Brit-picking: vital or a waste of time?

[emmagrant01]

jedirita and I discussed this topic over lunch yesterday, and it pops up on LJ constantly. I've never given it much thought, honestly, because everyone who's ever called me for an Americanism has been extraordinarily nice about it. The culture in the HP fandom seems to be that writers should use British English whenever possible, and I'll admit that I've bought into that 100%. I always looked at it as a respect-for-canon issue.

Rita feels differently, though, as do a lot of other people. So I started thinking about it, and now I'm questioning my sudden zeal to make sure my HP fic is as Americanism-free as possible. Can I really accomplish that? And is it really a worthwhile goal, considering there are so many other more important things to work on as a writer?

I'll keep this brief because so many people have already said something about this at some point. I'm still forming my thoughts, and I won't bore you with anything half-assed, for once! ;-)

For now, I'll just point to this post by lykaios, and say. "Yeah. What she said."

Comments

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

I've written several Buffy stories, as well as some Blake's 7. I've had to find people to US-pick my Buffy stories, but I have to say that the arguments in the Buffy fandom tend to be based more around character motivations and style. In general, not counting rabid young teens of course, the Buffy fans tend to be supportive, and will gently point out any cross-cultural abuses, but it certainly does throw them if you consistently get the language wrong. More than anything, I think they just stop reading, because they see it as horribly out of character and badly written.

Conversely, I once questioned a writers decision to have the mid teen Buffy character, Dawn, carry round a Power Puff girls backpack, feeling that this was unlikely given her age. I was corrected, and told that the Power Puff Girls had become an unlikely symbol of Girl Power in certain teenage cultures in the US. An excellent example of how easy it is to misunderstand the culture of the universe you are writing in. Although, I have to say, I'm old enough now, that the generation gap would hamper my writing, even if writing a teenager from my own country. I'd need my own culture picked for me.

And yes you're quite right, it is all to do with specific culture. The Blake's 7 universe for example, in common with Star Wars and Farscape, has more scope for cultural engineering on the part of the writer. Therefore, even though Blake's 7 is theoretically British, it doesn't require nearly as much Brit picking, because it's 'British' in the same way that Star Wars is 'American', ie. only because it was made in that country, not because it is culturally identical to the country of its birth.

I agree with the others who point out that OOC is the real problem. Culture picking or no, if your character starts spouting words or phrases they wouldn't ever use, it jars far more than minor language barriers. A word or two out of place will certainly throw me out of the story if I was engrossed in it, but I can get past that, and realise it's a small sacrifice for an engaging plot. After all, we do it all the time for blockbuster films.

"England and America are two countries divided by a common language."
George Bernard Shaw.

Addendum: Small spelling errors in what should be 'British' English are encouraged by facilities like Live Journal, which has a spell checker, but only knows how to spell in American. If a writer were to post the fic in the first instance on Live Journal, without first having run it through a Brit-picker, her efforts to spell the British way would be sabotaged, possibly without her knowing.