jedibuttercup (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedibuttercup) wrote2015-04-21 12:06 pm
jedibuttercup) wrote2015-04-21 12:06 pm
Entry tags:
Roadbumps, and a Question About Character-Distilling Adjectives
The oddest things can still trip you up, months after tragedy happens. I got an email from LinkedIn today asking me to celebrate my dad's work anniversary. I didn't even know he had a LinkedIn. I don't think anybody else did, either. It felt a little like being slapped in the face, staring at that email, wondering if anyone else got it, and what I'd have to do to take it down. Even though I wasn't at all fussed about finally deactivating his geocaching account last month. *shaking head*
Maybe it's more on my mind today since I went to see Sound of Music with my mom when they rereleased it on the big screen this weekend, and she burst into surprised tears the first time they sang Edelweiss; she'd forgotten, Dad bought her a music box with that song in it on their honeymoon and they danced all around the hotel room to it. She made sure to fetch it after and have me take a picture, so after she passes it won't just get garage sale'd without somebody realizing. (She does that sort of thing a lot these days. I try not to let it bother me.)
*clearing throat* Anyway. Before that I'd meant to post today about my growing pet peeve with Hobbit fandom: fics from 3rd person limited POV that continually reference Bilbo as the hobbit and Thorin as the dwarf and so on, occasionally with bonus character-distilling adjectives (Balin - the older dwarf! Dwalin - the tattooed dwarf! Bofur - the hatted dwarf! etc.) OMFG, I get that it's difficult to handle all the he's without mixing up who you're referring to if you don't want to always be repeating names, and those labels are convenient, but it's also very awkward and seems so... one-dimensional and also a little distant at the same time? Like I'm aware every time it happens that it's an author's reference trick rather than feeling that I'm right there in the moment with the characters, because that's not how real people mentally refer to each other.
Or at least, it's not how I think? Do people think that way? Seriously, I'm curious now. Because, like I said. It comes off as terribly, terribly awkward to me. And yet so many people do it! (And not just in this fandom, obvs; it's just even more obtrusive here.)
Maybe it's more on my mind today since I went to see Sound of Music with my mom when they rereleased it on the big screen this weekend, and she burst into surprised tears the first time they sang Edelweiss; she'd forgotten, Dad bought her a music box with that song in it on their honeymoon and they danced all around the hotel room to it. She made sure to fetch it after and have me take a picture, so after she passes it won't just get garage sale'd without somebody realizing. (She does that sort of thing a lot these days. I try not to let it bother me.)
*clearing throat* Anyway. Before that I'd meant to post today about my growing pet peeve with Hobbit fandom: fics from 3rd person limited POV that continually reference Bilbo as the hobbit and Thorin as the dwarf and so on, occasionally with bonus character-distilling adjectives (Balin - the older dwarf! Dwalin - the tattooed dwarf! Bofur - the hatted dwarf! etc.) OMFG, I get that it's difficult to handle all the he's without mixing up who you're referring to if you don't want to always be repeating names, and those labels are convenient, but it's also very awkward and seems so... one-dimensional and also a little distant at the same time? Like I'm aware every time it happens that it's an author's reference trick rather than feeling that I'm right there in the moment with the characters, because that's not how real people mentally refer to each other.
Or at least, it's not how I think? Do people think that way? Seriously, I'm curious now. Because, like I said. It comes off as terribly, terribly awkward to me. And yet so many people do it! (And not just in this fandom, obvs; it's just even more obtrusive here.)
no subject
On your other subject-- I certainly don't think of people by epithet, not unless I don't know or have forgotten their name. Even then, I'm more likely to think of so-and-so's mother or friend than an epithet. My memory for visual details is rotten, but I'm likely to try to call up a visual memory of someone if I think about them and can't remember or never knew their name. The exceptions would be things like 'creepy white guy with a beard' or 'young soldier I saw on the bus that one time,' and I'm not likely to use something like that in writing anything but a character's thoughts or spoken words. I think that descriptions in place of names tend to be more detailed than what most authors use.
