The Sword and Laser discussion
Never reference baled hay in epic fantasy, never!
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The problem is, some authors take the opposite of each of these to the extreme...
Some of those suggestions are silly -- don't describe a design as "arabesque" if there are no Arabs in your world; your story's already being "translated" from the original language, so why not use the full spectrum of English vocabulary?But the historical anachronisms are something that really bug me. I cringe every time someone orders archers to "fire" their arrows -- "fire" didn't become synonymous with "shoot" until the invention of firearms; if there are no guns in a fantasy world, a commander would say, "loose," "shoot," "release," or "let fly," but not "fire."
Oh, and horses are not cars. There should be a law against people writing epic fantasy if they've never ridden a horse.
If there are no bales of hay in the barn, where is the farmer's daughter supposed to meet the hero to help take his mind off of the approaching battle?
One thing that has been bothering me lately is overestimation of highly accurate arrow fire. My understanding is that the ability to hit a single target fatally rapidly degrades after 50 yards or so. Sure, you can shoot an arrow farther and kill somebody, but that's in an arc at a large body of men. This is just a pet peeve. It arose recently in one of the Song of Ice and Fire books.
Matt wrote: "Of all the things to worry about when writing epic fantasy, baled hay is #1? I never knew that was such a problem..."If you were reading a novel set in an ostensibly medieval world, and suddenly someone whips out a stapler, wouldn't you be taken out of the story? A hay baler is just as preposterous in such a setting, even if modern urbanites don't notice.
I would rather come across baled hay than some fool saying "ok" in anything that doesn't take place in Earth's 19th century or later. That nearly always makes a book a wall-banger for me.
Tracey wrote: "I would rather come across baled hay than some fool saying "ok" in anything that doesn't take place in Earth's 19th century or later. That nearly always makes a book a wall-banger for me."A "wall-banger"! Love it!
I'm the same with language. As Sean pointed out, there's nothing wrong with using the full spectrum of language, but inappropriate modernisms are just lazy writing.
Ben wrote: "One thing that has been bothering me lately is overestimation of highly accurate arrow fire. My understanding is that the ability to hit a single target fatally rapidly degrades after 50 yards or s..."Yeah, even with machined modern equipment you have to be very skilled to hit a moving man sized target at more than 50 yards. Primitive hand carved archery equipment would be even more inaccurate. But then again, heroes are supposed to be capable of amazing feats of accuracy:) The one that always bugs me is cutting a rope with an arrow.
The effectiveness of mass ranks of archers shouldn't be underestimated however (the French did for a large part of history).
someone should have a handy chart of "at what point in history certain insults and curse words came into being." It turns out the Urban Dictionary isn't 100% reliable for this!
Here's a history of a few standards. (Do I need to add a warning that this is not for the easily offended? I thought not): http://www.decimation.com/markw/2007/...There's got to be a book out there somewhere that examines this... *wanders off to look*
ETA: That didn't take long - Bawdy Language
Apparently, we of salty tongue have many reasons to thank the Germans
http://www.adventuresinscifipublishin...