Why do some types of English texts such as fictions or stories have very hard English language to understand?

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Ozzourti · Accepted Answer

I'd guess that's because fluent English speakers (especially those who write for a living) don't like to confine themselves to using basic vocabulary.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Fiction often uses regional dialects. These dialects are often in non-standard English.
What are some of the titles that you are trying to read?

Clive · Answer

Hi Alex John,

Is everything written in your native language easy to read?

Anonymous · Answer

The reason is the the key thing in writing fiction prose is idea of "filler," that is, filling up page upon page with less-than-essential material, in order to get the necessary bulk for a publishable novel or story.  For example, that premier novel in English, Moby D!ck, can be summarised in less than a paragraph:  A restless young man, bored with life on land, ships onto a whaler captained by a madman obsessed with killing an albino whale that took off his leg.  As he boards the ship, a crazy beggar prophesizes that all on the ship will be lost except him.  Now that's all very clear and easy to understand.  But this brief sketch hardly makes for a publishable novel, or even a short story, and thus, a mammoth amount of filler has to be added to the basic plot.   But adding this filler can get tricky, because, although not really essential to the plot, it nevertheless must be interesting and readable and of some quality, thus, it can get very convoluted and involved as the author tries to fill the pages and yet not be too obvious about what he is doing.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Anonymous that premier novel in English, Moby D!ck

I thought you would chose James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake as the paragon of all difficult text. I find this quote by Melville, a prescient description of Joyce himself:

The pale Usher -- threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.

Here is an excerpt from the first chapter of Finnegan's Wake:
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlinsfirst loved livvy.

It has its own glossary, and it's nigh on impossible to read without a wordcrutch . http://www.finwake.com/1024chapter1/1024finn1.htm

Compared to this, Melville's Moby D!ck is positively transparent and lucid!
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Why do some types of English texts such as fictions or stories have very hard English language to understand?

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