Beware modern slang in historical writing

This got me thinking..... What if a story takes place in the future (idk, for the sake of the argument, the year 3020).... And they use a slang term from the the far past, let's say the 1940s.



Is that a "writing sin" too? Would it be out of place for the story, the same way using modern slang in historical fiction is out of place for the time period?

 

I don't know. Interesting question.

However, to be on the safe side, unless you WANT them to be referencing slang from the 1940s, for some reason, I'd say avoid slang altogether. (Unless you want to create 'new' slang.) But it would depend on the story.

You can't go wrong if you stick to standard English, though. Lots of words there, in that big ol' dictionary, that aren't considered slang or 'informal.'

I reckon if slang usage is deliberate, it will work. However, if it just seems like the writer didn't notice—kinda like if they keep repeating a go-to word or phrase that attracts undue attention to itself—it might not.

 

The problem with novel slang for future settings is that the average Joe/Jane is unaware of the complex processes that give rise to slang. Not only must the slang serve the intended purpose of slang (mentioned in my prior post), but it must also pay attention to thematic and phonemic trends in the target culture. British slang and American slang and Australian slang all have very different trends they follow. Regardless where you're from, when you hear a bit of slang that's not from your neck of the woods, it sticks out as strange, unusual, hard to define why, but you just know it sounds off.

tl;dr - People are really bad at making up fake slang. They are.

Take for example Larry Niven's tanj (there ain't no justice) from his Known Space novels. Not only is it painfully corny and dorky, it also makes zero sense for that word to form that way. He took a page from words like fubar and snafu and tried to follow that route, which is wrong. The reason fubar and snafu exist in the form they do is to hide the 4-letter word that makes up one of the words in the acronym. Tanj, as an explicative, is not hiding any saucy bit of verbiage. It's a long walk to get to somewhere that makes no sense.

Also, all the horrible, cringey slang in Maze Runner. Just criminal. Fast-forward to 01:45.

 

Hey, man, we all have that thing that gets under our skin. Bad neologisms and slang will make me drop a book as fast as glaring plot holes and uncontextualized character description paragraphs.

 

I reckon when they came up with FRACK! for Battlestar Galactica, they didn't realize just how bad a word that would actually become.

 

But frakk is the exception. It's a good bit of faux verbiage. It's got all the right bits without being overworked.

It absolutely sounds like the word it's trying to replace, thus no need for clumsily shoehorned narrative illumination. And phonemically, it's perfect. That initial labiodental fricative F makes for a pressure build-up that is released and then punctuated with the voiceless velar stop of the K.

It's got all the right stuff.

 

It makes me cringe watching British tv where they talk about cigarettes....

 

Erm...fracking is a really bad word in my vocabulary at the moment. At the moment, it's banned here ...but who knows when it will get trotted out again!

 

Yeah, but nobody around here would name their child Randy.

 

I'm afraid to ask....
(but i will)

whats wrong with it?

 

It's another word for horny. In the U.S. that particular meaning for that word is somewhat valid, but it has a very old-timie feel to it.

 

That's a brilliant episode of that series of takedowns.

Also, NADSAT. That one worked.

 

Well, people do actually say LOL, OMG (although usually ironically), ASAP and other similar acronyms.

 

It has the same meaning in the UK. Randy Baumgartner was a source of much amusement on certain British TV programs.

 

Is it still modern currency in the U.K. or does it have that patina I feel over my side of things?

 

So, there's a show on Netflix called GLOW. One of the characters husband slept with her (wife's) best friend.
....his name was Randy.


And suddenly it makes sense -mind blown-


EDIT!!! NO! his son's name is Randy!
My comment is now irrelevant