Sunday, November 23, 2008

Particular Nasal Stress

Are you brave enough to venture into the dark caverns of the mind of Victor Davis Hanson? As illustrated in a piece he calls "Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts?"

Let us peek in at #6:
Something has happened to the generic American male accent. Maybe it is urbanization; perhaps it is now an affectation to sound precise and caring with a patina of intellectual authority; perhaps it is the fashion culture of the metrosexual; maybe it is the influence of the gay community in arts and popular culture. Maybe the ubiquitous new intonation comes from the scarcity of salty old jobs in construction, farming, or fishing. But increasingly to meet a young American male about 25 is to hear a particular nasal stress, a much higher tone than one heard 40 years ago, and, to be frank, to listen to a precious voice often nearly indistinguishable from the female. How indeed could one make Westerns these days, when there simply is not anyone left who sounds like John Wayne, Richard Boone, Robert Duvall, or Gary Cooper much less a Struther Martin, Jack Palance, L.Q. Jones, or Ben Johnson?
Be bold!

1 comment:

  1. There's always the whole "These Kids Today, With Their Hair and Their Clothes" comment about cliches, but I'ma skip that and go straight to "Just what is the wingnut fixation on westerns all about?"

    Specifically, why do they choose as their Ur-toughguys a bunch of fucking actors pretending to be tough?

    Actors ain't up for a hard day of cattle driving, horse-riding and a fistfight. They never have been.

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