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Wednesday 4 April 2012

Writing in tongues. (Part 2)

I recently read an interesting article about fantasy writing on the BBC magazine site. 
The article, titled ‘Why are fantasy world accents British?’ looks primarily at TV shows and film, and explores the peculiar phenomenon of why most fantasy characters speak with Brittish accents, but its arguments and logic can equally as well be applied to the written word.

The article gives examples of the ‘Game of Thrones’ TV series, taken from the books of the American author George RR Martin, and the blockbusting ‘Lord of the Rings’ and upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films in support of its argument.
I think it does make a compelling case for appropriate regional accents, and it goes someway towards explaining why America audiences in particular, and the world in general, seem to like British-English voices in their fantasy fiction.

I read this article not long after receiving the news that one of my own short-stories written in my native Scottish vernacular (that I posted about before) is likely to be published in an upcoming anthology of ‘Scottish Voice’ stories. On reading the article I was reminded of the overwhelmingly positive response a draft version my own story got from American readers when I posted it to a critique site...