| Re: The Beggar
As an exercise, I tried to re-write the text with punctuation. I didn't like it. It gives the character a greater sense of coherence than I want them to have (as this is meant to represent thought, not speech). However...
I do have a piece which is a similar character (or possibly the same character, somewhat earlier) actually talking out loud to another person. I feel that the punctuation works here;
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What's that ye were sayin', young feller? I was thinkin' that I 'eard ye say something about the Sleepin' Cliffs, eh? Plannin'? Plannin' a what? A nexpedishun? Wassat? Y'goin' out there? Ye don' wanna go out there, young 'un. Lissen… lissen t'me! I been out there. Yeah, yeah… I been out there a good few times. Long ago, now, but I still been and I'm tellin' ye that ye don' wanna go out there on no nexpedishun!
Drinkin'?! Sure I been drinkin'! Ye'd be drinkin' too if y'seen what I seen out on them cliffs. Wretched things…wretched. Ain't nothing for no human eyes to see… Once ye get past the Slums then it ain't no land o' man no more. Beasts is all there is. Beasts! An' worse'n beasts…
Aye! Ye might well laugh! Daft ol' coot livin' in the gutter I be but I gots more sense than any o' ye an' I reckons that I'll live a sight longer'n ye if'n ye go on this nexpedishun.
Yer bones'll be bleachin' in the sun afore I'm dead, boy, I tell you that straight off. Bleachin' inna sun! |