Courtesy of the delightful Kristin Matherly, here’s a link to the "humor" page of her vast compendium of Great Outlander Quotes—have fun exploring!
http://www.outlanderquotes.com/gabaldon/viewquotes.cfm?by=category&cat=Humor
Also posted on my Facebook page on August 31, 2015.
i just finished “written IN My Own Heart’s Blood” and am in Outlander withdrawals!!! Like all of Claire, Jamie’s and the whole Fraser Clan fans I am in awe of your ability to bring them to life! So happy for Ian and Rachel and felt Claire and Jamie’s overwhelming joy at the homecoming of Roger, Brianne and the grans!!
Can’t wait for the next installment!!!
Dear Ms. Gabaldon,
I am a fan of your books and am down to the last of the Lord John series! However, somewhere in the middle of your series you either changed editors or dropped the subjunctive tense, “as it were.”
I realize that it is rapidly being lost, and phrases like “I wish I was…” Are taking over. It is a disappointment. I was so happy initially when you knew how to use it ( the subjuntive tense), and it makes the books read easier.
Also, I appreciate that you know house to spell and use “y’all!”
But back to the subjunctive tense, there was a place in one of your later books…(I wish I’d marked it down) where it says”you was”.
Do you think you could bing it back into properly using the subjunctive tense ? Ok, so the younger Hip generation may get fussy, but when did a little grammer hurt anyone? With as many languages as you use it would be nice to hear the good old fashioned proper Emglish.
Thank you for your wonderful work, I look forward to reading more …
And forgive any misspellings, as my spell check often rewrite crucial words!
Sincerely,
LAGlasgow
Dear Leslie–
[laughing] No, neither I nor my (very excellent) copy-editor have lost our use of the subjunctive tense. Lord John’s acquaintanceship, though, is another matter. If you read 18th century novels and letters to any extent (and I’m figuring you probably don’t, but I do), you’ll see “if you was to [do something],” used as common, educated speech (not peasants or ethnic dialect, I mean; this was an idiom common to upper-class English speakers). Now, Lord John himself does use the subjunctive, because he’s a very elegantly-spoken man, but some of his associates don’t. It’s on purpose, though, not the result of ignorance.
Best wishes,
–Diana