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TOF once wrote an article entitled "The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown and Down 'n Dirty Mud-Wrassle" which described the century-l...
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Hello family, friends and fans of Michael F. Flynn. It is with sorrow and regret that I inform you that my father passed away yesterday,... -
1. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown 2. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown: Down for the Count 3. The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown: The Great Gali...
Yes and no. The function of "old-timey" speech is generally to impart an elevated tone, but that is generally a pastiche from select sources that were particular high points, such as Spenser, Shakespeare, or the KJV Bible. For general period-esque speech, we usually draw on the vernacular of translations from older sources (if we're dealing with a "sword and sandals" story, we might draw on Homer, for instance) or interchange with a more modern idiom that "feels" roughly equivalent, but the audience is conscious of being not of that period, if they gave it any thought.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I'm not sure many will deign to remember our particular vernacular. We've done our damnedest make the average discourse read like a brown slurry of dead metaphors, pithy cliches, and stale cultural references. Why anyone would want to mimic that style is beyond me, and no men of letters are left to resuscitate the older elegance.
"no men of letters are left to resuscitate the older elegance."
DeleteGregory of Tours, right? Historia francorum?
If I grok you right, I was thinking more of some mid-20th century Oxford dons.
DeleteI suppose it is called "speaking Scotts" (not Scots as the language, throughout, but Scotts as Scots treated by Sir Walter Scott).
ReplyDeleteOn a similar(-ish) note, I once made my younger sister almost cry by joking that judging by populist narratives in the History of Science, I wouldn't be surprised if in 600 years they'd be saying how Richard Feynmann was almost burned at the stake for daring to suggest apples fell from trees due to string theory.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it won't actually be that bad. Maybe they'll stick to conspiracy theories involving secret agents from NASA coming after him for telling the truth about Challenger...