What are your thought on using multiple languages in a book?
cool if they are languages i speak
pretentious and/or passe otherwise
>>7405830
it's fine as long it's just basic stuff, don't have it be shit that someone has to reach for the dictionary for
It'd be nice if they footnoted translation on the bottom, kind of like the French in Tolstoy translations
Requestnig Junot Diaz's bald head turned into a cunt
dumb spic
Write well in one language first.
>>7405830
It's fine as long it fits/is justified.
Can I understand what it means through context?
Does it matter whether I get it or not?
Is it used to show something like alienation or misunderstanding?
I liked it in Blood Meridian but even then it bothered me that I missed something and having to look it up breaks immersion a bit.
>>7405830
even a single language is too many
When academic types curse I always kek a little inside. Such a weak misuse, always.
To avoid cultural appropriation one should only write and read in their native language.
>>7405901
misuse? like how? they don't understand the word so they use it in the wrong context?
>>7405894
>Can I understand what it means through context?
>Does it matter whether I get it or not?
This right here. And in Junot's case, don't worry, he just says 'puto' and 'pinga' all the time, literally adding nothing to the story.
Seriously, Junot's use of spanish in his writing is ridiculous. It's just a big fucking cliche, like having a french character saying "Ooh la la" or "Mon Dieu!" all the time. He could have done so many interesting things, but no, he just went with the stupidest option.
Díaz is so talentless, it doesn't really matter what he says.
I read in two languages, but even when I see sentences in languages I don't know (as Anon mentioned in Tolstoy) I don't feel "alienated". The funny thing is, often, when you look up what it means, it is so immaterial to anything that it just doesn't matter. I can't tell how many times I looked at a translate or a footnote and just had the general "that's nice, dear" attitude. Note it next time. These sentences are often not pregnant and are throwaway, at best.
>>7405830
usually I just skip over it if I can't figure out what it means by context
I'm sure I missed a lot of Name of the Rose stuff that way, but meh, fuck it.
elves are much cooler than beaners btw
>>7405994
He sounds like a fucking asshole from the OP pic anyway
>>7405830
If it's integral to the story, I'm cool with it. If it's just thrown in there, for no reason, so the author can give a condescending asshole answer like, "because art," or because, "uh, you english readers are so dumb," knowing he'll be asked at a book signing, "Do you think using Spanish in your writing alienates some of your readers?" Then I'm not cool with it. Probably asked by an audience plant by the way.
>>7405830
That's a fucking hilarious reply.
>>7405830
who the fuck does this? mccarthy includes many spanish passages in blood meridian and that's one of the most acclaimed novels of our time
Junot Diaz is so awful. I think people are just afraid to say it since his writing is blacktino to the point where if you criticize it you look racist
I recently read his This Is How You Lose Her short story collection and didn't care much about it (shame since some of the story titles were fairly interesting).
Is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao worth bothering with?
is junot diaz actually awful or is it just a meme?
>>7406872
He's pretty bad. read his work and find out if you're skeptical.
Junot Diaz
>>7405894
In general I find writers who put foreign languages in their work generally hamfistedly jam a sentence, sometimes idiomatic, always incomprehensible, into their work as a "look at me I'm smrt" obsequious display to the cultural elites and high and mighty book reviewers. This is why Ben Lerner is popular. Abhorrent tbqh f a m
