Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

YA Sci-Fi

Published in 2005 by Simon Pulse an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

Book 2 of Uglies

Perfect example of using repurposed terms to create evocative slang.

Tally has everything she's ever wanted. She's pretty, reunited with her best friends Shay and Peris, and has just been accepted into the Crims, the coolest clique in New Pretty Town. But she can't shake the nagging feeling that everything isn't as perfect as it seems. When a message arrives from her ugly past, Tally must decide if the cost of being pretty is worth it.

Things to Emulate

How people speak is a big part of creating characters and culture. Language is at the core of communication; the terms that are available to us directly influence how we formulate ideas and play a huge role in how we interpret the world. This makes language, specifically vocabulary, one of the easiest ways to distinguish people and groups from one another. Subliminally, this is something we do every day. Different groups use vocabulary unique to them. There is lawyer speak and business speak. You can often tell where someone is from based on the words they use. Individuals shift their way of speaking depending on who they are speaking to, either to fit in or to be better understood. This includes code switching, but also covers things like how an adult speaks to a toddler versus a teenager.

While this is an intrinsic part of the human existence, building original speech patterns and slang from scratch is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Many attempts feel forced and unnatural. But this is something that Scott Westerfeld's Uglies Series does incredibly well. The lexicon of Pretties and the rest of the series is so robust that there is an insider's guide to the world of Uglies, including its slang: From Bogus to Bubbly.

Part of what makes the slang of Pretties work so well is that Westerfeld isn't really inventing anything new. Pretty speech has roots in Valley Girl speech with a frivolous, empty-headed sounding vernacular. It is sprinkled with likes and totallys which reflect the characters who are hyper focused on their appearance and popularity. When pretties slang deviates from the Valley Girl base, Westerfeld mostly uses existing words in slightly different ways than standard English. Sometime this is simply expanding the definition a little, like with bubbly and bogus. Bubbly means "cheerful and high-spirited." It's not a stretch to extend this to mean a heightened state of awareness and clarity or, in some cases, simply cool. The dictionary definition of bogus is "not genuine." In Pretties, it means boring or uncool, which is an easy extension of this definition.

"But she's totally bubbly, Zane. I don't think she'll give us away," Tally said, then shrugged. "If anything, finding out about the pills made her furious enough to stay bubbly for life." (Cutters)

She found herself wondering if this whole expedition was kind of lame, looking for some big secret that uglies had left behind. Sneaking around in someone else's mansion was pretty bogus, after all. (Valentino 317)

The characters in Pretties also mash words together to create new slang: face-missing, fashion-missing, bubbly-making. There is a childishness to these created words that reflects the hyperfocus on fun and instant gratification that the pretties have, which is reinforced by the paternalistic attitude of the adults (middle pretties).

“You haven't been openıng your mail the last couple of days, have you?" he said.

She shook her head. "Too many bogus pings. From being on the feeds, you know? Totally famous-making.”

The words earned Tally a proud a smile. "I suppose it's all been very exciting for you and your friends.”

She shrugged, going for false modesty. "It was bubbly at first, but now it's getting bogus.” (Hospital)

There is also a subtle shift in the structure of how Pretties talk with a grammatical construction the suggests a toddler, even though pretties are between 16 and mid-30s:

"a motion that was totally ouch," (Zane)

The dialogue is all short and cheerful, bubbly and fun. The characters refer to each other with cutesy nicknames that match the cutesy nature of the slang.

"Shay-la!" Tally struggled up onto one elbow. I need help!"

"The party? I know.”

"What's the deal with semiformal, anyway?"

Shay laughed. "Tally-wa, you are so missing. Didn't you get the ping?" (Criminal)

What makes the slang of Pretties work so well is that Westerfeld hasn't reinvented the wheel. All of this slang is built on small tweaks to standard English and small manipulations of the familiar speech patterns of the Valley Girl. It is easy for readers to understand; there are no stumbles as they try to get a grasp of these terms. These small decisions make the world of New Pretty Town feel real—like there is an organic culture churning through the world. Not only does the use of slang differentiate the new pretties from uglies, specials or middle pretties, it also tells the reader almost immediately what makes the new pretties tick and provides a baseline for what is important to this group of characters.