Fwd: Re: [SEELANGS] Equivalent to "corny"? Any suggestions?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Marina Brodskaya wrote:

> On Jul 26, 2010, at 9:58 AM, "Paul B. Gallagher" 
> <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM> wrote:
> 
>> Melissa Smith wrote:
>> 
>>> I think "corny" doesn't have as negative overtones as the options
>>> here suggest.  It is closer to клише, провиннциальный - I think
>>> of someone with cornsilk in their hair, a "hayseed." As Nellie
>>> Forbush sings in "South Pacific": "I'm as corny as Kansas in
>>> August" - there must be a Russian pop-culture equivalent!
>> 
>> I've also seen/heard "corny" used in a sense very close to "sappy"
>> -- sickeningly sweet, implausibly romantic, overdramatic like
>> theater makeup compared to everyday makeup. In that sense it does
>> contrast with the jaded big-city ways of doing things.
>> 
> Постылый?

I perceive that as too negative for the sense I have in mind. For me, 
the subtext is something like, "Perhaps you mean well, but it's too over 
the top, I'm not buying it." If I told a lady friend her eyes were "like 
limpid pools" (which of course is a literary turn of phrase), she might 
call it "corny" in part because it's so excessive as to be implausible 
and in part because it's not my wording, it's not genuine.

It's also possible, I suppose, that a lady in a bar might reject a 
suitor's approach as "corny" with the implication that it was trite, 
tired, clichéd, and undeserving of respect -- again, because she didn't 
feel it was from his heart. A city girl wouldn't take that stuff 
seriously; she's heard it all before and can recite it by heart. A city 
boy wouldn't be so effusive, he would be subtle and artful, and "corny" 
is neither; it's heavy-handed and clumsy.

None of this necessarily means that's what the speaker was doing; we're 
only discussing the meaning of the comment.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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