History SophisticatedAsHell / Literature

* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'': In ''New Watch'' the protagonist describes a humongous fireball thrown at them: "It was a premium-class fireball, in terms of commercial managers. It was a Tsar-fireball, poetically speaking. A biologist would call it an Alpha-fireball. A very composed mathematician would note that it is a three-meter-wide fireball. It was a 'shit-your-pants-it's-so-scary' fireball!"

* Creator/MarkTwain accused James Fenimore Cooper of cluelessly falling into this trope. From "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses":

* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' short story "Literature/TheConcreteJungle" by Creator/CharlesStross. A memo regarding a politically-sensitive plan to turn every networked CCTV camera into a DeathRay to cope with an expected takeover by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s is naturally cloaked in {{technobabble}} and bureauspeak, except for its conclusion.

* In Judy Melinek's autobiographical book ''Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner'', on her first autopsy, she stated the victim died of "anoxic encephalopathy due to loss of consciousness of undetermined etiology" which, according to her, means "fuck if I know"!

* There's literally a philosophy textbook published by Princeton University, written by one Professor Harry G. Frankfurt titled "On Bullshit" that calmly and rationally examines why we call things we hate "bullshit."

* Mariah Dahvana Headley's translation of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' consciously mixes the grand diction expected of epic poetry with contemporary slang. Her take on the famously difficult-to-translate interjection “Hwæt!” is that its closest modern equivalent is “Bro!” For example, the last lines of Beowulf's eulogy go like this:

** On "Flea powder for dogs":

* Mariah Dahvana Headley's translation of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' consciously mixes the grand diction expected of epic poetry with contemporary slang. For example, the last lines of Beowulf's eulogy go like this:

* In ''Literature/TheEmpresssMage'', Sophia's internal monologue when she sees Sarah afflicted with Spring Fever:

* Mariah Dahvana Headley's translation of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' consciously mixes the sort of diction expected of epic poetry with contemporary slang. For example, the last lines of Beowulf's eulogy go like this:

* The William Johnstone novel ''Revenge of the Mountain Man'' has a moment of this from the LargeHam, SinisterMinister of an outlaw being attacked by a pose has this to say in an effort to rally the outlaw.

-->''They did all this grieving the way men do,''\\

* ''Literature/NightWatch'': In ''New Watch'' the protagonist describes a humongous fireball thrown at them: "It was a premium-class fireball, in terms of commercial managers. It was a Tsar-fireball, poetically speaking. A biologist would call it an Alpha-fireball. A very composed mathematician would note that it is a three-meter-wide fireball. It was a 'shit-your-pants-it's-so-scary' fireball!"

** In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', the inscription over the door of the Treacle Mine Road watchhouse reads [[PretentiousLatinMotto FABRICATI]] [[BilingualBonus DIEM,]] [[Film/DirtyHarry PVNC.]]
** In ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', [[TalkingAnimal Gaspode]] apologizes for his BuffySpeak:

** In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', Fred Colon manages [[LovableCoward an unlikely display of defiance]] by telling Lord Rust "No, sir! You may put it where the sun does not shine, sir!"
** Vimes is particularly good at this. At the end of ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' when the religious leaders all call for the destruction of the golem Dorfl, he carefully considers their opinions, gives it a lot of thought and gives Vetinari the following response -- "Arseholes to the lot of 'em, sir."
** And, in a surreal and hilarious variation: the Abbot of the History Monks, not having mastered the art of ''just not dying'' as Lu-Tze has, is instead forced to rely on serial {{reincarnation}} for immortality. So when we see him in ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', he's a baby that intersperses his eloquent, scholarly speeches with outbursts like "wanna wanna ''wanna BIKKIT!''"
** Mr. Nutt in ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'' describes to an increasingly bewildered magazine writer his philosophy of football, the behavioural psychology of teams, and the fact that quantum suggests you cannot know the position and velocity of the ball at the same time, before concluding that it's his job to present this metaphysical conundrum to the players in an appropriate paradigm, such as "Whack it right down the middle, my son."
** Mr. Tulip in ''Discworld/TheTruth'' is an inversion of this. He's typical DumbMuscle material, except when he comes upon a work of art, when he suddenly becomes a [[HiddenDepths sophisticated connoiseur]]. However, even when going on about a well-crafted candlestick or rare painting, he still uses the word [[UnusualEuphemism "-ing"]] all over the place.
** ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'': "The philosopher Didactylos suggested an alternative hypothesis: 'Things just happen, what the hell.'"
** Commander Vimes' batsman and BattleButler Willikins is prone to this in later Watch books, especially in ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}''.

