Seriously! Who Writes Like That?

I have a friend who likes to use big words.  In fact, his writing and his speaking style are what one might call diffuse or circumlocutory.  Recently, he posted something causing me to respond "Seriously!  Who talks like that?"  Well, despite the arguments I expect to get to the contrary, I admire his knowledge and command of the English language, and my statements, therefore, are uttered more out of envy than anything else. 


My own writing style is very straightforward, and my speaking style borders on the pedestrian.  Basically, it's bland, blunt and boring.  One doesn't need a dictionary at the elbow in order to understand what I am trying to convey.  But there is very little beauty or rhythm in the prose, and perhaps that is why I have so few followers.  No matter, that.  I write more for catharsis than the great hope that I will be discovered as the next Hemingway.


I do enjoy coming across literary works employing language that is different from the way I, or society or modern culture expresses itself.  My favorite example of this are the writings of Jane Austen, and, more specifically, the book Pride and Prejudice.  I have not read this work for years, but I do remember my first attempt, as a teen.  I recall, clearly, struggling with the opening lines:  It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.  When I finished reading that paragraph I was moved to utter "HUH?" and I am certain it was followed by the thought "seriously, who writes like that?  Not only does Austen use such language to tell her tale but, also, her characters actually employ such a style when speaking!  Consider this exchange between sisters, Elizabeth and Jane Bennet: 


"Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life."


"I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think."

"I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough — one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design — to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad — belongs to you alone. And so you like this man's sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his."

After reading Pride and Prejudice, I often wondered if English people really took all that time to convey their thoughts, and if they were always so very polite.  Years later, I had the opportunity to live there, and can relate with some authority that I have heard everything from  a rather working class  "OY, luv!"  to an  upper crust pronunciation of a monosyllabic word that took hours to utter.  But I have never been privileged to be in the company of anyone who spoke as they do in Austen's books, unless they were on the stage.  Simply, the answer to my question is "no".

I tried, on several occasions to emulate this way of communicating.  However, here in South Bend, Indiana, it doesn't translate very well, and so now, to avoid causing guffaws or, worse, being thought of as unbelievably pompous and pretentious, I stick to the more well known phrase "It's as plain as the nose on your face," instead of saying "It is a truth universally acknowledged."  

Economy was not one of Jane's literary traits.  However, if she had just "got to the point", I am relatively sure none of us would have heard of her.  The style of writing sparks the imagination and causes the reader to actually experience emotions and feelings.  Gasp!  And I don't care what anyone tells you--it is true for men as well as for women.  The difference is that women will admit it.  I love her style of writing, quite simply, because it is romantic.  I don't think Austen necessarily caved in to the Romanticist movement of her century, but her literary technique is incredibly evocative.  Here, Darcy proposes to Elizabeth:  “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”  WHO, in their right mind, would not want to have that spoken to them (unless by their stalker against whom a restraining order had been placed).  All I can do after reading that is to sigh...heavily.

Perhaps the main purpose of language is to convey thoughts and ideas.  But beautiful language does so much more than that, for it can penetrate and awaken the soul, bringing forth profound and impassioned emotions. That is why I love Austen's books.  She does more than tell a tale, but, in so doing, draws us in and allows us to experience, with her masterful use of the English language, consummate and intense sentiments, as if we were actually there, in her story.  In reading Pride and Prejudice, it is surprisingly easy for me to imagine myself, standing face to face with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, listening to him account for his love:  "I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."