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writers over-using phrasing


helterskelter

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(How would anyone in M31 know what an extinct Terran big cat sounds like, anyway?)

That does ping me too. I found an example of it in a Star Wars novel I was reading last night. I explain it away by thinking that the word must have survived even if the species didn't. There's probably Baar'se White Leopards in the galaxy or something.

Sanguinius wears something like a Cheetah pelt, so who knows!

Well who knows what the colonists took to the stars and introduced to their new ecosystems. Just because Terra no longer has any wildlife does not mean that the other planets don't have species originally from earth.

Still much better than Robert Jordan in the Wheel of Time series. smile.png

Well even Dark Angels don't fuss that much over whether their dresses robes show too much or too little cleavage. msn-wink.gif

You know what they call it when an author's death does more for their work than their life?

Pulling a Jordan.

It was astounding to read the last three books of that series, with an author who isn't incapable of depicting gender relations.

It really makes me wonder about his wife and/or mother. Something must have been going on there for him to go "For the duration of their interaction with men, all women are feminazis with low IQs. For the duration of all their interaction with women, all men are graceless dyslexics. Regardless of their depictions elsewhere in the books, no female shall be tolerant of male authority and no male shall be smarter than his female counterpart, but only during those times in which they interact. The more they feel for each other, the more this becomes exacerbated between them. They may continue being real censored.gif ing human beings when no longer speaking to, within the vicinity of, or on the subject of the opposite gender."

Another one i've noticed is when psykers use their powers and the air is described as having a greasy quality.

 

This doesn't bother me since this is what is supposed to happen. Sure if they bring it up literally every single time any psyker does anything it gets annoying. But every few chapters it helps reinforce the feeling of what is going on in the minds of the characters. The point is to immerse us into the world being crafted by the writer. Saying how something feels lets you know how you should react to it and feel.

Plasteel and rockcrete have been around for a few years and are in-universe items rather than phrases used by authors to describe something.

For me I haven't (until seeing this thread now) noticed any phrases over-repeating themselves, personally charnel house gives a good point of refference as to what the scene actually looks like.

I was referring to the repetitive use of the exact phrase "plasteel and rockcrete". In a number of books it irritated me.

The first time I read "wet leopard growl" I laughed out loud while imagining the character asking "Was that a wet leopard growl or did you have a bean burrito for lunch."

More recently whenever I reach a battle sequence I wonder whose chainsword will be clogged with gobbets of muscle.

Off topic: The word chainsword shows as a spelling error. Not like its an integral part of the forum name or anything.no.gif

"Incandescent", everything is fricking incandescent. It drives me up the wall whenever I see it because it's been in every novel I've read by GW (I think), and it's used to describe just about every 'future-y' explosion of weapon fire going.

Possibly my pet hate is almost EVERY discription of a Crozius Arcanum being: "...also his badge of office".....-sigh-

 

Oh and also the use of "Throne" as a profanity Preheresy...give me strength...

Word Bearers books, "whoreson" gets used very often...

 

Bolters are always "barking", that word just doesn't capture what a bolter would sound like I think.

 

Sword are often swung "in a glittering arc"

 

Foes are often cut "from head to groin"

Anathema is over used IMO. 

 

And "coppery tang, taste of copper or some mention of copper when referring to blood in the mouth, and of course, for all intents and purposes seemed to pop up a lot in some of the early UM novels and the early 30k stuff...

Have any of you ever stood close to a big cat when it growled? Like, say, a leopard? Or a lion?

 

A few years back I visited a friend in Tampa and went to the Big Cat Rescue place. The closest we were allowed to get to their big lion was about 100 feet because he was seriously pissed off at something and was doing making this sound over and over that started out as a sharp roar and turned into this rumbling, wet growl on the end. Not wet as in drooling saliva, but like you could hear fluid in his throat while he was growling. From 100 feet or so, I could feel that growl vibrating in my teeth, my diaphragm, and worst of all, it was like it reached into my inner ears and tugged at this buried instinct to turn and run for my life.

 

It was terrifying, even knowing how far away it was and that he was secured behind a high, sturdy fence. It didn't pull me out of the moment when I was reading PB; it made me shiver.

 

Oh and also the use of "Throne" as a profanity Preheresy...give me strength...

 

Nothing wrong with that.

 

How so?  The 40k Golden Throne is a secret to everyone, and it's not like the Emperor is well known for hanging out in a throne room in his palace.  What's the source in popular pre-heresy Imperial culture that would give the word 'throne' enough weight that it'd be a popular curse word?

It's the symbol of the Emperor's authority, like in medieval England they would say "By the Crown". It probably doesn't relate to the Golden Throne, but the Emperor being Emperor and all is bound to have a normal Throne, or at least be depicted on one in promotional posters and the like.

It's the symbol of the Emperor's authority, like in medieval England they would say "By the Crown". It probably doesn't relate to the Golden Throne, but the Emperor being Emperor and all is bound to have a normal Throne, or at least be depicted on one in promotional posters and the like.

It's a bit weak though. They should be saying things like "Emperor's balls!" or something

I've heard a couple defenses of even legionaries swearing by the throne before that seemed to make some sense, and no doubt ADB has some perfectly sensible reasoning for it to be done. However, when I started reading the Horus Heresy series it would always take me out of the moment to see that curse. It just sounds quasi religious to me and that strikes me as odd in a setting where perpetuals apologize for saying "by God". It just feels very 40k.

 

If it's intended to be a secular curse I'd be curious if there's any real world precedent for that kind of thing in monarchies. I know I'd get some odd looks if I swore "by the Presidential China Room!".

 

Edit: Just read the post above mentioning swearing "by the crown" so there's at least one real world example of something similar.

It's the symbol of the Emperor's authority, like in medieval England they would say "By the Crown". It probably doesn't relate to the Golden Throne, but the Emperor being Emperor and all is bound to have a normal Throne, or at least be depicted on one in promotional posters and the like.

 

That's the exact example I was thinking of, too. It's a reference to his authority, not to the Golden Throne, which I guess sounds less odd in a nation where we have a queen on our money as well as scientists. But if you look at various similar curses now and throughout history, it's not a stretch at all. "Shiver my timbers". "Damn it." "Blimey." "Strewth."

 

 

It's the symbol of the Emperor's authority, like in medieval England they would say "By the Crown". It probably doesn't relate to the Golden Throne, but the Emperor being Emperor and all is bound to have a normal Throne, or at least be depicted on one in promotional posters and the like.

It's a bit weak though. They should be saying things like "Emperor's balls!" or something

 

 

Only if they are uncouth, lower class citizens. The Astartes are like nobles. As such they swear like nobles.

 It just sounds quasi religious to me and that strikes me as odd in a setting where perpetuals apologize for saying "by God". It just feels very 40k.

 

It is also a setting where Tech Priests will correct people talking about the Emperor with "You mean the Omnissiah, avatar of the Machine God."

 

Not to mention the Catherics still running around (Hetnando Bronzi the soldier and Navid Murza the remembrancer, for a start), and a whole Legion of hairy Marines who won't shut up about Allfathers, wights,

spirits, and so on.

 

Honestly, if it wasn't for Monarchia and "The Last Church" I'd say the Crusade takes the Imperial Truth about as seriously as the average American citizen takes the "In God We Trust" on our money.

A description thats been bothering me recently, not so much that it's over used more that it doesn't seem to fit, is marines shoulder guards 'hanging loose' or being shot off. I just don't really see how those huge slabs of ceremite could be loosened, easily, without any external fastenings.

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