** In the same book, [[TheJeeves Wilikins]] near the end acts as both Vimes' impeccable prim butler with perfect grammar and a highly uncouth forceful military officer in all-caps in long rants. He casually switches between the two modes without any pausing for breath.
--->'''Wilikins''': Do excuse me one moment, sir KNOCK IT OFF YOU MOTHERLOVIN SONS OF BITCHES I had no apprehension of your presence, sir.

* Happens quite a lot in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series, particularly any book set in Ankh-Morpork, with characters alternating between formal English and street vernacular in order to make better jokes and or points. The Patrician screwed this up (as, in fact, he often does when attempting to employ slang, despite having majored in languages in school) by threatening someone with the "sisal two-step" (when he meant the hemp fandango[[note]]i.e., being hanged[[/note]]; a clerk quietly corrected him).

-->''"Monseieur Eichbaum.... I would be grateful if you could place twenty thousand rubles by the gate of the number 17, Sofiyefskaya Street, tomorrow morning. If you do not, something awaits you, the like of which has never been heard, and you will be the talk of all Odessa. Sincerely yours, Benya the King."''

* The FirstPersonSmartass narration of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'' tends to veer from the modern colloquial to the formal and slightly archaic and back -- sometimes in the same paragraph. The fact that all the Amberites are centuries-old interdimensional travellers might [[JustifiedTrope justify]] some of this, as they travel between areas where the language is more or less formal, and might pick up mannerisms from all manner of different eras.

* Creator/NealStephenson does this a lot. Take for example, the first paragraph of the first chapter of ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'':

** Vimes is particularly good at this. At the end of ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' when the religious leaders all call for the destruction of the golem Dorfl, he carefully considers their opinions, gives it a lot of thought, and gives Vetinari the following response -- "Arseholes to the lot of 'em, sir."

* Much of Creator/DouglasAdams' work plays off this, often using overly formal tones to describe something mundane. ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', however, often sounds more chummy than an encyclopaedia should. (This is said in the series to be part of its appeal.)

* The Poet Martin Silenus in the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'' is both the most eloquent and sophisticated narrator in the book, and ''by far'' the one who cusses most. Best exemplified here:

* ''Literature/NightWatch'': In ''New Watch'' the protagonist describes a humongous fireball thrown at them: "It was a premium-class fireball, in terms of commercial managers. It was a Tsar-fireball, poetically speaking. A biologist would call it an Alpha-fireball. A very composed mathematician would note that it is a three meter-wide fireball. It was a 'shit-your-pants-it's-so-scary' fireball!"

-->''"...At first I was afraid, I was petrified..."''

--->''"You see? ''way'' too busy."''

It ''looked'' like Anakin's butt — well, his pants, anyway — though it was thoroughly impossible for Obi-Wan to be certain, since he had never before had occasion to examine Anakin's butt upside-down, which it currently appeared to be, nor from this uncomfortably close range.

--> "[The] rules governing literary art in romantic fiction... require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the 'Deerslayer' tale."

* Creator/DavidFosterWallace established this as part ofhis novelistic voice. His fiction was so topically omnivorous and complex that he'd frequently mix constructions of ordinary speech, even including heavy usage of slang and colloquial "street" grammar with technical language and jargon of one type or another, in addition to his immense skill at crafting unique voices for all of his characters. Moreover, he would often deploy such eclectic usages as a testament to the way that language can hinder communication and blunt our understanding of one another, and in order to argue that even the very medium of our communication can render us all the more alone.

** The ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''First and Only'' has this from Commissar Vay to Major Brochuss, who is about to have Vay, Gaunt and Milo beaten to death in an abandoned area of the city they're in:

*** More amusing is that Vay had seconds before said that Gaunt "was never a diplomat, and that insulting them is not going to help their mood." During their escape Gaunt replies, "You're right, Vay, I never could've been that diplomatic."

* ''Literature/{{Seveneves}}'' is full of this sort of thing -- a page and a half of [[ShownTheirWork the math involved in orbital mechanics]] will culminate in the declaration that if you don't have the right ratio of propellant to mass for however far you have to go, you're "completely screwed".

* Creator/MarkTwain accused James Fenimore Cooper of cluelessly falling into this trope. From "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses:"
--> "[The] rules governing literary art in romantic fiction...require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the 'Deerslayer' tale."