random writing query

[schmerica]

lyra_sena: well, the truth is that as much as it makes us uncomfortable? the distinction is very real.

Okay, so I'm taking the above sentence completely out of context from the conversation lyra_sena and I were having earlier, because it's a perfect example of a kind of style I've been wondering about a lot lately.

Basically, that questioning intonation/statements that are not statements thing -- that's how I talk, really a lot of the time. I know quite a few people who do the same thing, even; it's not something I notice in everyday conversation.

On the other hand, though, it's something that can suddenly become *really* noticeable in writing. There's been a couple of stories I've read lately (though, dammit, I apparently cannot *locate* any of them again) that had this kind of construction in them. And for, say, Gretchen in Mean Girls it comes across as perfectly natural, whether in dialogue or narration, but for Ray Kowalski, it seems odd. It makes me think of the author, rather than the character a lot of the time.

Is this true for others?

I'm trying to think of what it is that makes it read that way to me. The first thing that comes to my mind is that is sounds "feminine" -- except that word is no end of troublesome, and even just that description kind of gets my rankles up. Especially when I try and figure out what I mean by that, and the next word I come up with is "uncertain".

Is it something along those lines? There are male characters whom I can picture such dialogue working with -- Dan Rydell, perhaps, comes to mind. Is it simpler than that -- just another matter of character voice? Am I just on crack? Am I on crack but have a point in this instance? I don't know.

Comments

[ineke.livejournal.com]

It's so very American. I've found myself using it -- sparingly -- in LJ-talk because, hey, I see it around. But I couldn't say it to save my life. On the other hand, I don't particularly perceive it as either male or female. "Because this? This is not a good thing, Fraser. This is the opposite of a good thing. This is a--" yeah, however that sentence ended. You know.

Rising intonation in Australia is very much a low social class marker. Not as a question, but just signifying the possibility of continuation. So, pretty much every sentence but the last one in a speech paragraph. And believe you me, that gets mighty annoying. But, eh, I'm middle-class through and through.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

"Because this? This is not a good thing, Fraser. This is the opposite of a good thing. This is a--"

Hmm, somehow I think my mind is making a distinction between "setting up a rhetorical question and answering it" and "splitting a statement into a statement and question parts", with the lattter being the thing I find myself noticing in my reading. It might be a false distinction, but, hmmmm. The sentence you put here, I don't think I would even notice from, say, Ray Kowalski (though, man, it'd sound weird from Fraser, even setting aside the talking to himself). On the other hand, something arranged like "And you? Are an asshole." or "That's fine, but I? Hate this." seems weird to me in the mouths of many characters.