1
Voice is style. In my mind, there are no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. It is indeed a strong assurance that I have made, but I am absolutely, positively sure I am right. I am right because I have worked hard to cultivate my voice. For fourteen years of my adult life (I became an adult when I was eight, I’m sure of it), I have strived to have a different voice from everyone else’s. Even until today, walking into any classroom, everyone has part of the same voice, the substantive part, which is “Valley Girl Lingo.”
Every other word out of somebody’s mouth seems to be “like.” The problem with that is no one is making a comparison. People also tend to “go” somewhere when they talk as well. This is the reason why I have cultivated my own voice, because when these words, when this diarrhea of the mouth spews out of people, I cringe. It might as well be nails on a chalkboard or two pieces of Styrofoam rubbing together. I feel my teeth crack when I hear these words as my teeth grind together, the socket’s of my eyes bleed from the rage coursing through my veins.
Listening in on a University classroom grates on my nerves, as each one sounds like a “Little Valley.” The stories students tell each other, how one “was like…” and “he went….” I made it a crusade for myself to make people feel as dumb as they sound while they talk like this. Before their story can even kick off, I have to start immediately asking “It’s like what?” and “He went where?” Because if we do not have linguistic standards, our communities will falter and we will end up feeding our crops Gatorade for the electrolytes.
2
I apologize if I make everyone but I seem like they talk like this. Indeed, in this classroom, I have never heard more individuals shed their valley girl lingo... for the most part. The array of voices ranges from pompous to reserve, but they are all a hell of a lot better than valley girl lingo. But, I can still see the damage of VGL, even in me. For instance, while I am drunk and talkative, I get the diarrhea of the mouth and spew “like” every which way I can. The sad part is, I catch every “like” seconds after it spews forward, causing my own pain.
Sadly, through this discussion, I have gone about proving myself wrong. Before I began this paper, I was sure that voice was style. I had imitated a section of Frankfurt’s book and laid out my plans for this paper. But, reading back through the paper, before I began my analysis, I realized I had shot myself in the foot and contradicted myself within the first paragraph of the paper. I had not planned it that way.
2
I still do believe that voice consists of style. I have tried to convince myself that this is the case. However, I have realized that style is only a sub point of voice, and it is the content that is voice. Looking through pop culture only reaffirms my conclusion that voice is substance. For instance, Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin is spot on. Fey uses Palin’s style, but the contradicting and amusing pieces of the act is the content that Fey uses, establishing her voice of critique of the Vice Presidential hopeful.
1
My imitation exercise proves this as well. For this paper, I ended up doing two. The first one, making Frankfurt’s piece into my own words ended up more like a translation. I understood that one little section better, it flowed better, but I didn’t “write” the content. Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows this. After studying French and Japanese, copying words out of a book, or translating some sentence or paragraph, the piece still is not your own. Translating any piece into the English language could end up coming out five different ways, but neither piece ends up in the translator’s voice. Another instant of this would be to talk normal, but kick in an “Arnie” accent and sayings. The style used changes your voice, but the content you are talking with retains your voice.
However, my second imitation piece was my whole spew about Valley Girl Lingo. Through reading Frankfurt’s book, I felt like I could actually imitate his words, but not lose my voice. The content rang through, but I focused on using the slightly pompous, academic style Frankfurt used. I have no doubt that I flubbed some sentences, but overall, I felt happy with the piece. I never had to sacrifice my personal feelings. All I had to do was use Frankfurt as a mouth piece.
But what I had discovered was that voice is intrinsic. Style is an “outside” force, dictating how you talk and how you form everything else. Substance, however, concerns the what. What you say, what forms you use. When in an argument, no one examines how you say something, but what you say. The ‘how’ is superficial while the ‘what’ is intrinsic.
1
However, even though I have come to the conclusion that voice is substance and style can only refine one’s voice, I still feel uncomfortable pigeonholing voice. I like to think that voice is indeed one’s own spin on the world in language form. But I feel voice is something I do not want to argue over. And I love to argue. But, I would with someone on religion or politics before ever arguing on where voice comes from. Voice is personal, it is us. To try and convince someone, other than yourself, that they are wrong on where voice comes from is just bad business. You might as well and tell them there kid is ugly and they look just like you. So, while I feel voice is substance, rather than style, I feel more happy in calling voice a personally intrinsic expression and leave it at that, and let whoever wants to, to decide what that really means.
Posted by David N. on October 16, 2008
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