City of Ashes
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Translucent on page 1?
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lol good find. I never noticed! :)
I may be wrong because I don't have the book in front of me but a person can see out of translucent glass...they can see shapes and color or even more depending on the design. So the author may have meant translucent after all
Hmmm, that’s a tough one. I can see your point; the text would be more accurate with the use of the word ‘transparent’. However, in the thesaurus translucent is a synonym for transparent so maybe Cassandra Clare just preferred the word. It is best not to get hung up on simple mistakes/inaccuracies because it’ll ruin your overall enjoyment of the story :)
I think Mark Twain said it best... The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.Course what did he know about storytelling?
No reputable thesaurus would say that translucent is the same as transparent. A thesaurus is meant to group similar words and words that bring other words to mind. In that regard, transparent and translucent belong in the same grouping but they NOT the same.
I think that Cassandra Clare is an able enough storyteller. I just sometimes wish that she were a better writer.
My copy of this book has a quote from Stephenie Meyer on the cover. She's another example of a good storyteller that could sometimes be a better writer, though my complaint with her is generally not about word choice but about her sometimes awkward sentence structure.
Actually I prefer good storytellers over good writers for most of my leisure-time reading. I just sometimes wish that F. Scott Fitzgerald had told a few more good stories with his gorgeous writing.
Stephen wrote: "I enjoyed the first book although I'll admit that there were some writerly issues and I'm looking forward to this one but...Did it bother anyone else when the glass on page 1 was decribed as tr..."
It kinda makes sense when you keep reading. Don't be to quick to criticize because that "mistake" might be the right thing.
Stephen wrote: "I think Mark Twain said it best... The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.Course what did he know about storytel..."
Indeed. Lovely quote. Perhaps you have missed your calling, Stephen. It is never too late to become an Editor :)
Plus, I have a ‘reputable’ thesaurus; it is the ‘Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus.’
I hope you enjoy the rest of the book, as so many people have.
That's a good eye, really, really good.However, isn't part of writing playing with words a bit? Toying with synonyms until she got that was probably what she did. You can't use the same world a billion times. The story'd fall flat.
Great book, defs.
Glass with a pattern, say frosted, is described as translucent. it's neither opaque, nor completely transparent. So she is not wrong.
Baisakhi wrote: "Glass with a pattern, say frosted, is described as translucent. it's neither opaque, nor completely transparent. So she is not wrong."The window glass was perfectly translucent, providing such a complete illusion that there was nothing between the viwer and the view...
Sounds kinda wrong to me. It's clear that she meant transparent and just used the wrong word.
Like my last stepdad once said, keep entertainment as entertainment. As I'd say, don't let realism ruin the entertainment. Especially true for a fantasy book, where the author has the literary ability to create another reality where real-world physics don't truly have to apply.
Translucent means semitransparent. It allows light through but not details. Transparent means allowing light through so that details can clearly be seen. They are two different things. She definitely chose the wrong word.To be fair to editors, they can mark every error in a book and tell the author how to fix it, but the author is free to ignore them if they want. So it's possible that and editor caught the mistake, but Clare chose not to change it because translucent sounds nicer than transparent.
I don't think nit picking achieves anything...the story is brilliant without pin pointing particular words...in the end it's our imagination that creates the world we "see" in books
Hannah wrote: "I don't think nit picking achieves anything...the story is brilliant without pin pointing particular words...in the end it's our imagination that creates the world we "see" in books"It helps for the the story to decently written. I think that's what this post is getting at. The book and story would be better if the author were a strong writer. Writing is as much of an art form as painting and sculpting.
In these days of spell-checking and self publishing, editing doesn't get the attention it deserves. While ideas (and stories) CAN be told with less than perfect grammar and word choices, its clear that many are sort of like out of focus photographs. They could be better and they do suffer somewhat for their imperfections. Ponting it out is just one way of saying that we care and perhaps encouraging improvement.
"A word without meaning is an abomination, for when the word passes beyond understanding the very thing the word stands for passes out of the world and cannot be recalled" - Stephen R. Lawhead
I never noticed that...
Stephen wrote: "I enjoyed the first book although I'll admit that there were some writerly issues and I'm looking forward to this one but...Did it bother anyone else when the glass on page 1 was decribed as tran..."
i noticed that!!! it was so ridiculous!
Oh, yes! This really irritated me as well! How could such a large mistake have gotten past everyone involved? I wonder if it has been/will be fixed in future publications...
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Did it bother anyone else when the glass on page 1 was decribed as translucent? The author clearly meant transparent but the misused word sort of interrupted my willing suspension of disbelief. This seemed like such an obvious error that I wondered if this book had been edited by anyone competent.
Translucent - permitting light to pass through but diffusing it so that persons, objects, etc., on the opposite side are not clearly visible: Frosted window glass is translucent but not transparent.
I'll continue on and proabably enjoy the hell out of a good story well told. But, still, I'll mourne the days when proofreaders existed/were competent.