Re: RARA-AVIS: Layer Cake--Brit slang

From: Mark Sullivan ( DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net)
Date: 02 Jun 2003


Colin wrote:

"Americanisms are more universal than any and slang is lovely, but, yes I have struggled with some and I think it is a particularly british disease to use slang (in fiction) as an excluding device."

Really? I can think of some American lit which uses slang in the same way. Off the top of my head, there are the Holloway House books, even if they do sometimes include glossaries, and those of the beats. Granted, both come out of self-aware subcultures, whether alienated from the mainstream by choice or prejudice. Oh yeah, there's also exclusionary slang in books written by criminals and drugusers, both of which overlap the above categories.

Mark

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