X-Men First Class Meta: Erik's Accent
Sep. 19th, 2011 01:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiWatched XMFC again with my friend, G; I am now at the point of evaluating minutia, viz, Erik's floating accent. Whatever the production-level explanation for the migration of his accent from more American to more British and vice versa, the shifts in-universe are fascinating. In a nutshell, his English starts out very American, moves toward British/mid-Atlantic almost as soon as he meets Charles, then migrates back again toward American right near the end.
(light spoilers)
From the first time I saw the film, I was jarred by Erik's abrupt switch from German to English in the middle of a conversation among only native German speakers. Why would he jump, almost mid-sentence, into an idiom the men he's accosting might not even understand? He makes the jump right when he identifies himself as like Frankenstein's monster with Shaw as the creator he's seeking revenge on. The likeliest connection I can find is that Shaw taught him English, and therefore, he equates his knowledge of English with Shaw's "creation" of him.
This explanation answers a couple of additional questions too. 1) How has he come to be so darn proficient in English? Answer: He's linguistically talented, but he also started learning English when he was about twelve and still young enough to absorb it almost with native proficiency. 2) Why does he sound so American? Answer: He sounds like Shaw, the man who first introduced him to the language.
But shortly after he meets Charles, he starts speaking an English that is notably closer to Charles's idiom. He's surrounded on all other sides by American accents, so this has to be Charles-specific. Sorting out exactly what happens here would be an interesting task for a fic. Is the switch at all conscious? Purely unconscious? Is it related to their telepathic contact, or is Erik just very influenced by Charles and spending an enormous amount of time hearing him talk? Whatever the concrete explanation, thematically this marks a move away from identification (however negative) with Shaw and toward identification with Charles.
At the end, the process is reversed. Erik accepts Shaw's tutelage (though not Shaw the person) and cuts off his telepathic connection to Charles (and some part of his emotional connection). When he becomes Shaw's heir, he begins to sound like Shaw again. And again, this may not be conscious. I doubt it would be something he'd consciously think about out of on the beach. But it does make sense as an instinctive reflection, a mimicry of the perspective he's decided to endorse.
(Of course, at some point, he turns into Ian McKellen and becomes all mid-Atlanticky again, but that's a tale for another time...)
(light spoilers)
From the first time I saw the film, I was jarred by Erik's abrupt switch from German to English in the middle of a conversation among only native German speakers. Why would he jump, almost mid-sentence, into an idiom the men he's accosting might not even understand? He makes the jump right when he identifies himself as like Frankenstein's monster with Shaw as the creator he's seeking revenge on. The likeliest connection I can find is that Shaw taught him English, and therefore, he equates his knowledge of English with Shaw's "creation" of him.
This explanation answers a couple of additional questions too. 1) How has he come to be so darn proficient in English? Answer: He's linguistically talented, but he also started learning English when he was about twelve and still young enough to absorb it almost with native proficiency. 2) Why does he sound so American? Answer: He sounds like Shaw, the man who first introduced him to the language.
But shortly after he meets Charles, he starts speaking an English that is notably closer to Charles's idiom. He's surrounded on all other sides by American accents, so this has to be Charles-specific. Sorting out exactly what happens here would be an interesting task for a fic. Is the switch at all conscious? Purely unconscious? Is it related to their telepathic contact, or is Erik just very influenced by Charles and spending an enormous amount of time hearing him talk? Whatever the concrete explanation, thematically this marks a move away from identification (however negative) with Shaw and toward identification with Charles.
At the end, the process is reversed. Erik accepts Shaw's tutelage (though not Shaw the person) and cuts off his telepathic connection to Charles (and some part of his emotional connection). When he becomes Shaw's heir, he begins to sound like Shaw again. And again, this may not be conscious. I doubt it would be something he'd consciously think about out of on the beach. But it does make sense as an instinctive reflection, a mimicry of the perspective he's decided to endorse.
(Of course, at some point, he turns into Ian McKellen and becomes all mid-Atlanticky again, but that's a tale for another time...)
