[ SECRET POST #6595 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6595 ⌋

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


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[ProZD Let's Try series]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 44 secrets from Secret Submission Post #943.
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]

05. https://i.imgur.com/HmjtmZt.jpeg

[(Anonymous)]

You're right and you should say it. My partner bounced within the first few pages because a character explains how to pronounce his name in dialogue, right after he introduces himself... also in dialogue.

Like, author, I get it, you want your readers to pronounce the name a certain way, but please.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, as someone not well-versed with literature, I am curious what makes those choices bad? Genuine question!

[iff_and_xor]

I think they’re just referring to the fact that the other characters have just heard him pronounce his name aloud when he introduced himself.

Having him then explain the pronunciation out loud to them is awkward because it’s clearly for the reader, not the characters who he’s speaking to.

There are lots of ways of giving readers information that should already be obvious to the characters. Some of them can feel very clunky and some of them are a bit more masterful.

[(Anonymous)]

I have to say, as much as I detest JK Rowling, her way of telling people who were struggling how to pronounce 'Hermione' using a character who was struggling to pronounce it just because it's weirder than most names AND he was foreign, actually wasn't the worst way to do it.

[(Anonymous)]

Except people really do that if they know their name is weird to the people they're talking to?

Just off the top of my head, I met a lady who introduced herself in conversation as "my name's Feryal - like 'Ariel' with an F." It worked really well for her. She was dealing with westerners who'd never heard that name before and struggled to remember what it was and how it should be pronounced.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Because no one would do that? You wouldn't say "My name is Jimmy, it's pronounced Jim-my" because...you just pronounced it when you introduced yourself so they know how it's pronounced?

If the author wants to be sure the readers know how to pronounce fantasy names, they can have a phonetic guide at the beginning, which I've seen some of in fantasy, or at least mention it in dialogue another way.

I'm reading a book right now where a character has an unusual name and one character was like "what was your name again?" and then the other says it, but it's spelled out phonetically. Maybe kind of clunky, but at least the character only says it once, and isn't like "my name is ___, it's pronounced ___" which is just ridiculous.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

...and I just now saw that someone else already explained it. Sorry.

[(Anonymous)]

Fritz Leiber got away with it in the first Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story, but probably because he did it just the once and figured the reader would get it from there.

[(Anonymous)]

As someone who has lived in an internationally diverse city, it's actually pretty common for someone with a "difficult" name to repeat their name with an emphasis on the pronunciation when they introduce themselves.

[(Anonymous)]

This is one of those older fantasy series I somehow missed trying, not sure why. Old-school fantasy tends to be... a mixed bag. A lot of stuff passed muster in those days, not just social issues but narrative tics and tropes and what a lot of people would consider cliched writing just because it was far less cliche at the time.

[(Anonymous)]

“This really isn’t my thing. The writing style just didn’t work for me.”

Idk I feel kinda defensive for your friend because it seems like they have a comfort series they enjoy and recced it. Not everything has to be objectively good and it’s ok to just enjoy something.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

I've also got a dear friend that this is a comfort series for. I gave it a try but didn't get far, it just felt a little shallow and formulaic and it wasn't hitting the 'delicious-shallow-indulgence' button for me. And I have that button! But it gets hit with my own favorite trash.

The vast majority of people are not very good at separating their own taste/enjoyment from objective strengths and weaknesses when they're reccing stuff, but are still able to be gracious if told it missed the mark with somebody else.

[(Anonymous)]

What's there to be defensive about? They aren't saying that their friend is a bad person or something for liking the series.

[(Anonymous)]

I loved this series, but I only read the first three, and I read it when I was a teenager 15+ years ago, so I'm not sure what I'd think now. I've meant to re-read the original three and then read the rest for years now but just never got around to it.

[(Anonymous)]

Same. I read the first three around 16-17ish and I loved them but I was never motivated to read the others, mainly because the summaries turned me way off but also because I was fairly certain they wouldn't hold up to my rose coloured teenage nostalgia glasses so... Yeah.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I was fairly certain they wouldn't hold up to my rose coloured teenage nostalgia glasses

Honestly, I think that's why I kept putting off re-reading them. At this point I think I'm okay with them just staying fond memories.

[(Anonymous)]

I posted below about re-reading recently and no, don't do it. The first two were fun but not quality, but by the fourth one it got really into some kind of weird magic torture porn.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, a friend who read them told me about it and all I remember was being majorly weirded out by "and then they have a child homunculus made by torture porn jizz" and.... nope.

[(Anonymous)]

Back in the day, I loved this series because it was one of the few with main gay characters. I tried to re-read it recently and oh dear. But I still think fondly of it with that nostalgia and I suspect your friend does too.

[(Anonymous)]

All I remembered was pre-teen me was mad that the young virgin boy banged a chick for his first time and not the HAWT GAY SEX i wanted him to have with his mentor ROFL