James Ashby has less experience than me in the writing of plausible dialogue and he should have have come to me, or to somebody like me, before he put up as evidence the following exchange:
SLIPPER: Have you ever come in a guy’s arse before?
ASHBY: That is not a question you ask, Peter.
As dialogue the question is fine, but the answer is all over the place. No Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celt or Aussie Bloke in an intimate situation addresses the person before him, an inch or two away, or even three feet away, by their Christian name. To do that is to show aggression — as in ‘Thank you for that question, Kerry. Let me first say, and I want to make this perfectly clear, that I have NEVER, EVER’ … and so on.
You call a person by his name if you are having a fight with him, or if he’s two rooms away, and he can’t hear you and you’re trying to achieve his attention. But no-one, no-one does it when the two of you are one-to-one and up close; except for Jewish mothers, who are always angry with their progeny anyway, and shout at them most of the time.
To show how implausible it is, let us rewrite the dialogue just a little, adding only one more word.
SLIPPER: Have you ever come in a man’s arse before, James?
ASHBY: That is not a question you ask, Peter.
The superfluity of the two Christian names is hereby demonstrated. They are vividly unnecessary, both times.
So it’s likely — though of course, m’lud, not certain — that the Ashby line was made up, or misremembered. What he probably said was either ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘don’t ask’ or ‘Are you asking me were you my first? No, you weren’t, Sweetness, you most certainly weren’t.’ His line as written would have made Terence Rattigan aghast, and, if kept in the script, would have caused him to leave the production.
Another line he is SAID to have said is ‘I am openly gay, Peter’. Even with the ‘Peter’ left out (if that’s the phrase I want), this phrase as a self-description has no precedent in human speech or animal grunting since neolithic times.
It is possible, of course, it was Ashby who said it first. He is a bit of a trend-setter. He is, for instance, the first thirty-four year old homosexual male to file a civil suit for sexual harassment in world history, I would think. I may be wrong about this. But he is a trail-blazer.
And how sinister and silly and sneaky this is getting. It has what we know in the trade as the Salusinski Stain all over it, and the puppet-strings of a man unfit to run an international corporation.
You’d think Rupert could afford a better dialogue writer than this. Or would understand the need.
But perhaps he was inattentive that week, learning and rewriting and re-rehearsing his own lines, which he did rather well.
Name:
It’s probably a cultural thing – as a Scot I wouldn’t have a problem with the first name thing were the second question asked of me, although my reply would consist only of one word.
That is not a question you ask Peter
Although not the optimal place to write this, but I’ve just read that Gore Vidal died, and I’m sure Bob will have a few words to say. He was a great writer and I discovered his essays when I was around 19 or 20, he led me to Mailer and Calvino. It was voice I instantly recognized and it seem to come from a deep past although absolutely contemporary at the same time, it resonated. There was a long hiatus before I found something similar or more appropriately something of the same worth, and it was Ellis.
Since the passing of Mailer, I have awaited the death of Vidal with a sad a resignation.
He would have appreciated this post in the midst of a discussion of the Ashby/Slipper thing.
Vale Gore Vidal.
Myra would have loved Ashby and Slipper
Ashby will need more than dialogue hints it would seem.
What is it with these conservative conspiracies? Another Godwin Grech.
And storm in a teacup no. 257 fails, as did the 256 before it.
I want to see Slipper back as Speaker. He proved quite good at it, to my surprise.
Yeah. Slipper kept control of the the kindergarden quite well. Ashby shouldn’t have thrown stones from his glass house.
And Carlo Gambino was a great family man didn’t you know?
He did shut off Gillard’s microphone when she was spewing her industrial-strength blather and avoiding the question. About time that happened and there should be more of it.
He is another one of these pallid, bland, suited, plastic, expressionless, metrosexual neolib zombies that seem to have taken over politics and the media over recent ties.
My impression of him is of a soul-less “user”: every/anything he says ought to be treated as lies ’till definitively proven otherwise.
Just shows what kind of people are attracted to the Liberal Party and what kind of party is attracted to some people
Just ask Milton Orkopolis. No, wait…
Plausable? The word signals a lie inherent.