Auxillary Verbs

[psyburn21]

Let me ask this question, does this "gospel" of don't use auxiliary verbs apply to dialog as well or just description?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Since auxillary verbs are weak, passive, tepid, and static it makes sense to use them where you want to depict the speech of weak, passive, tepid, and static people.

 

[bronzeage]

Let me ask this question, does this "gospel" of don't use auxiliary verbs apply to dialog as well or just description?

Try this line without auxiliary verbs.

"I could tell you, but that wouldn't really help you, would it?"

For everything there is a time and a season.

JB is not very good at answering questions. He prefers edicts and declarations. One is allowed to question his philosophies, but only in ways which allow him to continue the sermon.

Questioning the substance yields insults, not insight.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

THE BIG KILL by Mickey Spillane.

“I snapped the side of the rod across his jaw and laid the flesh open to the bone,” Spillane wrote. “I pounded his teeth back into his mouth with the end of the barrel ... and I took my own damn time about kicking him in the face. He smashed into the door and lay there bubbling. So I kicked him again and he stopped bubbling.”

THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler
The main hallway of the Sternwood Place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him.

 

[bronzeage]

THE BIG KILL by Mickey Spillane.

“I snapped the side of the rod across his jaw and laid the flesh open to the bone,” Spillane wrote. “I pounded his teeth back into his mouth with the end of the barrel ... and I took my own damn time about kicking him in the face. He smashed into the door and lay there bubbling. So I kicked him again and he stopped bubbling.”

THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler
The main hallway of the Sternwood Place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him.

Spillane has no axillary verbs in this passage so, he 0/66. Chandler is 2/115.

This is an AV factor of zero for Spillane and 1.7 for Chandler. Spillane is clearly the superior writer.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I recently 'discovered' Mickey Spillane. Critics hated him but he knew how to write stories! and his mastery of body language is impressive. He reminds me of a cross between Raymond Carver, Erl Stanley Gardner, and Raymond Chandler.

Spillane used more auxillary verbs than I like but they seem to keep his intense action verbs under control. So theyre kind of a brake. His prose isnt static!

Another trick of his is how he avoided large, technical words when describing big technical scenes. His reader's wouldnt know the words, and he didnt use them, what he did was write something like: THE DOC HANDED ME A WAD OF SCRIPTS FOR A BUNCH OF DRUGS I CANT EVEN PRONOUNCE.

 

[Pure]

note to bronze

bronze Spillane has no axillary verbs in this passage so, he 0/66. Chandler is 2/115.

This is an AV factor of zero for Spillane and 1.7 for Chandler. Spillane is clearly the superior writer.

pure: The linking and auxiliary verbs in the passage number about 9-- 2 being linking. It might be noted that these occur in only 4 sentences. Hence Chandler's spare and minimalist style was not particularly based on avoiding auxiliaries.


THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler

The main hallway of the Sternwood Place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him.

==
I agree with your earlier point as to dialogue, a quite forceful example being the angry neighbor who says to the kid whom he lives next door to,
"I am eating your pet rabbit and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

PURE

Characterization is a good example of how auxillary verbs can work. Spillane's or Chandler's use of them may do the same work as their books are almost always written in first person, and their detectives arent exactly scholars.

 

[bronzeage]

bronze Spillane has no axillary verbs in this passage so, he 0/66. Chandler is 2/115.

This is an AV factor of zero for Spillane and 1.7 for Chandler. Spillane is clearly the superior writer.

pure: The linking and auxiliary verbs in the passage number about 9-- 2 being linking. It might be noted that these occur in only 4 sentences. Hence Chandler's spare and minimalist style was not particularly based on avoiding auxiliaries.


THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler

The main hallway of the Sternwood Place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him.

==
I agree with your earlier point as to dialogue, a quite forceful example being the angry neighbor who says to the kid whom he lives next door to,
"I am eating your pet rabbit and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."

If this is the case, Chandler is totally fucked as a writer. It's a wonder anyone remembers his name.