Everybody uses slang. Or almost everybody. And I suspect that folks who insist they never use slang have their own version of it. If we don’t use any cultural slang, I suspect we make it up—I mean where else would a word like shizzle come from besides someone trying NOT to say something (ahem) more colorful. My mom used to say things like dammity-hellity, son of a beach, or the ever-popular Jiminy Christmas in order to avoid … you know. She also talked about things “going to hell in a hand-basket.”
Writing any novel of science fiction or fantasy poses the issue of slang for a writer. When people are in stressful, or surprising or annoying situations, they will cork off as Mom used to say. This is true in the Galaxy Far Far Away as well. Not only do we need to posit a set of human responses to annoying or shocking or dangerous situations, but there are other cultures—both human and alien—to consider.
Now as I’m writing dialogue for Dash Rendar and company, I could just make stuff up, but I’d rather see if there isn’t an existing term that I can use. Michael, likewise, prefers not making up new slang or expletives where existing ones would do. The question is, where to mine them from?There are a number of possibilities, the original movies being at the top of the list. We all heard Han Solo tell Chewie to “Laugh it up, fur-ball.” So, the phrase laugh it up is usable as is the epithet fur-ball. Star Wars novels, comics, and games, likewise, offer a glossary of “pre-approved” words and phrases for the Star Wars writer to select from.
A number of these come from outside the GFFA. For example, words like frack and frell (the latter of which IMO, is too soft to be a really good swear word), started in other TV or movie universes, but have been used in Star Wars materials as a sort of “nod” to the other shows. Frell (which is from Farscape), was used in the video game Star Wars: Republic Commando, while Michael Kube-McDowell used frack, from Battlestar Galactica, in his 1996 novel Shield of Lies. It also appears in the Star Wars: Legacy comic series.
And of course there is the official Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide, from Del Rey. This compendium includes slang in a variety of languages, including Sullustan, Huttese and Ewokese. This book is referenced heavily by the various websites that pay homage to the Star Wars universe. Here I have to give a shout out to Wookieepedia for footnoting its references so that the curious fan (or writer) can trace a term back to its source and therefore decide how authentic it might be.
I’m happy to find, for example, that one of my personal favorites, dwarf-nut (which Michael also seems to find amusing), is a real honest-to-Lucas term included in the Galactic Phrase Book. I also have a fondness for floob, a Sullustan epithet Michael Reaves and Steve Perry coined for their collaboration, Death Star.
A lot of usages come directly from our current cultural repertoire of slang, others are shifted slightly to one side. In fact, LucasBooks is taking a new look at this idea of Star Wars jargon and asking its writers not to lean so heavily on it. Our editor apologetically asked if we could cut back on the Star Wars lingo. So while a character might say “Let’s get the show on the road” to mean “let’s get moving,” he might yet say he “didn’t give a Psadan’s patoot” instead of referring to a rat’s posterior. Of course, he might also characterize someone as gonzo—a term we, here in the Galaxy Right Here and Now are very familiar with.
Kudos to whoever can recall where the term gonzo was used in a Star Wars property.
Next time: After Chapter One…
H’chu apenkee Maya and Company,
Yet another interesting blog post, and one that, quite literaly, gave me pause for thought. I have recently begun a re-read through of the Legacy of the Force series, as I intend to wait for the new ‘Fate’ books to get a good head start before I dive into them. Also, I recently decided to pick up Dark Horse’s Legacy comics once more, as my reading of them fell a bit to the way side due to work, and other non-Star Wars related activities.
Now that I am going through LotF a second time I could not help but pick up on a few things that I missed the first time, or at the least did not focus on too much. One of those, ironicaly enough, is the use of slang terms over the course of the series. Now, having been with the EU since the 90s, I have become accustomed to the non standard slang used in the GFFA, ‘Stang’ and ‘Kark’ being two of my favorites. In point of fact, I think I have the EU to thank for not being thrown at all when ‘Frack’ started up through BSG and is now being used in real life; it’s heard around my office quite often (Laughs)
However, one of the things which has begun to ‘get my gander up’ is the ‘excessive’ use of these SW slang terms in some of the Star Wars books or comics. The simple fact is some of the authors and writers seem to have an almost over-dependancy on finding ways to have the primary players, both heroes and ‘villians’ -so to speak- use the terms in even the most simple of conversations. Now, I shall admit, over the course of the day I use my fair share of colorful words, thankfully not in a ‘loud’ capacity nor in conversations of a casual nature, however, my use of those words have never once matched the severity of the characters in these books. In point of fact, I have never known anyone -save perhapes the characters in a bad action movie…or highschool- to use slang and more coloful terms in every sentence.
Truth be told, it has come to the point were the over use has begun to detract from my enjoyment and view of some of the iconic SW players and even newer or lesser utilized ones. So, in retrospect, I suppose my response to Maya’s post also begs a question or two. The first? Can there be a thing as ‘too’ much slang in a Star Wars book? And the second? Should certain chracters -Luke, Leia, Jaina, etc- never use them? Back to you Ms. Maya.
Thanks,
Joe.
Wonderful questions, Joe.
To the first, a resounding YES. There can be too much slang in ANY story, but it’s more noticeable in a SW book, I think, because the writers are trying so hard to paint the world in new and amazing colors. We’re allowed to use the occasional “damn”, “Hell” is acceptable if it refers to a place in GFFA mythos, but other than that we are tasked with coming up with slang that rings true.
I’ve been told I have an “ear” for dialogue, so I tend to trust my instincts when it comes to WHEN a character would use a slang term. For example, if Leebo has just done something exasperating, it stands to reason that Dash would respond with some sort of epithet—maybe referring to the droid as “you tin-plated dwarf-nut.” But he wouldn’t, unless he was reprising the Wesley vs Humperdink scene from Princess Bride, resort to adding a new epithet to every sentence.
I think a lot of excessive slang might be avoided if writers read their dialogue back aloud. I get a lot out of that exercise at any rate.
I think there wold be certain characters who wouldn’t use slang (or at least use it rarely) just as there are folks who habitually use a lot. And, like many such details, it can be used to help define a character. I like each character in a story to have a unique voice such that even without dialogue tags, you can tell who’s speaking by the way they speak.
I’m guessing “gonzo” first crossed paths with the SW universe in 1980, when Luke, Chewie and the droids turned up on the “Muppet Show.”
LOL.
You may very well be right!
Well, art imitates life, imitates art, imitates… well, you know.
whatever you do please avoid the much used term “Lubed” by Ben Skywalker. Luke should know better than to let him talk that way…….
The real fun with slang is that we all know it changes, and so it seems out of place in other societies. Pedigrees do not help; that some slang is long-lived doesn’t trump that people don’t know that.
And I have to say that the folks at LucasBooks understand that this is true of the Star Wars universe and that sometimes pedigreed slang can throw the reader for a loop or right out of the story — or at least, the moment.
We’ve actually had our editor pull out Star Warsian slang and terminology and ask us to pull back on it ourselves in favor of more generic terms. In a way, this makes the writer’s job easier.