Along with his swearing, he also uses really interesting adjective that add so much to his descriptions. An example of this is when Benny is talking about a letter he got from his ex-wife Margaret. He describes it as, "The letter that she wrote back was so deliciously smutty (as opposed to my cutesy Donne-ish ditty) that I felt I should be charged by the minute for reading it" (101). His words "deliciously smutty", and "cutesy Donne-ish ditty" make this sentence so much more interesting to read than simple words. Another description I really really liked was later in the book when Benny got drunk in a bar and ended up at his friends house for the night. His friend was sleeping in an oversized t-shirt. Miles describes it by saying, "I couldn't help wondering where a shopper might locate such an oversized-oversized t-shirt and what sort of mythically large sasquatch the Filipino textile-factory worker who sewed the shirt must have imagined she was dressing" (133). This not only struck me as really funny but it also helped me to see just how big the shirt actually is. I really love the descriptions that Jonathan Miles uses, and I think they really add to his ability as a writer.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Dear American Airlines
Today I am going to talk about Jonathan Miles' choice of words. There are a lot of swear words in his book, which at first seems a little bit harsh, but later I started to enjoy the slightly abrasive language. It really gave Benny his own character. I think some of Benny's character traits that are shown through swearing are his I don't care what you think of me attitude, and his assertiveness. One time he says, "Jesus f****** christ, you want to see trembling hands? Look at this, it's like my mother's shaky stroke-scrawl, I can't even make the damn words- dear American Airlines, you pigs, you pigs, you grabby f****** pigs!" (147-148). I just opened up my book to a random page and found this because swear words are used on a lot of pages in this novel. Personally I think it adds to the story, although others might completely disagree. Another time in the book where I think his swearing adds to his character is when he says, "Well, shit. That was a much longer interlude than I'd intended. Are you still there? I am. Still here, I mean"(29). The use of a swear word in the first sentence really shows Benny's attitude that he doesn't care at all about what others think of him.
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2 comments:
Though I am generally not fond of swearing, I agree that it seems to give Benny a lot of personality. He is not a polite, proper, gentleman, he is an angry, irritated man. However, I don't think swearing in a letter to American Airlines is going to help his cause. It might be a great way to get out his anger, but if I was reading it for American Airlines, I would not want to help him out if he was being so rude. I do like how Benny is very blunt and honest in his descriptions. Like with the shirt, he is very straight forward about how it was probably made by a woman in a little factory in Asia. It is sad, but also true.
It seems like having harsh language riddled with swear words would probably make the book more readable by giving dialogs more reality, after all, people do swear in everyday conversations. Leaving it out seems like a pointless thing to do because it would detract from the reader's ability to connect with the characters, because there are probably few readers who don't swear every once in a while.
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