And thou refulgent orb of day in brighter flames arrayed

[ann_leckie]

So matociquala pointed to this discussion of words one should never use.

I'm really not into lists of words one shouldn't use. In fact, I'd say I was actively against them. For several reasons. Words are the basic material a writer uses, and there may be fads and fashions, but in the end you need to be free to choose the right word. If the right word is on someone's list of forbidden words, well, sorry. (Semi-related, I once ran across a set of submission guidelines that suggested the use of "ten dollar words" would cause one's ms to be instantly rejected. I ask you, what kind of criterion is that? Sure, sometimes a writer, particularly a newish one who has just discovered the joys of a large vocabulary, can write something that sounds like they shook up a thesaurus and dumped the results onto the page. But sometimes, you gotta spend ten dollars for the right word. And then the price of words isn't a constant. I had a reader once complain that "lapis lazuli" (no, it was not lapis lazuli eyes!) was just unreasonably weird and would send any reader to the dictionary, that I was plainly showing off by using it. Yanno, that word that seems so expensive to you might be a nickel or so to someone else. )

Anyway. So then I got to thinking that this list of words isn't really a list of words to avoid--it's a list of cliched phrases, but they're pared down to single words, so that the list is going at the problem it's trying to address from the wrong direction. What the list really wants to say is something like, "Don't use jewels, precious or semi, to describe eye colors, because we've had enough of that, damn it!" Or, "No emotional maelstroms! No more irridescent, silky hair!" &c. Now that list, I could get behind. It's not the words that offend, it's the stock phrases that those words often appear in.

(Refulgent means exactly the same thing as effulgent, btw. I guess it's a flammable/inflammable kind of thing. As it happens, I knew "refulgent" first, because of The Last Words of Copernicus. The Sacred Harp (and now The Missouri Harmony as well) is a great wholesale source for ten dollar words.)

Hey, I finally got a copy of this month's Locus! (thanks for the heads-up, darkling1!) I found these words inscribed therein:

Scalzi features several very new writers, who acquit themselves admirably, particularly Ann Leckie, whose "Hesperia and Glory" inverts the John Carter template by having a Prince of Mars mysteriously transported to Earth.

Comments

[rachel-swirsky.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but $10 words send me into an emotional maelstrom that just forces me to stamp my pretty, agile feet, whip my irridescent, silky hair, and glare from the snapping depths of my sparkling lapis lazuli eyes.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. And the check's in the mail :)

[nenya_kanadka]

What the list really wants to say is something like, "Don't use jewels, precious or semi, to describe eye colors, because we've had enough of that, damn it!" Or, "No emotional maelstroms! No more irridescent, silky hair!" &c.

Oh, now I can get behind that, too. I've taken the metaphorical spork to jewelled eyes far too many times. :D

Also, congrats on getting reviewed well!

Shellfish is on his way, too.

[accordingto-ada.livejournal.com]

I hope you all are right about the metaphorical part. I've use silken, mostly to describe hair, because I tend to use gossamer for that too much. I've used jasmine as a noun.

Are characters not supposed to ululate ever? Because if they happen to, how else are you supposed to describe it? And if it's okay for Swiss people to yodel in a story, since yodeling is not on the forbidden list, isn't it discrimination to not let Mideastern people ululate?

[accordingto-ada.livejournal.com]

I finally figured out what I needed to fix on Harmony, because the beginning didn't work right. I put the part on the planet first, and then next the stuff on the ship. It fixed everything. Why didn't I think of it before? I'm just proof reading it now.

Oh no, what's this I see? I've used the word maelstrom! So what, I'm going to send it to Asimov's without changing that.

And anyway, it doesn't have any yodeling or ululation.

huzzah

[catrambo.livejournal.com]

Yay for your admirable acquittal! :)