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Default   #26   johnny johnny is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzerain of Sheol View Post
Does that strike anyone as a problematic way to approach secondary-world fiction? I think, rather than obviate the anachronism/extra-universal references concern of this thread, it just shoves them out of the spotlight, which, it occurs to me at this moment, may not be a net-positive.
I don't believe it's problematic, necessarily. In certain kinds of story, I think limiting the background data and world-building can be beneficial, though I think it's probably something that's difficult to maintain in longer fiction. If it's a novel, I can see it being hard for readers to invest themselves in 50,000+ words of a world with rules they don't know or understand, and a layout they can't mentally map.

Like the suggestion to keep the whole fictional universe vs. alternate-Earth setting vague, it's something I think could confuse readers and take them out of enjoying the story.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NekoAthena View Post
The solution may just be that these people are speaking their own alien language, and those particular words and the best English (or whatever language you are writing in) can translate? I mean you can use more generalized descriptive words instead of specific jargon (like "keyboard" instead of "pianoforte")
I think this is how people hand-wave most stories written about -- or set within -- fictional, wholly made up universes and realities. But that last bit -- that's where I get held up, because the language chosen can help build the universe. "Pianoforte" has different connotations than "keyboard" and inspire different immediate mental images. Someone reading "keyboard" is more likely to picture either an electric musical keyboard, or a computer keyboard (or similar, perhaps futuristic console) but "pianoforte" is more likely to bring to mind not only a piano, but an old-fashioned piano.

It basically boils down to whether or not logic (the fact that there should be no "pianoforte" in a world without Italy) beats the world-building shorthand of using existing terminology to ensure that readers picture exactly what you want them to picture.

Again, for me, it just comes down worrying over reader confusion.

Old Posted 04-19-2017, 07:02 PM Reply With Quote