One of those things I hate in fantasy books.

[roseembolism]

Well, having read Lindsgold's "Wolf Mind, Wolf Heart", and found out there's four more books at least in the series, I'm done.  I recommend stoppping at the first book. 

And another thing: the book also has one thing that kind of grates when I see it in fantasy books: English homonyms.  Case in point.  The main character looking out a window at a bay, and thinking it's nothing like the sound a hound makes.

The thing is, that's comparing two words that coincidentally have the same pronunciation in English, when logically, in a fantasy world where they presumably don't speak English, they shouldn't have anything to do with each other.  This is really just sloppy world-building, people.

So authors, stop it, OK?

Comments

[seawasp]

Note that on Zarathan (my own world of magic), they DO speak English, or something that has all the necessary equivalencies, so in my own fantasy stories you'll have to live with it!

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Well, as long as that's the case,then there's no problem. It's when it's a different language that my suspension of disbelief hits a wall.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Meh, that's not a good nitpick. If you're hung up on a world that doesn't speak English, then simply consider it a well-translated pun. It's still an awful pun, mind you, but it's great translation work.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Don't like long series myself, generally. So I empathise with point one.

However, I have to take umbrage at point 2. Unless you're willing to create an entire fictional language, write your novel in it, then translate it back to English with footnotes indicating verbal wordplay in the fantasy language, you're denying yourself one of the most useful qualities of English: its varied and idiosyncratic vocabulary. Heck, Tolkien was a language professor, and even he didn't go quite that far.

And most translations that have the help of the original author (Umberto Ecco springs to mind - ooh, also Goscinny and Uderzo) will try to keep the style of the original by making equivalent wordplays even if the original details were different.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I liked the first book well enough, though the first half was much stronger than the second. But she should have stopped at one.

And I see no problem with authors creating entire fictional languages. If it's good enough for Tolkien and the Klingon fans, there's no excuse; if they just switch to a slow shift at Starbucks, that will give them all the time they need. Sure that may be a bit too much effort for the producers of Extruded Fantasy Product, but those people are switching over to Urban Fantasy and Supernatural Romance anyway, so its all good.

We could also use more annotated fantasy books along the lines of "The Phoenix Guards", especially if the translator is intrusive and annoying. I can easily see a short chapter largely being taken up with the footnotes including the translator's ongoing battle with other translators:

"And while on the other hand Pospernicus states that this passage is really a convoluted play on words indicating a romantic subtext, it must be remembered that Pospernis is a Thraxian, and as such are unable to think past tier groins. It should also be noted that Upandiso completely misses the context in his translation, thereby showing that he should have spent more time on his studies, and less on debauchery and brawling in the street."

Now I want to see a fantasy book on the lines of "the Princess Bride", where the main character turns out to be the translator, not the alleged characters he's writing about.


Or, the author could simply avoid using puns or commenting homophones. There was no need for Lindgold to point out the correlation, since it didn't add to the character, plot, or well, anything.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

I do like the idea of duelling translator's notations.

As for the rest of it, you must be joking. I hope you're joking.

And why the heck should someone writing in English avoid using the tools English gives him? It's quite possible that Lindgold used it poorly. That doesn't generalise into "no-one should use these tools" it generalises into "Lindgold could learn to be a better writer."

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Me? Joke? surely you jest sir!

And as for, avoiding using the tools, that English, gives us, one has too concede, that, no matter how nice, the tool, improper overuse, of those tools, can be, distracting.

Seriously, it was simply ineptly done in that situation, and drew me out of the action.

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Certainly. But then you rant about the tool, not the wielder.

[sandpanther.livejournal.com]

Was the character looking at the bay and making the comment a native speaker of the language? Something like that makes it sound like he's a foreigner who is dealing with the idiosyncrasies of a second language.

(That would be my argument for not doing that. It implies things about the character that aren't entirely true. And, unless the character is a foreigner or a linguistic scholar, is more the author inserting their own voice into the character. And that should generally be avoided whenever possible.)

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Well, non-native as in "brought up by wolves". And yes, it was intended to be the same as a foreigner dealing with the idiosyncrasies of a language. And as that language isn't English, well, I hit a wall.

Then again, I tend to have a number of suspension of disbelief problems with a number of fantasy books that other people don't have. So this is par for the course.