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32 replies
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I haven't heard that term in years!
From Bengali ভালুক, "Bhalook" (English speakers usually hear Bengali or Hindi "bh" as "p"
, "bear" (literally "bee-eater" . The Hindi cognate is "Baloo", whom fans of the Jungle Book will know.
https://archive.org/details/Damon_Runyon_Theatre
Literary style
Frank Muir comments[18] that Runyon's plots were, in the manner of O. Henry, neatly constructed with professionally wrought endings, but their distinction lay in the manner of their telling, as the author invented a peculiar argot for his characters to speak. Runyon almost totally avoids the past tense (English humourist E.C. Bentley thought there was only one instance, and was willing to "lay plenty of 6 to 5 that it is nothing but a misprint"[19] but "was" appears in the short stories "The Lily of St Pierre"[20] and "A Piece of Pie";[21] "had" appears in "The Lily of St Pierre",[22] "Undertaker Song"[23] and "Bloodhounds of Broadway"[24]), and makes little use of the future tense, using the present for both. He also avoided the conditional, using instead the future indicative in situations that would normally require conditional. An example: "Now most any doll on Broadway will be very glad indeed to have Handsome Jack Madigan give her a tumble." (Guys and Dolls, "Social error" . E. C. Bentley[25] comments that "there is a sort of ungrammatical purity about it [Runyon's resolute avoidance of the past tense], an almost religious exactitude." There is an homage to Runyon that makes use of this peculiarity (Chronic Offender by Spider Robinson) which involves a time machine.
He uses many slang terms (which go unexplained in his stories), such as:
pineapple = pineapple grenade
roscoe/john roscoe/the old equalizer/that thing = gun
shiv = knife
noggin = head
snoot = nose
There are many recurring composite phrases such as:
ever-loving wife (occasionally "ever-loving doll"
more than somewhat (or "no little, and quite some" ; this phrase was so typical that it was used as the title of one of his short story collections
loathe and despise
one and all
E. C. Bentley notes[26] that Runyon's "telling use of the recurrent phrase and fixed epithet" demonstrates a debt to Homer.
Runyon's stories also employ occasional rhyming slang, similar to the cockney variety but native to New York (e.g.: "Miss Missouri Martin makes the following crack one night to her: 'Well, I do not see any Simple Simon on your lean and linger.' This is Miss Missouri Martin's way of saying she sees no diamond on Miss Billy Perry’s finger." (from "Romance in the Roaring Forties"
The comic effect of his style results partly from the juxtaposition of broad slang with mock-pomposity. Women, when not "dolls", "Judies", "pancakes", "tomatoes", or "broads", may be "characters of a female nature", for example. He typically avoided contractions such as "don't" in the example above, which also contributes significantly to the humorously pompous effect. In one sequence, a gangster tells another character to do as he's told, or else "find another world in which to live."
Runyon's short stories are told in the first person by a protagonist who is never named, and whose role is unclear; he knows many gangsters and does not appear to have a job, but he does not admit to any criminal involvement, and seems to be largely a bystander. He describes himself as "being known to one and all as a guy who is just around".[27]
more at link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon
Literary style
Frank Muir comments[18] that Runyon's plots were, in the manner of O. Henry, neatly constructed with professionally wrought endings, but their distinction lay in the manner of their telling, as the author invented a peculiar argot for his characters to speak. Runyon almost totally avoids the past tense (English humourist E.C. Bentley thought there was only one instance, and was willing to "lay plenty of 6 to 5 that it is nothing but a misprint"[19] but "was" appears in the short stories "The Lily of St Pierre"[20] and "A Piece of Pie";[21] "had" appears in "The Lily of St Pierre",[22] "Undertaker Song"[23] and "Bloodhounds of Broadway"[24]), and makes little use of the future tense, using the present for both. He also avoided the conditional, using instead the future indicative in situations that would normally require conditional. An example: "Now most any doll on Broadway will be very glad indeed to have Handsome Jack Madigan give her a tumble." (Guys and Dolls, "Social error"
. E. C. Bentley[25] comments that "there is a sort of ungrammatical purity about it [Runyon's resolute avoidance of the past tense], an almost religious exactitude." There is an homage to Runyon that makes use of this peculiarity (Chronic Offender by Spider Robinson) which involves a time machine.
He uses many slang terms (which go unexplained in his stories), such as:
pineapple = pineapple grenade
roscoe/john roscoe/the old equalizer/that thing = gun
shiv = knife
noggin = head
snoot = nose
There are many recurring composite phrases such as:
ever-loving wife (occasionally "ever-loving doll"
more than somewhat (or "no little, and quite some"
; this phrase was so typical that it was used as the title of one of his short story collections
loathe and despise
one and all
E. C. Bentley notes[26] that Runyon's "telling use of the recurrent phrase and fixed epithet" demonstrates a debt to Homer.
Runyon's stories also employ occasional rhyming slang, similar to the cockney variety but native to New York (e.g.: "Miss Missouri Martin makes the following crack one night to her: 'Well, I do not see any Simple Simon on your lean and linger.' This is Miss Missouri Martin's way of saying she sees no diamond on Miss Billy Perry’s finger." (from "Romance in the Roaring Forties"
The comic effect of his style results partly from the juxtaposition of broad slang with mock-pomposity. Women, when not "dolls", "Judies", "pancakes", "tomatoes", or "broads", may be "characters of a female nature", for example. He typically avoided contractions such as "don't" in the example above, which also contributes significantly to the humorously pompous effect. In one sequence, a gangster tells another character to do as he's told, or else "find another world in which to live."
Runyon's short stories are told in the first person by a protagonist who is never named, and whose role is unclear; he knows many gangsters and does not appear to have a job, but he does not admit to any criminal involvement, and seems to be largely a bystander. He describes himself as "being known to one and all as a guy who is just around".[27]
more at link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon
