Thoughts on 'Minority Council'

[flemmings]

Oh yes, the Matthew Swift books drive me up a wall. They drive me so up a wall that the minute I finished 'Neon Court' I trekked on over to Bakka-Phoenix prepared to shell out $20 plus for vol 4, and was delighted to find it available mass market paperback, light in the backpack and less than $10.

But they still drive me up a wall. Pleasantly, unlike Ackroyd and Mieville, the other two Londoners on the go, but still. Wall. Vertical direction. Towards ceiling. 'Oh my God why am I reading this who's gonna get cut/ shot/ burned/ killed in unspeakable ways this time?' Violence is so not my thing.

1. Why are all these Afro-British women so foul-mouthed? Had they no home rearing? Even the Muslim one calls people arseholes, a word no Muslim of my acquaintance uses.

2. Why do all the women crack wise with Matthew, and why do they do it the same way? I'd be so happy if someone just looked at him blankly when he started being sprightly with them, like she had no idea what he was on about. (Actually, everyone cracks wise with Matthew unless they're a) trying to kill him or b) Sinclair. I suppose if a schtick works, keep using it, but but but.

3. See Matthew run. Run, Matthew, run. What makes Matthew run? Lack of forethought, usually. Annoying, when he's so competent at other times, to find him defaulting to the same old modus operandi in every book. Several times in every book. Preferably after suffering grievous bodily injury. So here we have the requisite 'Matthew in pain running from an enemy' scene. Tell me again why it's a requisite?

4. Griffin has stopped talking about chocolate when describing skin colour (thanks to a word from the writer of Minority Council's cover blurb, could it be?) but she still pulls in the coffee tones. Truly, just give us the names and we'll figure the ethnicity out (even if it takes us three books to figure Dr Seah is Chinese.) Or describe the skin colour of some of the white characters as well.

5. TBH the only time I really feel Matthew is mad as a hatter is when he starts spouting his megalomaniac 'I am the Mayor and I will DESTROY YOU ALL' speech at the Badnasty of the day. But then I'm not sure the angels can't destroy them all, if given their head. So maybe he has reason.

And an oddity that may not just be Swift. 'He was sat on the bed, reading a book.' This pattern occurs over and over. What happened to 'he was sitting'?

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

It's an English thing I think. I spoke and thought English quite correctly until I lived there. After ten years I came home and sprouted the exact same nonsense as, 'sat on the bed'. Interesting to note that, when I actually think about it, I cannot think of other examples. ^_^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

So this is an old usage, and found in the north as well? I guess authors just default to present continuous when writing, or their editors do; or the writers I've read are from a different background (or *cough* generation); or it's used here because the narrative is first person and that's what Matthew would say.

Still the first time I've ever noticed it.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

I used to hear the phrase "to be" left out of sentences when I lived in Ohio:

"That car needs washed."

as opposed to

"That car needs to be washed."

It made no sense and it drove me a little bit nuts.

"He was sat on the bed" sounds like we're talking about a toddler, and someone PUT him there. (And I'm not just writing that just because there's a wee child having a very loud tantrum in the street right outside my window right now. Sheer coincidence.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of the Ohio usage and couldn't parse it. Never occurred to me that it was just eliding the 'to be' part, since when we drop 'to be', it becomes 'the car needs washing.'

'Was sat' definitely prompts the question 'by whom?' in my head.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

It's a definite dialectical difference. Hiberno-English says "he was sitting", but I've seen a lot of speakers of southern British-English say "he was sat". The same with "needs washed" or whatever - Hiberno-English says "needs to be washed", I've seen souther British-English speakers say "needs washing", and Scottish-English (as opposed to Scots) speakers say "needs washed."

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Patchwork quilt Torontonians (who were still largely Scots and northern English) are definitely 'was sitting', no others need apply. My impression is that we usually say 'needs to be cleaned', even the young children of immigrants, but 'needs cleaning is acceptable.' 'Needs cleaned' is very much a first for me.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

should I read it? Will I like it? Violence is so not my thing either.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I think you might like it. It's all about the magic inherent in place, but a very unexpected magic. (Spells can take the form of reciting the statutes and regulations of oh say the Highway Traffic Act which prohibits speeds in excess of 60 mph: slows a demon right down, that does.) One can skim the oicks beating people up and so on, and Matthew running all bloody and woozy.

Come to that, have you read The Rivers of London?

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

no, haven't. It looks fun. Will definitely read.