(Boychick, chutzpah, glitch, kibitz, klutz, nebbish, maven, noodge, nosh, shlep, shlock, shmooze, shtick, tush, zaftig ... and those are only the most common.)
The trouble is, I don't think this was pitched in most venues as either an AU or a detective noire. Chabon has attained such respect that (for instance) book club readers who would normally avoid either of those genres ended up reading it, and just weren't ready to wrap their heads around so much vocabulary they didn't know right off, or such attitudes. Whereas anyone who regularly reads good historical fiction or SF&F is used to reading things with vocabulary that has to be taken in stride - either deciphered from context or, yes, looked up (oh noes!).
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branchandroot
(Yiddish ... exotic?)
Date: 2009-02-28 11:59 pm (UTC)No, of course not!
(Boychick, chutzpah, glitch, kibitz, klutz, nebbish, maven, noodge, nosh, shlep, shlock, shmooze, shtick, tush, zaftig ... and those are only the most common.)
The trouble is, I don't think this was pitched in most venues as either an AU or a detective noire. Chabon has attained such respect that (for instance) book club readers who would normally avoid either of those genres ended up reading it, and just weren't ready to wrap their heads around so much vocabulary they didn't know right off, or such attitudes. Whereas anyone who regularly reads good historical fiction or SF&F is used to reading things with vocabulary that has to be taken in stride - either deciphered from context or, yes, looked up (oh noes!).