tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post8685438973858610253..comments2023-10-29T07:44:48.235-07:00Comments on Jestablog: The Thing about GlossariesKamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-74731204857171871752009-01-31T21:10:00.000-08:002009-01-31T21:10:00.000-08:00Kai and I recently read a fantasy novel that, whil...Kai and I recently read a fantasy novel that, while it was interesting and somewhat original in many ways, was also definitely a failure in others. Ways that mostly had to do with names--proper names, place names, and a calendaring system.<BR/><BR/>The calendar was elaborate and complex. (The planet circled a double star and a year was much longer than on earth. Nonetheless, the nomenclature was clunky, made no material contribution to the story, and invariably threw me out of the story while I mentally paused to translate the made-up time intervals into conventional days, weeks, months or years.)<BR/><BR/>The names of places and people likewise were hard to wrap my mental mouth around and I was often distracted from the story by trying to figure out how I was supposed to pronounce them. And, again, they made no material contribution to the story.<BR/><BR/>I understand that the writer was trying to present us with an alien world and culture, but I think he failed on this point. Also, the book begins with a description of the alien solar system and an explanation of the calendar. In my opinion, if he couldn't work this into the story he should have ditched the whole thing and gone with more conventional terms.Mark Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01994430001543710190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-45393801797156031382009-01-23T23:14:00.000-08:002009-01-23T23:14:00.000-08:00Playing cultures off of each other is a lot of fun...Playing cultures off of each other is a lot of fun. So is figuring out how their environment plays into the culture.Kamihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-75058280855079600482009-01-23T23:13:00.000-08:002009-01-23T23:13:00.000-08:00Ooo, I hadn't thought about pronunciation. Great ...Ooo, I hadn't thought about pronunciation. Great idea!<BR/><BR/>(Dashes off to add pronunciations, assuming I can find a dictionary pronunciation font.)Kamihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-43143507313333666182009-01-23T11:02:00.000-08:002009-01-23T11:02:00.000-08:00I like a pronunciation guide, if the names are dif...I like a pronunciation guide, if the names are different enough or just spelled differently enough--for example, I'm not a Gaelic speaker, and a Cherryh I'm reading uses a lot of Gaelic names. Having a guide makes it a tad easier to follow.Kai Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13319136737099550784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-64059127150229637042009-01-23T08:17:00.000-08:002009-01-23T08:17:00.000-08:00Glossary shmossary. When we started our current o...Glossary shmossary. When we started our current online "blogventure" of my Impasse RPG, the players finally got so tangled up in (read "annoyed with") the names, terminology, and alien cultural elements that I wound up creating a whole Wiki site for reference. But the fact that there are, essentially, two cultures (and languages) in conflict in the current setting is at the very heart of the campaign.<BR/><BR/>And Hergoth and Yangae culture are soooooo different from one another...as are their respective languages...The Moody Minstrelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16342935635794595909noreply@blogger.com