Back at it...maybe

You know how sometimes you suddenly notice something small about someone, something, it turns out, that bugs you? You've maybe known the person for a few months, and just now notice the thing? Like they click their teeth every time they stop to consider something, smack their lips louder than seems warranted, wheeze ever-so-slightly when they breathe, or don't post to their blogs for months at a time? After you notice that thing, you can't stop noticing it, and it irritates you way more than it should. And you wonder how you got by all those months not noticing, not caring?

I don't really have a current example of this with people - after the first few times of it happening to me I started to develop a kind of applied ignorance, and have since erected so many blockades to social awareness that I rarely notice anybody.

But books, see, books, I haven't been able to do this with. Sometimes something creeps up in my reading that has probably been in literature forever, never troubling me, and then I notice. And I can't help but keep noticing. The general lack of believable female protagonists, evil clergymen, telling rather than showing...these are just a few I currently have difficulty not noticing. The book I'm reading now, though, has brought another to light. Fake language. Using words and names that have no basis in any recognizable linguistic structure. Especially for things that already have perfectly good culture-neutral terms in place. I don't know why this hasn't bugged me before. I've read science fiction, fantasy, and comic books for nigh on 30 years now, and those genres are replete with that kind of stuff. Tolkien has lots of weird words, but he was a linguist, and they sounded like they could actually exist. Maybe because they were modifications of real terms. Ancient terms, maybe, obsolete terms, perhaps, but they had the weight of human culture behind them to give meaning.

And I've nothing against created languages. I love them. I think they're awesome exercises in the analysis of language and human verbal communication. I even tried to learn Klingon at one point.  But using those languages, or more often, other author-invented languages with no actual structure or depth, is a retarded way to write a book. In my opinion. It seems like a cheap way to say "this is a different culture" without actually showing that it is a different culture. A little of this is forgivable, but unless it fuels the story, it cripples it. Let me give you an example. An "homage," if you will, to the book I'm reading:

Upper H'cloi Vesratta eyed her diblaf, Elcyr Hvish. He was short, even shorter than the average shem'cha from the mountains of Mebilia. His clan, Katruboi, was known for their elaborate kinsho, one of which Elcyr wore at his throat, a little too tightly. 

Elcyr bobbed his head. "You summoned me, my H'cloi?"  

"Yes, my diblaf," said Vesratta. "You are Katrub, no?"

Elcyr's hand unconsciously drifted to his bejeweled kinsho. "Yes, eminent H'cloi, of the unt'cla Aeiyul, and the sunt'cla Hvish." Elcyr said, trailing off. 

"Yes, well, that last bit I knew," Vesratta proclaimed. "The Hvish bit."

Now imagine 300 pages of this. There's actually some good story in the book, some ideas good enough to make me want to finish, but I'm having a hard time enjoying it. I'll have just come to terms with all the "diblaf"s when a "seiyjou" or a "Yjhoen" is thrown at me. And then I'll go to the author's online forum where another reader had difficulty determining from context what a "seiyjou" was, posted a question, and found out it was just an "Obterian tribesman's term for a 'club.'" Those struggling with just how to say the names aloud can also discover that "Yjhoen" is prounounced  "just as an Englishman might say 'John'." 

John. The dude's name is John. And s/he wrote it "Yjhoen." Come on.

No, you don't get to know the book or the author. I might meet he/she/it one day, and they might have been one of the four people to read this entry.  

Comments

[clairedelune]

I have that same annoyance with made up words, particularly slang. I understand the author is trying to make it sound futuristic and cool, but when there are so many new words, as in the example you posted, it just gets annoying trying to decipher meanings.

[Katie-wa]

The many unpronounceable words in some fantasy books are always a turn off for me. If they have apostrophes, no vowels or too many vowels, my mind pulls away. It's VERY irritating. Why can't the author use NORMAL sounds? Sheesh.

And it's good to know you're back on the earth. I mean, you might not have left, but it seems like you were either dead or far away. So unless you're now a zombie... you've been an astronaut/abductee this past while. :D

[Q]

THAT BUGS ME TOO. I think that other "languages" should be used sparingly, clearly, and in such a way that they do not need a pronunciation guide. I also hate when people spell real words weirdly just to be "unique" when it's really just annoying.

[Paminas_bard]

That would make me the fourth person. And I'm very offended that you don't hctiwon gfo my jujuybre.

[shannon hale]

You're right about the teeth clicking. I never noticed it either. But it's kind of weird that the sound comes from under our bed.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1004522862]

Klingon is difficult, but Esperanto is worldwide. And easy, of course :)

As in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2LPVcsL2k0

Also see http://www.lernu.net

[Marcus Aurelius]

Have you been reading "Anathem"?

[flyyhigh]

Totally! Actually, even Tolkien-ish names put me off. I don't mind Tolkien himself, oddly enough, but people that copy him? Not so great. Look at Eragon for instance; the names alone really put me off, even though I eventually read it.

[Women Supra Skytop II]

It's the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy

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