Have you heard of this man?
22 September 2003, 12:41 AM
Here's a brief sample prose passage, written by me. Please read it in preparation for the poll/survey that follows.
There is no telling what the citizens of Broadway will do for a few potatoes. Some of them, such as the guy who is called Lucky Louie, will put the bite on a guy as soon as look at him. In fact, Lucky Louie is often more broke than somewhat, because of the money he loses on craps and horse races, and sometimes he is so broke that he even puts the bite on a doll, even though it is well known that dolls very rarely have potatoes to spare.
That is an attempt at imitating the style of a particular author. Until today, I am under the impression that this author, a 1930s newspaper scribe named Damon Runyon (whose last name is originally spelled "Runyan" until another newspaper scribe gets it wrong, and the new spelling sticks) is a very large author indeed, known to one and all as one of the best authors of short stories going. In his time, he is certainly very well known; his stories sell by the dozens to Cosmopolitan, Collier's, and the Saturday Evening Post for a dollar a word, the book collections of his stories sell millions of copies, he earns $2000 a week for working on Hollywood movies, and his syndicated newspaper column is read all over the country. Over time, Hollywood makes over 30 movies based on his work. But that is all in his heyday, in the 1930s. I am under the impression that he is best-known nowadays for his connection to the musical Guys and Dolls, and that he is about as highly regarded even today as other short-story scribes like O. Henry and Ring Lardner and Saki. I am also under the impression that Runyon's distinct prose style, in which there are no past-tense verbs and all the sentences sound slightly too formal and 1930s Broadway gangster slang figures prominently, is more than somewhat recognizable to all who read it.
This afternoon and evening it is brought to my attention that for some years now I am living in an alternate universe, while in most of the world Runyon is known very little if at all.
So I'm providing a survey to see how many of you are familiar with Runyon.
Heard of Runyon?
Comments
Do you have an entry for Have read all his collected short stories several times or am likely to quote at length if not restrained or considered naming a boy Big Julie or Earthquake?
Thank you,
-V.
Posted by: Vardibidian (mail) (web) | September 22, 2003 7:57 AM
Also, do you have an entry for Have never heard the man's name before.
Posted by: Jon (mail) (web) | September 22, 2003 8:23 AM
I think I might have been able to place him in the 30s-ish, but would have guessed "hard-boiled detective stories" for his style/content, and I can't tell from your passage/comments if that's actually what he wrote or not. I answered "think I've heard the name" in the poll.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 22, 2003 9:32 AM
Filled out the survey, but to amplify: I had never heard of him until I encountered him through Swarthmore people, probably Ed reading one of his stories at Storyreading. If not for that one particular connection, I doubt I would ever have heard of him, and I'd think it rare and wondeful if I encountered someone else who had.
Posted by: irilyth | September 22, 2003 9:53 AM
As Leggy Starlitz would mutter, “Yeah, no, maybe.” I’m pretty sure I was exposed to Damon Runyon in high school by Armed Forces Radio, but if not for that I doubt I’d have heard more than the name.
And except I was just reading this known Howard Waldrop story, I am betting I am not putting the name of the guy together with the style of the prose.
Posted by: David Moles (mail) (web) | September 22, 2003 11:20 AM
(Sorry, I am meaning to say I am just reading this known Howard Waldrop story.)
Posted by: David Moles (mail) (web) | September 22, 2003 11:22 AM
How about an entry for "You've written a story using Runyonesque"? ("Beer On Sunday" was mine).
Posted by: Nick Mamatas (mail) (web) | September 22, 2003 12:01 PM
Apologies for leaving off the "Never heard of him at all" option—I meant to include that, but forgot. Was definitely not meant to imply that everyone should at least have heard of him.
I've now added two new options to the end of the list, for people who didn't answer previously. If you already answered the survey, please don't answer again. Apologies for the confusion.
Posted by: Jed | September 22, 2003 12:39 PM
Or in my case: I recognized your text as a mimicry of a particular writer's style, regardless of knowing that writer's name.
Posted by: Dan | September 22, 2003 12:59 PM
In conversational Italian, there is no future or past tense. Things translate as "Yesterday, I go shopping", "Tomorrow, I go to the movies." Being as I've never encountered english-speaking Italians other than highly-educated ones, I don't know if they literally speak this way, but I wonder if his lack of tenses is a result of imitating their speech--there's an intermediate level of learning a language where you know what you're doing but can only manage literal translations, before you pick up idioms and details and all. :)
I don't know--it's just a thought, and possibly completely wrong, but I love languages without future or past tenses. :)
Posted by: Celia | September 22, 2003 2:59 PM
I chose:
The name was unfamiliar to me, but the style was at least vaguely familiar-sounding.
Doesn't mean I didn't know it at one time, although that's as reasonable as never having known.
probably network / Win 2000 / Netscape 7
Posted by: metasilk | September 22, 2003 4:32 PM
Celia, while Italians (speaking Italian) often use the present tense in place of the future, I've never heard them use it in place of the past. "Domani vado in cinema" is common, "ieri faccio la spesa" sounds very weird to me. And it's not that there is no future tense -- even in conversational italian, you could say "domani andro' in cinema" if you were emphasizing the futurity of it: "domani *andro'* in cinema, va bene? ma stasera mi puoi lasciare in pace, forse, per una volta? porca miseria..."
Posted by: Benjamin Rosenbaum (web) | September 23, 2003 10:55 AM