four new rambles

[arduinna]

After reading one too many stories full of epithets, I started writing an essay/ramble/rant thing about "elegant variation", which expanded into these cheesily named things:

Variety Is the Spice of Life... and I Need Some Tums (This one's sort of the 'base' essay.)

Purple Fanfic's (total lack of) Majesty

Epithets: Fandom's Designated Hitters

'Said' Is Not a Four-Letter Word

And, thanks to a bunch of friends who chimed in with examples from their fandoms, I pulled together a list of epithet examples from all over, just for fun:

Epithets

Comments

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Oh, lord. These essays are wonderful; I'm not sure whether to fall over laughing, sputter helplessly, or marry you. If only more people would read them and take them to heart; you have the rare ability to speak in ways that people who makes these sorts of errors will understand, unlike me, who can only sputter, "But -- it's so awful!" which doesn't help anyone who doesn't see why.

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks! And trust me, these started out as "But -- it's so awful!" They took a lot of... honing. Yes.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Gah. Those purple prose excerpts made my brain hurt. Thanks a lot. *g*

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

At least you didn't have to sit there analyzing them line by line! I have no sympathy at all. *g* (Although that last one, I admit -- I could not stop reading that story. It was just so bizarre!)

Just linked over from elynross...

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Why didn't you *tell* me you had a LJ?

"Only for Yuletide post," yeah, right. I would've missed these! And they are scrumptious. I'm enjoying the hell out of them.

Are they going up on the Symposium? Seems to me they deserve a wider audience.

Re: Just linked over from elynross...

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

Why didn't you *tell* me you had a LJ?

Because it doesn't really count as one? *g* I'm still not an LJ person in any way; I literally just wanted to be able to post to the Yuletide community about the story I'd written, so the recipient had a shot at spotting it.

Basically, don't expect me to start getting chatty in here. *g*

I would've missed these! And they are scrumptious. I'm enjoying the hell out of them.

*beam* Thank you!

Are they going up on the Symposium?

Oh, huh -- that hadn't even occurred to me. I'll ponder that. Thanks!

Re: Just linked over from elynross...

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Basically, don't expect me to start getting chatty in here. *g*

Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before. Hell, I've *said* that before, fat lot of good it did me. You'll see. You'll start adding people to your flist, and then it'll all be over. The LJ, it is crack, in all senses: bad, and bad for you, but so, so addictive.

They really are wonderful essays. Every writer should read them.

Re: Just linked over from elynross...

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

You'll start adding people to your flist, and then it'll all be over.

So I hear! I have pretty high resistance levels, though. :)

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

elynross linked the essays and they are truly wonderful! I think the purple prose in particular is outstanding, because you manage to *analyze* what most of us simply react to with incomprehension, laughter, and backward click.

the epithet issue has been addressed so many times, but i really loved they way you showed when and how they *are* appropriate. only in contrast did the wrongness of the bad examples really come through (asnd the warrick/gambler one was wonderful!).

as a non-native speaker, i was particularly fascinated by the transitive/intransitive examples; i didn't read a couple of them intuitively as wrong, because in my native language they are intransitive (or can be). not that that's ever an excuse. i barely post without a proofreader :-)

thank you so much for a enjoyable read as well as an excellent reference tool!

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm really glad to hear the analysis and examples worked. They seemed almost like overdoing it when I was writing these, but OTOH, having someone just say "that's purple" or "epithets are boring" without saying *why* can be really frustrating, if you don't already know why they can be a problem.

(asnd the warrick/gambler one was wonderful!)

*G* I have to admit, I love that example. I was cackling to myself as I wrote it up.

the transitive/intransitive examples; i didn't read a couple of them intuitively as wrong, because in my native language they are intransitive (or can be).

*nodding* It doesn't bother me when a non-native speaker does it, for that very reason. :) But for a native speaker, basic words like the ones I listed should be part of their natural language, and I'd bet anything that they'd never leave out the object when speaking aloud, just because it would feel wrong.

Which makes me go all muttery and grumpy, and want to tell them to read their stories aloud before they post, if they can't hear them in their heads as they go. *g*

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

reading out loud!!! heck, that's the number 1 rule i tell my comp students (and some years above as well :-) if it's important for argumentative writing, it is much, much *more* important to fiction.

are there really people out there who don't? [then again, duh! *g* 5 minutes on ffnet will prove to me all the things i couldn't possibly imagine anyone doing...alas...it's funny, i spend so much time theoretically defending the "teenie" right to write and celebrating their creativity and the fact that they *are* writing...and yet i myself couldn't fathom showing anything like that even to a close friend and certainly want to stay as far away as i can from having to read it!!!]

anyway, great essay...i wish we could give a little housewarming prezzie to every new fanficcer...read these 5 essays before you write, these 5 before you interact on MLs or LJ, and these 5 before you think about metaing...if only! oh well, the good ole days of initiation and mentorship :-)

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

are there really people out there who don't?

*waves hand* I think it's good advice, I'll pass it on as good advice when talking about writing, but I don't do it myself. I'm all about the good writing habits in theory...

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

do you subvocalize? i don't always have to read it out loud as much as concentrate on the sound rather than the meaning of it (b/c i just cannot read your prose and nor believe that someone didn't edit it with ermphasis on style/sound rather than story/sense... :-)

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

I think for me, actually shaping the words in my head (and I nearly always construct the entire sentence before I write it down, or sometimes more than one sentence, to get the rhythm right) serves the same purpose.

Then, of course, someone comes along and moves the commas. *g*

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

reading out loud!!! *snip* are there really people out there who don't?

Well. Me. *g* I tell other people to, but I don't -- but that's because I do hear it as I write, right down to punctuation. Anything I miss when I'm writing, I catch on the editing pass. Then the betas take over.

Clearly, though, a whole lotta people can't hear what they're writing without using their actual ears to do it, and they don't bother with it.

and yet i myself couldn't fathom showing anything like that even to a close friend and certainly want to stay as far away as i can from having to read it!!!

No. Kidding. I'm all in favor of people writing whatever and whenever they want (go them!) but ye gods -- just because it's written doesn't mean it has to be shared. It's like thinking that just because you like singing in the shower, you should go sing on a street corner for everyone else's enjoyment, regardless of whether you can actually sing.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, i've actually gotten better at 'hearing' it in my mind, though my final reads will still be loud (esp. for conference paper, b/c there is nothing more awekward than stumbling over your own prose :-)

and betas...if i could only get my students to use someone else's eyes...if fandom were to teach them anything, i'd love for that to become more common, but then look at ffnet...i don't think many betas live over there...

LOL at the singing analogy...i think i'll have to borrow that sometime :D

i'll be curious to see how your lj resistence will hold out...it's the fandom smack of the new millenium :-)