In article <na.a29c8a4897.a700d0jul...@argonet.co.uk>, Julian Flood <jul...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
>(Here I must confess that I'd been wondering about that. BTW, Dorothy, how >do manage to get any writing done with all the posts you produce? If I post >a lot it's a sign that the work is not going well.)
Well, I have been getting more posting done than writing, but remember I've been ill. This whole year (actually starting last December) has been just about a washout. You all know about the gall bladder I had out in the early part of September, and I'm hoping that as I recuperate things will get better and more productive. I did do about five pages last Friday on the sequel to _Point_. A lot of it is just sitting down to it rather than do any of the things that are easier, of which posting is only one. Others include reading, sleeping, playing with kittens.
Anyway, posting is easier than *real* writing in that you don't have to worry about having a plot nor producing anything saleable.
>I keep the names of my characters rather simple, except for the ones >that are _sposed_ to be Chumley-Foon ish (are you sure that >Featherstonehaugh is Foon? I would have thought it was at least >Furstonha).
My source is one of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion stories-- I'm blanking on the title, but it's the one set in Cambridge-- in which Campion comes to a friend's house and meets the family dog: "Foon," his friend says, "written Featherstonehaugh." So I took her word for it.
And there's one in Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire stories that's pronounced Wumpford Piffin, but I forget how they spelled it.
>>I keep the names of my characters rather simple, except for the ones >>that are _sposed_ to be Chumley-Foon ish (are you sure that >>Featherstonehaugh is Foon? I would have thought it was at least >>Furstonha).
>My source is one of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion stories-- >I'm blanking on the title, but it's the one set in Cambridge-- >in which Campion comes to a friend's house and meets the family >dog: "Foon," his friend says, "written Featherstonehaugh." So I >took her word for it.
"Fanshaw", I'm told. I wouldn't really put it past the british to have two words spelled that way, though. Of course, not bearing any resemblance to either pronounciation, of course. I don't have my Wodehouse handy or I would flip through the Ukridge stories. Aha. I have dug up this, a bit of prop for my position: http://x10.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=285368080
>Dorothy J. Heydt
-- Dan Shiovitz || d...@cs.wisc.edu || http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~dbs "...Incensed by some crack he had made about modern enlightened thought, modern enlightened thought being practically a personal buddy of hers, Florence gave him the swift heave-ho and--much against my will, but she seemed to wish it--became betrothed to me." - PGW, J.a.t.F.S.
Julian Flood wrote in message ... >Actually, I wanted to say something about names ending in S. I once had a >character called Jirrus bequeathed to me in a writing exercise. David >Gemmell told us that if you avoid this ending then the possessive sounds >better and looks better on the page. He's right, Jirrus's name looks a bit >silly sometimes. As for how they're pronounced, I think that's in the lap of >the ghods. I just skim difficult names, giving them a squelchy sound in my >head and read on.
>-- >Julian Flood >jul...@argonet.co.uk >Life: much too important to be taken seriously.
Isn't that why Jesus and Moses are never possessive? (Someone told me that they aren't because that is the way it was done in the King James Bible and no one wants to change it because it would be a hassle...)
In article <70hdgn$o0...@owl.slip.net>, Erin C. D. <th...@worldcontrol.org> wrote:
> Isn't that why Jesus and Moses are never possessive?
They aren't, huh? News to me.
There is a continual conflict between those who want to write Charles' head and those who want to write Charles's head. Having absorbed Strunk and White, naturally I side with the latter.
>(Someone told me >that they aren't because that is the way it was done in the King James Bible >and no one wants to change it because it would be a hassle...)
Oh, they've updated the spelling and punctuation in the King James umpteen times over the years. Trying to go back to early- seventeenth-century punctuation would be like the nineteenth- century scholar who was translating Bede's tale of the conversion of King Eadwin and, on getting to the line "ond hit rine ond sniwe," translated it "and it rained and snew," and added in an indignant footnote, "'Snowed' is as much a barbarism as 'throwed.'" Only it isn't--"snow" had already made the change fated for all strong verbs, to turn into a weak verb someday, and "throw" hasn't yet.
In article <F14pzn....@kithrup.com>, Dorothy J Heydt <djhe...@kithrup.com> wrote:
>In article <70hdgn$o0...@owl.slip.net>, >Erin C. D. <th...@worldcontrol.org> wrote:
>> Isn't that why Jesus and Moses are never possessive?
>They aren't, huh? News to me.
>There is a continual conflict between those who want to write >Charles' head and those who want to write Charles's head. Having >absorbed Strunk and White, naturally I side with the latter.
Me too, but check your S&W again. (I would, but I'm at work. :-) ) I think S&W mentions that Jesus is made possessive with Jesus', and the same goes for various other ancient names and gods and goddesses.
Yep. There is a clematis called Mrs Cholmondely - clematis fanciers all know she's pronounced Chumley, it's one of the tests of the brotherhood, like funny handshakes. Rats, they'll throw me out now...
I once thought about having a hyphen myself. Flow - odd, spelt flud.
-- Julian Flood jul...@argonet.co.uk Life: much too important to be taken seriously.
> "snow" had already made the change fated for all strong > verbs, to turn into a weak verb
Not in Coney Weston, a few still say 'it snew somethin terrible las week'. As they and their ancestors have been here since the Ice Age I bow to their seniority.
-- Julian Flood jul...@argonet.co.uk Life: much too important to be taken seriously.
>My source is one of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion stories-- >I'm blanking on the title, but it's the one set in Cambridge-- >in which Campion comes to a friend's house and meets the family >dog: "Foon," his friend says, "written Featherstonehaugh." So I >took her word for it.
My somewhat limited experience of Margery Allingham's books strongly suggests that this is a Deadpan British Joke.
-- "Moreover, fantasticality does a good deal better than sham psychology." -- Virginia Woolf ----------------------------------------------------------- Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet p...@ddb.com
In article <70gm60$...@chronicle.concentric.net>, Kate Nepveu <knep...@concentric.net> wrote:
> kensm...@hotmail.com wrote: > : Actually, it's occurred to me that a clever way to do this would be, if one > : has a talent for such things, to have a character who works everyone's name > : into a rhyme or song. Not necessarily all *one* song.... Of course, the > : verse would have to be sufficiently appealing (and possibly short) so that > : the reader would actually *read* it and see what a given name rhymes with.
> If you did this for everyone, that would be a bit much. It could work for > a couple, though.
Again, much depends on the author's skill. I can imagine a fantasy in which each chapter is prefaced with a piece of a ballad written about the exploits of the story many years later. Every major character's name could get worked in fairly unobtrusively (although it'd have to have a pretty open or complex rhyming scheme if each name had a rhyme, too). But you'd have to be good, or else it'd be dreck. (Not to be tautological, or anything....)
> (Aside: The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy has some of the most annoying > names I have ever come across.)
I haven't read that series yet, despite loving the author's stuff (the reasons I haven't read it are complicated), but I know some of the names because my brother uses anime / manga and that series for names he gives to computers. Since he has, um, let's see, well in excess of a dozen machines, there are a few Riddlemaster names. They all seem fine to me--but I'm used to his pronunciation, and not seeing them in print first.
