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/lit/ - Literature

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11707659 No.11707659 [Reply] [Original]

Am I just really stupid or does this guy inject a great deal of archaic vocabulary into his writing? I mean, I don't hate it, it makes his prose seem very fantastical and foreign, which is fitting, but I don't know why a book from the 80s refers to mercenary soldiers as lansquenet for example. How does a person even get a vocabulary like this? I thought the author was a college drop out.

>> No.11707775
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11707775

Since Tolkien (who popularized an older technique), genre fiction books have had a bad habit of making up words and whole languages then sprinkling in nouns throughout the book to refer to fantastic creatures and whatnot to make them seem stranger to the reader. In this series, the author did the opposite, using unrecognizable archaic terms instead of neologisms to name things. It makes them seem strange, but not by way of novelty, but via anachronism. That fits the setting, which uses typology in the Biblical sense to present types of Christian history in a setting that it's impossible to tell if is fantasy or science fiction, being an earlier version of earth, in the far future, or a parallel world. His archaisms are a welcome subversion of a shopworn trope that are relevant to the setting and themes of the series.

>> No.11707813

>>11707659
>How does a person even get a vocabulary like this?
>I thought the author was a college drop out.
Really makes you think, doesn't it?
You should stay in college if you want the following words in your vocabulary:
-Other
-Othering
-Otherness
-gaze
-postcolonial
-patriarchy
-bodies
-construct

>> No.11707823

>>11707659
How do people as stupid as you manage to make it to this board? I imagine you would've choked on your baby food years ago.

>> No.11707825

>>11707659
>>11707813
He's not a dropout (well he did dropout, but he later completed a degree)

>> No.11707835

>>11707823
Here comes the autist whose going to pretend like "carnifex" is an everyday word

>> No.11707841

>>11707835
>literature uses literary words

WOAH, it's like literature isn't an everyday conversation or something. That's not even why OP is an idiot in the first place

>> No.11707857

>>11707841
>literature uses literary words
>WOAH,

and thats why youll never get published

"carnifex" has nothing to do with "literary words", Gene is simply intelligent and artistic enough to have pulled it off well enough to not feel like a detriment

>> No.11707865

>>11707835
You really need to drop the YA shit and read your classics, kid. It's embarrassing you think you need to have a college education to not shit in your pants.

>> No.11707895

>>11707865
I dont have your amerinorte "college" education

>You really need to drop the YA shit and read your classics, kid.
so I take it youre a genuinely retarded redditor pretending that Gene doesnt intentionally use obscure thesaurus words that the majority of the people reading have never seen before? Of course the only response here will be, as you said, shitting your pants and screeching some retarded ad hominem about how Im too stupid to "understand" said words instead of simply laughing at people like you who have trouble with remaining neutral towards facts

>> No.11707899

>>11707775
>genre fiction books have had a bad habit of making up words and whole languages
Its not a "bad habit", it's an stylistic choice.

>> No.11707902

>>11707895
>he uses words the majority of poorly-read ""readers"" have never heard before
Holy shit we must stop him. This can not be allowed

>> No.11707920

>>11707902
Are you literally retarded? Did I say somewhere that he shouldnt do it? Can you even follow a chain of replies without drooling on your keyboard? Im only here to laugh at people like >>11707823 who try to appear smart by acting like he doesn't use uncommon words, as if it would magically seem them more cultured (which it doesnt, as it just makes them look like pretentious cringelords, seeing as how Gene intentionally uses such retardedly obscure or ancient words that they might genuinely pass off as made up, some of them having been replaced and discarded ages ago)

>> No.11707952

>>11707659
for some reason i have no memory of ever having found any of the words confusing

>> No.11707957

>>11707659
It has been awhile since I read his stuff but isn't the pretext that he's translating a manuscript he found? So he uses archaic language to describe a horse-like creature by calling it a destrier. The actual creature being described is neither a horse nor destrier but the latter describes it better while still being a part of our lexicon.

>> No.11707964

>>11707920
How far along the spectrum are you?

>> No.11707976

The archaic words are meant to suggest differences between our world and the future world of Severian's time. As >>11707957 notes, a great deal has changed on Earth, and the terms we are familiar with simply aren't adequate to describe what Severian encounters.

Also, all the words are perfectly understandable based on context clues. Just read carefully.

>> No.11707977

>>11707964
>another feeble insult to desperately feel like hes "winning"

nope, you arent getting that last word in kiddo. Maybe ill consider it when you post something that isnt straight out of the youtube comments "how to escape an actual argument" handibook

>> No.11707990

>>11707964
>>11707977
i read this argument and i dislike both of you

>> No.11707992
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11707992

>>11707977

>> No.11708038

>>11707659
Dang op you may have convinced me to read this book. I normally stay away from childrens and fantasy books but this sounds like it might be a mature read for mature readers such as myself

>> No.11708071

>>11707899
fuck off, lucas

>> No.11708094

>>11707976
Even if I could pretty much guess at what all of them meant (I haven't read BotNS) I would still be compelled to look them up out of curiosity about the nuances/origins of the word in question. Is this autism?

>> No.11708155

>>11707775
Very insightful, thank you anon.

>> No.11708227

Yeah Gene Wolfe was a fat, autistic pervert.

>> No.11708304

>>11708227
All the makings of a great author desu

>> No.11708321

>>11708094
Yes, but it's a good, wholesome autism.

>> No.11708348

>>11708227
>was
I hope I haven't missed anything unpleasant

>> No.11708403

>>11707659
>Am I just really stupid
Yes
>does this guy inject a great deal of archaic vocabulary into his writing?
idk i havent read it

>> No.11709174

>>11708348
That's how he will be remembered

>> No.11709956

>>11707899
No, it's a horrid cliche, and almost always poorly done and inconsistent.

>> No.11710366

>>11707823
>How do people as stupid as you manage to make it to this board?
wow turns out going on 4chan isnt really a filter for intelligence
really makes you think