njc wrote:To the Fuzzy Wuzzy example: The repetition of the 'uzzy' is not accidental. It's there for a specific musical/poetic effect. It's not sophisticated, but neither is its intended audience.
Notice that the very first thing Ringo's protag/narrator says is 'I was having a dream'. After that, he gives slow, smooth description. And by using the progressive aspect, he emphasizes that the protag/narrator is immersed in the experience
So is this written for a -special- effect? Or just for a -specific- effect?
The argument of audience versus art is a messy one. (Or should I just write ' is messy'?). I don't have a final conclusion on the question, but if your purpose is to reach the audience, you might make different choices than if you hope to write for the ages, or if you are writing to see how far you can press the technique, or to flaunt your virtuosity to other writers.
Yes, the Fuzzy Wuzzy example is odd-sounding and grammatically tortuous not by accident. By that, it is actually sophisticated. Your author creates his mess by accident.
I won't point out the other mistakes and stick to the was issue. 12 of 128 words are "was" and if 10% of your words are the same word, you have a problem. Moreover, you claim this is about the progressive past tense when only 3 of those was's are used for that purpose, and the rest are simply past tense condition of being.
In the matter of style, your claim: "He emphasizes that the protag/narrator is immersed in the experience," is true, but all the more shows up that pitfall in first-person narrative. Within a character's dialogue, license can be made for ugly patterns of speech, or non-normative if you prefer, but an entire book or even large portions thereof in blah, blah of an ugly English is annoying.
Like you know I was listening to my music when like the guy is staring at me, so I am telling him what the fuck, man, who is giving the right to go gazing on me like you king or something and am telling that loud, but he is gazing and staring and going all weird, so like you know it is telling me he is just crazy.
Okay, fine. Let's do this occasionally, but narrate the whole book that way?
It is a guarantee that non-normative target audience does not read.
Running through a grammar/spell/style checker will not find any mistakes except perhaps "know" used too many times.
So like it is better than your sample, for sure.