Playing with Language

I've been thinking a lot about what I like in books, and I've discovered that one thing I don't usually like is when authors play too much with language. I really didn't like Finnegan's Wake or A Clockwork Orange. I guess I found them pretentious. It's as though Joyce and Burgess were saying "look at me! I'm so clever! I can make a novel completely incomprehensible and be seen as a genius." It really irritates me. I want to be challenged by a novel, but not irritated by it. I sometimes think that author's get carried away with their own "brilliance". Is it really necessary to create a new language?

See, but now we have a problem; I don't think Tolkein was being pretentious when he wrote a new language for The Trilogy of the Ring. His elvish language really seemed to fit naturally into the story, and didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story. Now, it may have taken away from other people's enjoyment, but it didn't detract from mine. I guess it's all just a really personal thing. I don't know why A Clockwork Orange irritates me but The Fellowship of the Ring doesn't. For me, it comes down to the necessity of the language to the work. Burgess had a good idea, but I don't know that the language changes were necessary.

One work where I feel that the changes to the language that the author made really worked was Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn. I was just blown away by this book, which was given to me by a friend of the family. I had never heard of this book, but David felt that I would enjoy it, and I really did, so I have to thank him for introducing me to this great book. I would recommend it to pretty much anyone. The premise of the story revolves around a small island that had been the home to the man who created the phrase "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." We are all familiar with this sentence, which uses all 26 letters of the alphabet. Ella Minnow Pea raises this sentence to great import.

In the story, the island of Nollop is the home of Nevin Nollop, the creator of the sentence, which is engraved on a memorial in the main square. When letters begin to fall off the memorial, the island's government takes this as a message from Nollop that these letters should no longer be used. The novel is a series of letters written by Ella (Ella Minnow Pea = LMNOP, get it?) that reflect the ever more difficult task of writing and creating language as letters are removed.

Although I most enjoyed the book because of the way the language is used, there are many other themes, such as totalitarianism, freedom of speech etc. This novel really stands the test of time, and I highly recommend it.

How do you all feel about books that play with language? Do you admire the authors or think they need to get over themselves?