I did always think smugly of her when taught about Ms. Nightingale, despite my being considerably less humanitarian than either of them.
Have you ever been with a warrior woman?
Wash ,'Bushwhacked'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
§ ita § - Sep 30, 2008 7:33:09 pm PDT #7608 of 28404
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Steph L. - Oct 01, 2008 3:46:24 am PDT #7609 of 28404
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
Ha! [link]
I tend to agree with that, for the most part (Sarah Monette, I'm looking at you), although the made-up words never tripped me up with Harry Potter. I wonder why.
sumi - Oct 01, 2008 4:29:46 am PDT #7610 of 28404
Art Crawl!!!
Hee.
Maybe because quite often they were specific "spell words" which you wouldn't want to use in regular conversation? Or they were slang?
Steph L. - Oct 01, 2008 4:45:15 am PDT #7611 of 28404
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
Maybe because quite often they were specific "spell words" which you wouldn't want to use in regular conversation? Or they were slang?
I just think she was really good at making it clear through context what the made-up words meant. Plus, the reader identifies with Harry's POV, and since all the wizard terminology is foreign to him as well (at least in book 1), we learn it along with him.
Jessica - Oct 01, 2008 4:45:32 am PDT #7612 of 28404
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Ha.
I have a fairly high tolerance for made up tech jargon, but agree that most authors don't know how to do it well, and in most non-Tolkien fantasy it drives me batty. [eta: Maybe it's because the real tech world is so full of idiotic Web 2.0 jargon that it stands to reason the future would be even worse?]
In general, I think made-up words work best when they're derived from real ones so your brain doesn't have to do a lot of work translating them every time they pop up. (I'm thinking of the Vorkosiganverse's comconscoles, which stand in for phones and computers - you don't need an appendix to translate that into modern Earth English.)
Also, I need to pick up Anathem.
Polter-Cow - Oct 01, 2008 6:08:57 am PDT #7613 of 28404
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Ouise - Oct 01, 2008 6:43:41 am PDT #7614 of 28404
Socks are a running theme throughout the series. They are used as symbols of freedom, redemption and love.
I tend to agree with that, for the most part (Sarah Monette, I'm looking at you)
That's really interesting, because I find Sarah Monette to be exceptionally good at choosing placenames and using new words so that they seem natural and enrich the background of the story.
Typo Boy - Oct 01, 2008 6:44:15 am PDT #7615 of 28404
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
I'm thinking of the Vorkosiganverse's comconscoles, which stand in for phones and computers - you don't need an appendix to translate that into modern Earth English
Blackberry? Iphone?
Steph L. - Oct 01, 2008 6:51:57 am PDT #7616 of 28404
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
I find Sarah Monette to be exceptionally good at choosing placenames and using new words so that they seem natural and enrich the background of the story.
Her calendar system was maybe the hardest for me to wrap my brain around, so every time she referenced a unit of time, I had to stop and figure out what I thought it meant, and how/if that affected what the character was saying/doing.
It was very annoying.
Ouise - Oct 01, 2008 6:58:47 am PDT #7617 of 28404
Socks are a running theme throughout the series. They are used as symbols of freedom, redemption and love.
so every time she referenced a unit of time, I had to stop and figure out what I thought it meant
Ha! That definitely helps explain our different reactions, as I could be described as time-impaired. I have no sense of time, I am bad at telling time, and I pretty much disregard time references when I see or read them. I just read her time stuff by context and didn't pay that much attention to the specifics.