the author do that?" I understand that as a writer you don't want to constantly be using the same things over and over, but in real life I have never thought of someone I know as "the librarian" or "the older man."
What really gets me is that I can understand the practice in slash, where you have scenes with two characters of the same gender, making the clear use of pronouns difficult and opening up the possibility of too much name repetition. But I don't understand why you'd do it in scenes with a man and a woman, other than because you were bored using "he" and "she."
Though it is somewhat allowable, I guess, if the characters have only just met or don't yet know each other's names. Or if the author is making a point about the character's profession. Which, okay, Moore seemed to be doing once or twice. That doesn't change the fact that I read it and went, "What are you? Posting on fanfiction.net?" And, yes, I'll admit that that's harsh. (Nothing against fanfiction.net! Just, y'know. It's not the first place I would go for quality.) But, at the same time, that's the way it felt once or twice.
Not to say that I didn't enjoy Fluke. I really did. Even laughed out loud several times, as Moore tends to make me do. And the protagonist, Nathan Quinn, is maybe my favorite Moore character so far. But I did feel that the book had some flaws. Besides what prompted the mini-rant above, I thought the end was a bit anti-climactic. Or maybe a lot. It was like I was reading and tension was mounting and then all of the sudden...smooth sailing. Little bit weird.
Also, I started to find some of the humor a little sophomoric. In a "Really? Did you really have to go there?" kind of way. Sometimes holding some things back is much more interesting, and funny, than going all out. (This is my small problem with The Whitest Kids U Know.) Although, in the acknowledgments at the end of the book it turns out that a few of the more outrageous incidents happened in real life. So maybe it's just me.
Now I'm going to have to get other people to read it so I can see what they think.
