The BBC has a point here. When I read Wuthering Heights, I couldn't help thinking that what kept it from being a true classic was the lack of vile, obscene language.
I mean, I can understand that complaint; that the things that made the novel such a shock when they were released may not cause as much of a stir nowadays.
However, their solution (add naughty words) is hardly the best solution. I don't know who they're trying to shock, really. Prissy people will just turn the radio off and write a letter to the BBC "I have never been so shocked in all my etc." whilst the less prissy (possibly younger) audience will not really be impressed.
Really, the only age group that find gratuitous swearing impressive are kids or eejits.
(I mean, swearing can be good used for emphasis or emotion, or if you're trying to get some strains of naturalistic speech - but overuse can lead to boredom)
I can see what the idea might be. I once read a play of Aristophanes that had a Spartan character, and the translator decided to render his speech with a big old Texan accent. On account of, y'all see, that there Texan swagger a-havin' on the same implications like a Spartan, to them old Greek dudes' ears. It didn't work for me. Really, I think I'd rather come to understand the culture and the time to know what shocked and what didn't, without the rarefied, sophisticated vulgarity.
(Darn it all, but considering this idea---which is utter horse-feathers!---does give one the vapors so!)
Let's face it; if they really wanted to make Wuthering Heights shocking, they should have gone the whole hog; insert a scene where Heathcliffe has an orgy with several farm animals. That'd get listeners.
4 comments:
Hahaha. Oh, wow. Well done, BBC.
I mean, I can understand that complaint; that the things that made the novel such a shock when they were released may not cause as much of a stir nowadays.
However, their solution (add naughty words) is hardly the best solution. I don't know who they're trying to shock, really. Prissy people will just turn the radio off and write a letter to the BBC "I have never been so shocked in all my etc." whilst the less prissy (possibly younger) audience will not really be impressed.
Really, the only age group that find gratuitous swearing impressive are kids or eejits.
(I mean, swearing can be good used for emphasis or emotion, or if you're trying to get some strains of naturalistic speech - but overuse can lead to boredom)
I can see what the idea might be. I once read a play of Aristophanes that had a Spartan character, and the translator decided to render his speech with a big old Texan accent. On account of, y'all see, that there Texan swagger a-havin' on the same implications like a Spartan, to them old Greek dudes' ears. It didn't work for me. Really, I think I'd rather come to understand the culture and the time to know what shocked and what didn't, without the rarefied, sophisticated vulgarity.
(Darn it all, but considering this idea---which is utter horse-feathers!---does give one the vapors so!)
Let's face it; if they really wanted to make Wuthering Heights shocking, they should have gone the whole hog; insert a scene where Heathcliffe has an orgy with several farm animals. That'd get listeners.
What do you mean "insert a scene", The Id? Did you read the bowdlerized version or something?
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