[ SECRET POST #4141 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4141 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 39 secrets from Secret Submission Post #593.
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

[fscom]

04. https://i.imgur.com/50yUrYJ.png

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I've just learned three new words that I'm probably never going to use!

(I wonder if I should admit that I have actually used 'vertiginous' before, because it's a nice big word for 'terrifyingly steep' that slightly distracts you from the fact that the thing is, in fact, terrifyingly steep)

(I've also seen probity before, because I read that kind of fantasy book as a teenager, but it's been so long that I had to look it back up)

What is this book about, by the way? A really pale and surprisingly moral Great White shark looking down a very steep cliff into a primordial abyss?

[(Anonymous)]

JFC

Agreeing with above commenter on vertiginous, but I've never heard the others.

[(Anonymous)]

having an extensive vocabulary is intelligence

knowing most people won't know what certain words mean and choosing other, more readily understood synonyms in a medium meant to communicate ideas to people at large for the sake of storytelling is wisdom

[rosehiptea]

Well said.

[cloudtrader]

Agreed.

[(Anonymous)]

THERE'S A REASON THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT STATS as it is said.

[(Anonymous)]

I've heard all of them except apocatastasis but I'd still find that annoying unless it was reallllllllly well done.

[silverr]

I tend to the wordy myself, but that sounds like Embedded Thesaurus Symdrome™, or showing off (or perhaps both). Most of those five-dolla words have perfectly serviceable alternatives.

I had to look up 'apocatastatis,' though, and I guess I can see why using restoration isn't quite adequate.

ETA: Is this book first person POV? Because I could certainly see such a vocabulary being used to develop a character voice (albeit an exhausting one) and convey various qualities (intellect, well-read, precise, pompous, etc.)

OP

[(Anonymous)]

There is a narrator character who refers to himself as “me,” but he’s not the protagonist. I didn’t read far enough to find out who he actually was.

Re: OP

[silverr]

I don't blame you.

[bio_obscura]

.... that's pretentious af but this story is the kind I've been trying to find for years, ever since I read Geoff Ryman's Air, so I'ma read this shit out of this, thanks for bringing it to my attention!

[(Anonymous)]

Someone needed an editor to hit them with the "You're trying to communicate, dipshit" stick.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, it's just bad form and takes people out of the story instead of immersing them. Never use a big word where a simpler word will do. If someone thinks their writing will suffer for it, then they probably aren't a very good writer to begin with.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, but...who is using those words routinely in fic? I don't think I've ever seen them.

I'm very sorry for your fandom. These people must be insufferable.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, wow, I only know two out of those words and that's because they have Latin roots and they are pretty similar to not entirely uncommon words from my mother language.

Also on "When Thesauruses Attack", I once dropped a fic after reading the first paragraph because it was obvious they were substituting every single noun and adjective for "more intelligent" synonyms without either caring (or most likely knowing) that the use and meaning of the words was not identical. I can't remember any examples other than "proliferous panic" used in such a way that "proliferous" made absolutely no sense.

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh yeah, I'd stop reading that too. :/

[(Anonymous)]

I read Harkaway's first book (he's John le Carré's son, in case anyone's interested), and it didn't have that problem, IIRC. There were other things about it that irritated me, balanced out by enough good qualities that by the end I was glad I'd read it. His first-person narrator/protagonist in that one was a bit exhausting, too. I wouldn't be surprised if all of Harkaway's books exhibit a hyper-verbal quality.

I do wonder if the narrator in Gnomon is an AI of some sort, programmed with a very precise and extensive vocabulary but without the social intelligence to know when or how to choose more common, accessible words.

On a different note, that's a very clever cover illo, and I like it.

[(Anonymous)]

I've never heard those words before in my life

According to that urban legend, I should hear them again within 24 hours

[(Anonymous)]

I'm too lazy to google what all these words I don't know mean. *yawn*