VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:02:02 12/22/02 Sun
Author: CW
Subject: Yeah I'm being picky
In reply to: Finn Mac Cool 's message, "Well, Serenity isn't really a "boat", but Mal calls it that anyway." on 22:26:10 12/21/02 Sat

But, when I reread the sci-fi I've written and come across something like that, I ask myself 'Would they really say that hundreds of years from now?' If it's something I'd feel the need to change in my own writing, it's something I gripe about here.

Re: the word boat. As I mentioned in the notes, Firefly uses a lot of nautical terminology. Most sci-fi does, (witness the word spaceship). So as long as you are making nautical references all the time it's okay to use more jargon in the same vein. You could make the same case for aircraft terminology being used in space, and I think that's what your post is doing, but at least now that isn't done much in real life. I mentioned Joss not using the word galley, and it isn't important that he doesn't. But, it's something the other writers on a series should be aware of so they aren't constantly stepping on each others conventions.

The term that drives me nuts for space travel is 'flying.' I never gripe when others write 'space flight,' because as much as I hate to use it myself (because of its 'in atmosphere' connotations) I don't have any good replacement for it. What I normally use is 'cruise' which is again ship terminology, but I'm not really happy with it. Walking, running or driving, we do on the ground. Riding works just about anywhere. Sailing, cruising, and, in certain contexts, steaming, we do on or in the sea. In the air we have flying and sea-terms like cruising. We don't have a good set of words for space travel yet. But, don't be surprised if somebody writing sci-fi, comes up with them eventually.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.