Ooo, great post, and comments! Coincidentally, two things that have been in my mind lately are accents/dialects in print (whether in Due South or any other fandom), and Ray being of necessity smarter than he's often portrayed; kind of a pet peeve.
These people are detectives. What did they do for brains before Fraser got there? If Ray (either Ray) is as dependent on Fraser to help him figure things out as he is usually portrayed in the episodes, I can't help wondering if Beth Botrell is the only person who shouldn't be in jail. It's kind of scary.
Fortunately, most writers in this fandom seem to have a sense of this as well, and tend to make up for it in their fanfic, evening out the distribution of intelligence more equitably between Ray and Fraser. It's something of a relief.
I doubt I'm the only fan who, during the "Say Amen" episode thought, Wouldn't it make sense at this point for Ray The Detective to wonder aloud, "So the witnesses say the dead guy and the kid came into the room fighting, but the dead guy's lying out in the hallway. And who gets stabbed in the back during a knife fight, hm? Something's not right about this, Fraser."
Some day someone in fandom will fix that for me, I just know it. :)
Anyway, regarding RayK's accent/dialect, yes, I know exactly what you mean. I read/write in another fandom, often RPS, and the characters involved often have one accent or another. Trying to imitate in print the precise *sound* of an Australian, Cockney or a Yorkshire accent instead turns out terribly distracting for me as a reader. My "reading ear" so often comes to a screeching halt to wonder "What??" that I can't hear the character's voice at all.
On the other hand, I find that simply writing in the dialect's *style* reads rather better. There's no need to get carried away. All we're really after is to distinguish one character's voice from another within the story, and then our own memory of what that character sounds like takes care of the rest.
I haven't written anything for this fandom yet. I'd like to (couple of plot-bunnies snuffling around behind my sofa), but I'm still the nervous newbie, when it comes to making the leap from reading to writing as well. This is a very helpful post, as I have been wondering a bit as to how I might best handle our twitchy but charming RayK, were I to get up the nerve and make the jump. Thanks!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-07-08 10:12 pm (UTC)These people are detectives. What did they do for brains before Fraser got there? If Ray (either Ray) is as dependent on Fraser to help him figure things out as he is usually portrayed in the episodes, I can't help wondering if Beth Botrell is the only person who shouldn't be in jail. It's kind of scary.
Fortunately, most writers in this fandom seem to have a sense of this as well, and tend to make up for it in their fanfic, evening out the distribution of intelligence more equitably between Ray and Fraser. It's something of a relief.
I doubt I'm the only fan who, during the "Say Amen" episode thought, Wouldn't it make sense at this point for Ray The Detective to wonder aloud, "So the witnesses say the dead guy and the kid came into the room fighting, but the dead guy's lying out in the hallway. And who gets stabbed in the back during a knife fight, hm? Something's not right about this, Fraser."
Some day someone in fandom will fix that for me, I just know it. :)
Anyway, regarding RayK's accent/dialect, yes, I know exactly what you mean. I read/write in another fandom, often RPS, and the characters involved often have one accent or another. Trying to imitate in print the precise *sound* of an Australian, Cockney or a Yorkshire accent instead turns out terribly distracting for me as a reader. My "reading ear" so often comes to a screeching halt to wonder "What??" that I can't hear the character's voice at all.
On the other hand, I find that simply writing in the dialect's *style* reads rather better. There's no need to get carried away. All we're really after is to distinguish one character's voice from another within the story, and then our own memory of what that character sounds like takes care of the rest.
I haven't written anything for this fandom yet. I'd like to (couple of plot-bunnies snuffling around behind my sofa), but I'm still the nervous newbie, when it comes to making the leap from reading to writing as well. This is a very helpful post, as I have been wondering a bit as to how I might best handle our twitchy but charming RayK, were I to get up the nerve and make the jump. Thanks!