The Devil's Compass

Tell us what you thought about the October 2009 issue.
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Robert_Moriyama
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Are we sure the story was set in the U.S.?

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

I tend to gloss over some of the details when reading / editing a story for publication (and yes, I think I mentioned to the author that the dialect would probably be an issue), so I may have missed references that would definitely place this in the U.S. South (as opposed to one of the Caribbean islands). Some research probably would have reduced the number of seeming anachronisms and cultural / linguistic oddities. However, if the story was NOT set in the U.S., it may be that some of the apparent errors were NOT errors at all.

Author! Author! Clarification, please?
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: preterition

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

bottomdweller wrote:...Beyond that - on TV talk shows, when the talk is spilling over and space runs out, they have a 'green room' -where the discussion can go on for awhile. Does this forum have a space like that, where the discussion on a particular topic could go on without taking away from other stories, and allowing other stories to shift to the top of the forum and get the attention they deserve? Just a thought.
You could start a topic in Administrivia or Writers' Workshop (called, say, "Use of Dialect -- How Much Is Too Much?") ... and any time posts in a story-related thread seemed to be leaning in that direction, suggest that the discussion continue there.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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Robert_Moriyama
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Hmmm...

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

davidsonhero wrote:"Paralipsis, also known as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis, antiphrasis, or parasiopesis, is a rhetorical figure of speech wherein the speaker or writer invokes a subject by denying that it should be invoked. As such, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony. Paralipsis is usually employed to make a subversive ad hominem attack."

Not sure if that helps.

Hero
So does that mean that bottomdweller was accusing those who did not find the use of the (possibly) exaggerated dialect and archaic (slavery-era) terms offensive of being racist? Or rather that vates felt that she was doing so?

To the Green Room, Robin!

Na na na na na na na na na, Preterition Maaaaaan!
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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Robert_Moriyama
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Fix it so it doesn't go to the top??

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

As a moderator

(a) I don't know if that is possible (or if it is, how to do it). Like Ralph Hinkley in The Greatest American Hero, I am sorely in need of a Moderator Suit User Manual.

(b) This would mean that a moderator would have to be reading every comment in every thread and making a judgment call. If the thought of a government bureaucrat deciding whether you get health care scares you (but for some reason, the thought of a paid-to-deny-claims employee of a for-profit HMO doing the same DOESN'T), the thought of an underqualified overopinionated (I HAVE no humble opinions) moderator being that active in controlling things should TERRIFY you.

Just my (godlike and infallible) opinion.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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