I do, occasionally, in writing use short epithets if they're something unique enough to describe only one person of the character's acquaintance or only one person present-- I had a character in an anime/manga fandom who kept thinking of someone who was attacking him as 'the gaijin' because he didn't know the man's name. In the same fandom, there's one named character who's a telepath. People who don't know any other telepaths might think of him as 'the telepath,' but when I wrote him in a setting with lots of telepaths, that descriptor went away completely because it could describe many different people.
no subject
Especially when it descends to the level of "the axe-ridden dwarf", regarding Bifur. Particularly when the POV character is another dwarf. I mean, what even. It would be like me looking at one of the other gals in my office (who has had past physical issues) and thinking "the breastless white woman", it just feels like that level of tone-deaf tactlessness to me.
no subject
The only time I've actually used descriptive epithets of people in real life is when I'm talking with someone who doesn't know a given group of people well. I've used such descriptors as 'the gal with the gorgeous, curly red hair', 'the tall gal', 'the twins', etc. I definitely do so internally when I can't remember someone's name, but otherwise not. I must admit, however, to using such writer's devices myself, but I try to curb it as much as possible these days and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one put off by it.
no subject
The epithets thing ... if it's very occasional or an introductory sort of thing, I don't much notice. And the descriptive ones feel a lot more natural. But constant use of generic ones? *wince* I suppose in Tolkien fandom especially people are trying to be 'sensitive' by not using 'man' for dwarfs/dwarves/dwarrow/whatever-- though there is a perfectly good argument for 'Man' being the race and 'man' being the gender!-- and that's the reason they use 'dwarf' or 'elf' or even 'ellon' for the clever ones all the expletive-ing time. Heck, I could even forgive it as an alternative to constant use of 'the other male', because stick an arrow in my eye, that's even worse. It's the rest of the epithets! Being constantly used! In a context when the characters should know each other well enough to at least vary the way they refer to each other a little!
Like I said above, "Especially when it descends to the level of "the axe-ridden dwarf", regarding Bifur. Particularly when the POV character is another dwarf. I mean, what even. It would be like me looking at one of the other gals in my office and thinking 'the breastless white woman', it just feels like that level of tone-deaf tactlessness to me."
Call me out on it if I ever slip into that kind of epithet-ing, because seriously. :)
no subject
And you're making me very, very glad that I haven't gotten into Hobbit Movie fandom. Very.
no subject
I know I've been guilty of the burly detective syndrome so I attempt to keep an eye out for it. I do rely on eye and hair color when using two characters of the same sex to mix it up some, but when it's multiple characters I try to use names because it just makes keeping track of the action easier - for me and the reader.
Though depending on the character you're writing for you can use insults in lieu of character-distilling adjectives. ;)
no subject
And ah, I knew it had a name; it just wasn't on the tip of my tongue. "Burly detective syndrome." Alternatives to names, I think, are like alternatives to said; if it's done carefully and sparingly you barely notice; it just enhances the reading experience. But 'stray but a little' from the path, and bam, eyesore. :)
no subject
Yeah, pronouns, huh. I think of Mike and Harry and Aileen and other friends by name, even though I know many Mike's, a few Harry's, and two Aileen's, when I mentally say their name, it's the face that pops up on the ol' screen. How to do this in print? I don't think writers can.
no subject
Happy International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants Day! + Shakespeare's Birthday!
Re: Happy International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants Day! + Shakespeare's Birthday!
http://jedibuttercup.livejournal.com/tag/author%3A%20j.r.r.tolkien
Because I file it all there instead of trying to filter out by book/movie/series. There isn't a ton, but there is some. And really, it varies depending on the POV I'm writing from. Some of them are more linguistically elevated than others. :)
Re: Happy International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants Day! + Shakespeare's Birthday!