[ SECRET POST #3525 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3525 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #504.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I sort of agree, although I understand the urge to try and cross-reference alien body language to something that would be understandable to a human. Writers want to give a human audience a frame of reference for a non-human gesture/expression, which is understandable. I mean, the example you gave here is terrible, but the sentiment behind it, "Oh yeah, this character doesn't have human eyes, but here's totally what he would be doing if he did!" is actually pretty reasonable, when you're trying to convey meaning to an audience that is presumably mostly human. It's just often done extraordinarily clumsily, is all.

It can be a lot of fun to try and figure out how to express/translate things. I mean, things like "Khelana made that odd, rippling motion of her upper limbs that seemed to be her equivalent of a mildly exasperated shrug" or "She wasn't sure, having never really be flirted with by a robot before, but she thought that the coy tilt of CeeArr's helm and the low flicker of his visor had a distinctly come-hither look about it". There's still ... for the first while, at least, unless the source material has already given us time to get familiar with the alien body language, then the writer is going to have to give some frame of reference, some way for the audience to parse what the physical gesture they're describing means from the alien in human terms. And it can be really hard to do well, if also a lot of fun to try.

[(Anonymous)]

I think your second paragraph has some great examples of a good way to deal with this - giving the reader enough of a human frame of reference, while also working in some worldbuilding to familiarise them with the body language that the robot/alien/non-human character uses, so that the reference isn't needed as much in future.

[tabaqui]

I don't know why this secret as written made no sense, but your reply totally fixes that. Yay!

[(Anonymous)]

OP

See, I do understand this, I guess perhaps my peeve could more accurately be called:

I hate that everyone does this so fucking badly. It's pretty obvious most aliens, having been designed and made by humans, are going to have human-esque emotions and frames of reference simply because the truly alien is kind of hard for the human mind to conceptualize and capture. The more human-like the alien is (bipedal, intelligence at or exceeding human level, complex evolved social societies), the more likely that alien is going to be human-esque. Same with robots. However, those bits of them that aren't human, sometimes I wish they would just leave it alone, or at least attempt to show us, not equate it directly with a human emotion.

Something like:

Character X's visor flared brightly, the sudden stiffness of his body clearly portraying his shock.

Sounds better than:

Character X's visor brightened, which would be like a person with eyes widening them in shock.


I do suppose it's more or less about finding a balance, and that many, many writers fail miserably at this. The examples you give are all things I wouldn't bat an eyelash at. It's just when it's done badly, it's often done spectacularly badly in an otherwise competent fic.