As you can see by my stack of Elmore Leonard audiobooks, gathered from my shelves, Dutch Treat: The Audiobooks of Elmore Leonard is just the kind of podcast I’m looking for. It’s on a highly specific subject, one that couldn’t really exist in any other format. The unnamed host takes clips from each Elmore Leonard audiobook (abridged and unabridged) to showcase Leonard’s terrific dialogue in the hands of some of the top narrators in the audiobook business. It was great to hear Grover Gardner, Joe Mantegna, Robert Forster chewing up Leonard’s dialogue once again. The only real detraction I see, in this super-fun podcast, is the highly unnecessary “strong language” warning.
It’s Elmore Fucking Leonard for fuck’s sake!
Actually there’s not a gratuity of swearing in these audiobooks, which makes the warning doubly annoying. Might as well say: “Elmore Leonard is a fiction writer, none of the events in these novels have actually happened.”
[sigh]
Okay, enough of my whining, have a listen.
Here’s the podcast feed:
http://dutchtreat.libsyn.com/rss
Posted by Jesse Willis
Jesse, I think it’s worth noting that there are some people, myself included, who have a great love for the science fiction genre but who don’t wish to hear the kind of strong language you were writing about in this post. I don’t speak that way, my friends don’t speak that way and I find that type of language unnecessary and offensive. I think that it’s possible to be well-spoken without swearing and it’s also possible to write a good, modern sf novel with respectable, adult characters without having them use the F-word. I appreciate the warnings that anyone might want to provide to warn listeners of language they might consider to be offensive.
I agree, it is definitely is possible to write about SF without any swear words. It’s also possible to write a story with no dialogue at all. If you find words offensive it’s because you give them actual power. Word magic isn’t literal it’s figurative, metaphorical.
Don’t say ‘You-Know-Who’ or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” say “voeldemort” with a little “v” and you’ll take away his power.
Don’t say “F-bomb”, it isn’t a bomb, say “fuck” with a little “f” it’ll make the word less offensive.
To swear is to conjure emotion, emotion is one tool in an author’s toolkit. Elmore Leonard added swearing to his toolkit in 1972 after reading The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Swearing makes his dialogue richer, more realistic, more adult, and more fun.
210 Profainity
by weep555
Hi
I’m the unnamed host of this podcast. Thanks for the review. I wish I hadn’t noted the podcast series as having strong language but when I began podcasting, there was a box you had to check for strong language which I diligently did. That was a mistake as it grouped my series with X-rated music and literature. As for the use of strong language in Leonard books, there is a hilarious exchange on the subject at the beginning of Leonard’s The Big Bounce. If you check the podcast on that one you can hear some of it. Anyway, thanks again.
Rich (Nolen) Stim
;
Cool. Any chance of some new episodes Rich?
I just started back up today. There’s a bunch of reissues coming out and I’m kind of excited about that.