A Few Newbie Questions

Thank you to everyone personally for his or her responses to my questions. I was searching for varied viewpoints on foreign language in a story and it astonished me at the number of replies.
Simon Doom-I agree that for most viewers here English is their first language and we can fumble through the Germanic and romantics if sprinkled lightly in a story.
Thank You for the recommendation of “Dreyer’s English” in a different thread.
Keith D- “The Nude On The Balcony,” the concept of foreign dialogue being used at the onset and fading as the story progressed worked well.
Hector Bidon- Thank you for directing me to thread about handling numerous foreign languages in a story.
LoquiSordidaAdMe- “One Night In Dubai,” WOW! Well done. The idea where the characters are not fluent in each other’s native language and they had spoke in English instead. This will work well in my story, thank you.
Hypoxia- “The Botanists,” I appreciated that you included technical (?) details in your story, it is a life of learning.
Kola Kiss-
Bramble Thorn- You are correct, Google Translate is far from reliable in either direction.
Ishtat- Thank you for linking me to your poetry.
Thank you to everyone who I didn’t name personally,
Penelope

Idea for a story

Has anybody heard of diphallus.? It's when a male has two cocks. I've search literotica and not found incest diphallus story imagine a female getting dp by the same guy because he has two cocks and it's her brother.

David1248 said:

Has anybody heard of diphallus.? It's when a male has two cocks. I've search literotica and not found incest diphallus story imagine a female getting dp by the same guy because he has two cocks and it's her brother.

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I saw that in an old erotic comic and I'm sure there's such on LIT somewhere but I can't point at them, sorry. Why not write some?

This is slightly off-topic but interesting anyway.

Paths of Glory (1957) is entirely in English although obviously you have to imagine all the characters speaking French. Wisely, I'd say, none of the actors attempt a French accent.

Yet, at the end, when the German girl is brought in to sing to the soldiers, the song is really done in German. The soldiers are impressed although most of them don't know the language.

Most of the American movie goers didn't know German either. Thus they can identify with the soldiers who are impacted by the emotional tone of the song rather than the lyrics.

It's a nice little twist by Stanley Kubrick. (The actress playing the singer later became his wife.)

gunhilltrain said:

This is slightly off-topic but interesting anyway.

Paths of Glory (1957) is entirely in English although obviously you have to imagine all the characters speaking French. Wisely, I'd say, none of the actors attempt a French accent.

Yet, at the end, when the German girl is brought in to sing to the soldiers, the song is really done in German. The soldiers are impressed although most of them don't know the language.

Most of the American movie goers didn't know German either. Thus they can identify with the soldiers who are impacted by the emotional tone of the song rather than the lyrics.

It's a nice little twist by Stanley Kubrick. (The actress playing the singer later became his wife.)

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Yes! It's still one of the very best anti-war films ever made, and show-cases so many of the cinematic traits Kubrick became renowned for - the long tracking shots, the ballet of the circling camera, the immaculate symmetry of each shot. A superb film.

Re: Paths of Glory

I found the final scene posted on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJH8hO7VlWE

I noticed that some of the soldiers seem to be well into middle-age which, considering France's losses in that war, may have been true. However I can't - for the moment at least - confirm what the age limit for conscription really was by then (1916).

gunhilltrain said:

I found the final scene posted on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJH8hO7VlWE

I noticed that some of the soldiers seem to be well into middle-age which, considering France's losses in that war, may have been true. However I can't - for the moment at least - confirm what the age limit for conscription really was by then (1917).

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Wikipedia:

With war imminent, 2.9 million men were mobilized in August 1914. These comprised conscripts undertaking their three years of obligatory service, reservists of ages 24 to 30 who had completed their period of full-time service, and territorials drawn from older men up to the age of 45. While reservists had been required to undertake periodic re-training in the form of annual maneuvers, the territorials had no peacetime commitment and were not intended for employment in the front-line in the event of war. However France's heavy losses on the Western Front required the deployment of all three categories of conscripted man-power, especially during the early months of the war.

Kubrick, being who he was, would have researched the answer thoroughly, I think.

electricblue66 said:

Wikipedia:

With war imminent, 2.9 million men were mobilized in August 1914. These comprised conscripts undertaking their three years of obligatory service, reservists of ages 24 to 30 who had completed their period of full-time service, and territorials drawn from older men up to the age of 45

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I don't know about France, but my Great Grandfather father was killed in France in 1918. He was 39 and a Private in the Australian Imperial Force. He volunteered.

Rustyoznail said:

I don't know about France, but my Great Grandfather father was killed in France in 1918. He was 39 and a Private in the Australian Imperial Force. He volunteered.

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The oldest American soldier to die in Iraq was an officer, a major who had served in Vietnam once and re-enlisted after 9/11. An enlisted man, a first sergeant, was killed the same year in Afghanistan; he was also a Vietnam vet and he was 59.

I guess you have to admire them but in my mind they had done their duty four decades earlier.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/21/afghanistan.oldest.death/index.html

This thread has drifted a bit - but, oh well.

gunhilltrain said:

I found the final scene posted on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJH8hO7VlWE

I noticed that some of the soldiers seem to be well into middle-age which, considering France's losses in that war, may have been true. However I can't - for the moment at least - confirm what the age limit for conscription really was by then (1916).

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France's conscripts remained eligible to be called up long after their active service, and this happened by classes; say you graduated school in 1899, then you'd be the Class of '99, and you'd have your active service done by 1902 or whatever. But you'd remain eligible to be called up (in accordance with what EB posted above) into middle age. After Verdun, they were calling up every warm body.

Napoleon used much the same system a hundred years earlier. He had soldiers of all ages.

Voboy said:

Napoleon used much the same system a hundred years earlier. He had soldiers of all ages.

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And to close the loop on Paths of Glory, Napoleon was Kubrick's great unmade movie. He made A Clockwork Orange instead, and then Barry Lyndon, where he used the second of Nasa's low light lenses to film the candle-lit scenes (and confirming in the minds of many conspiracy theorists, that it was Nasa's way of paying him for "the moon landing video"). The first lens is still up there, I believe, at the landing ground of one of the Apollo missions.

PenelopeWood said:

First off, let me start by saying Hello. I have lurked over the years, mostly for writing challenges when my brain has become muddled, or searching for answers to questions I have yet asked myself.

1.) Citing my works- My preference is for period pieces, therefore, I research for information, i.e. one at the present I needed to know how to make paper, do I cite where I googled it from?

2.) Dialogue in a foreign language- What is the best way to use it in my story?

A) Start off in the said language, have another character repeat in English? To me, this would become redundant.
B) Have it spoken in English and reference someway it is in a foreign language?
Example: he spoke in a thick German accent.
C) Write it in the foreign language and hope my readers can deduce what is being spoken?

Thank You in advance for your time and consideration to my questions and have a wonderful day!

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1/ I've cited period information from Wikipedia in stories and it's passed Laurel without problem. I did include information for her in the notes section of the submission so it was clear why.

2/ Only ever did that once and it was only because it was appropriate for the story. I agonized over whether to use the English version instead of Spanish, but I loved how it flowed off the tongue in Spanish. I included a translation at the end of the paragraph.

["It's me David," she started to step inside, *"tu eres mi vida mi amor mi pasión por siempre," flowed from her mouth like she'd been speaking it all her life. *(you are my life, my love, my passion forever)]

Assuming that Google translate got it right

The asterisk may have been overkill.