I won a copy of Holly Lisle’s Talyn. I did not perform any feats of strength or anything. I just left a comment on the Rantings and Ravings of an Insane Writer blog. You could have won but you had more important things to do.
Anyway, the book showed up a day or two ago. I’m very excited to read this book after all of the glowing reviews that I have read for it. Before placing it near the top of the ToBeRead pile, I flipped through the book and saw something that made me cringe.
Right away, before the story begins, Holly includes a guide giving rules on how to pronounce the names in the story which, if my memory serves me correctly, mostly involves how to pronounce double vowels and double consanants.
I absolutely hate stuff like this. I was an Arabic linguist for a while and truly have an appreciation for languages that sound quite a bit differently than English. When I read a book, I don’t want to think about these kind of rules. Now, everytime I come across a name I am going to wonder how it is supposed to be said. It forces me to suspend my disbelief and I do not see what I, as a reader, gain from this information. Does it just make it easier for us to talk about the book during conventions?
I am not a fan of detailed maps for the same reason either (note: I do not remember any maps in my quick flipthrough of Talyn). I can normally get a good enough picture of the location in my head if the author has done their job. Us readers should never have to rely on a map to make sense of what is going on. I’m all for show, don’t tell, but I think detailed maps are a bit too much showing.
And don’t get me started about family trees.
If I have to stop reading to go look at a reference page somewhere else in the book, something has gone horribly wrong.
I think I might have to write a fantasy story sometime in the near future with a bunch of Bobs, Toms, Sallys, and Sues (none of whom are related) who wander around a circular building with no internal walls.
This is my own personal gripe and will probably not influence whether I enjoy the book or not and definitely will not make me think poorly of Holly Lisle. She has one of the best collections of fiction writing resources that I have found on the internet. The lengths she goes through to help other writers is quite amazing.
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Rats! I better take that map out of my chic lit novel then. LOL
I beg to differ on the guide to pronouning names. The name Hermione, having never heard it before in my lifetime, kept me up at night while reading the first Harry Potter. (I thought it was her-mee-own-ee, her-min-un or her-what-the-hell-own, never her-my-own-ee.)
You can beg all you want, but you are still wrong. Pronunciation guides are just wrong. And so are indexes at the back of fiction that are encyclopedias covering all of the things that happen in the book. Yes, I’m talking to you Robert Jordan. I’m also starting to get annoyed by the little made up quotations that begin every chapter of a book. They never really seem to add any value.
I’m totally with on the pronunciation guides; for me the name is whatever the reader sub vocalises it as.
I’ve never been a fan of mas either, but a lot of people seem to like all the added paraphernalia in fantasy novels.
I don’t mind character lists if there are a lot of characters, but I tend to agree that any time you need to refer to references at the back of the book, something has gone wrong, either with the writer or the reader.
Some people, particularly in the fantasy genre, really dig that shit. It’s like Tolkien, describing down to every last boring detail the aspects of races, lineage, history, wars, yada yada yada. For some people this reinfoces immersion in the novel - strengthens belief. Personally, I think if your focusing on telling people how to pronounce names (and they’re worrying about it) you’re distracting from the point of the story, the ‘ride’ experience. As such I don’t hate this stuff, but I tend to take it like a new word - I read it my way until some one tells me different.
What makes me mad when a book I have read gets turned into a movie. I pronounce the names of the characters a certain way in my head and then the movie comes along and changes everything. That kills me.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about! Thank you Paul.
Bonnie, I remember watching Harry Potter long before I started reading it. I remember seeing the name in print and wondering who the heck it was.
And, let’s focus on the important thing here. If writers started using pronounceable names, this wouldn’t be an issue. Bob, Sue, Harry, Jane.
I wish I could remember the character, I think it was somebody in the Wheel of Time series that has a funny name. I looked her (I think it was a her) up in the little index of everything at the back of the book and saw that I had been pronouncing it wrong. I decided that it was Robert Jordan who was wrong and not me and continued with the way I like to say the name.