You may have rightly assumed or presumed from my first post, that one of my favourite pastimes now that I have a lot of time on my hands is reading.
Sadly, I have become more and more concerned with the standard of writing by General Fiction Writers / Authors, not only with the language used but also with what seems to me to be a standardisation of storyline and plots.
I was reading a series of detective stories by one author, and I came across a fair number of, shall we say, unusual words, a few are given for your edification – Vernal, drugget, catechesis, pietà, hobyah, pietistic, golem, propitadingly, gallants, narthex, baldachin, nairatmiya, hauter, peripatetic, diapason, peristaltic, want some more? noli me tangere, phantasmagoria, carrels, deuil blanc, sturm und drang, jessamine, necropolis, pilaster, hecatombe, triptych, lepidopterist. I must admit, these words took me by suprise, a pleasant suprise, I am not sure but they are not the normal fare that one comes across in British detective stories but they certainly got ‘my little grey cells’ working hard. That is not the language that I have concerns with, it is the use of so called ‘blue’ or ‘foul’ language that woorries me. The writers / authors all seem to use the standard phrase, ‘it reflects modern life’, does it? Maybe it is the circle that I move in or the age group that I am part of but I cannot agree with them. Although I, along with my peers, understand the words and the context within which they are being used but do not believe that they educate or improve the minds of the younger generations, there are far more expressive words that can and should be used. To my simple mind, simplicity is not always best, it could be that making people reach for a dictionnary or a thesarus wouuld be an asset and make their reading more entertaining and educational.
Do modern publishing editors have stock list of characters and storylines that ‘sell well’ and must be followed at all costs because ‘profit’ is the key word?
