Comments on: “Boy, that kills me” — Holden’s vernacular http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/2010/02/04/boy-that-kills-me-%e2%80%94-holdens-vernacular/ Lower Fairfield County's online book club Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:27:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Tom Mellana http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/2010/02/04/boy-that-kills-me-%e2%80%94-holdens-vernacular/#comment-168 Tom Mellana Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:54:12 +0000 http://blog.ctnews.com/bookends/?p=834#comment-168 While I think some of the words might sound dated, "this madman stuff" for example, the voice is so authentic, and the attitude is so strong that it more than compensates for a few words here and there. In some cases, I think the older slang words might actually benefit from being out of use, because I bet many younger readers have never heard them before, so they sound new and fresh. And a lot of those old slang words were just plain cool— calling his brother's car "one of those English jobs" for example. It's got style. And Holden calling his brother a prostitute will never get old. While I think some of the words might sound dated, “this madman stuff” for example, the voice is so authentic, and the attitude is so strong that it more than compensates for a few words here and there.

In some cases, I think the older slang words might actually benefit from being out of use, because I bet many younger readers have never heard them before, so they sound new and fresh. And a lot of those old slang words were just plain cool— calling his brother’s car “one of those English jobs” for example. It’s got style.

And Holden calling his brother a prostitute will never get old.

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