Moss trolls and smeerps and pants, oh my

[stillsostrange]

So I've been joking for years about Isyllt Sue's fondness for leather, and how she wants to dress like she's on the cover of a paranormal romance. (She especially likes Marjorie Liu's Hunter Kiss covers, although she finds the sword impractical.) I've spent years trying to convince her to wear more practical--not to mention plausible--clothes*, and she's finally sat me down and explained the issue in small words that my feeble writer brain can comprehend.

Leather is made of dead animals, you see. And as such is affected by her magic, unlike silk or wool or cotton. So if I give her a long leather coat, the chances of Spawn-like special effects increase dramatically.

Who am I to argue with that?

---

I have a squid dilemma. Since the primary language in this book is pseudoGrecoLatinate, I have access to a lot of words I wouldn't want to use in, say, an unNorse novel. But typing calamari bugs me. What do you think, readers? Would seeing calamari in a second-world fantasy bug you overmuch? Would it be better or worse if I used an obviously similar word? I saw "calamar-fish" in Green yesterday, and was rather taken with it.

Thoughts?



*I talk about conversations with my characters, but it's shorthand. I do not actually externalize them that much. They're definitely not entirely controlled by my conscious mind, but I couldn't role-play them, or do one of those weird character interviews. And since sound is pretty far down on my sense-awareness when I write, I don't "hear" their voices at all.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Calamar-fish" is exactly the sort of thing I dislike if it's meant to be "calamari but more foreign sounding." If it's a fish whose flesh resembles calamari, maybe okay.

I am totally fine with calamari in secondary-world fantasy.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the sound of the word, and I got (I assume) the right visual from it, but I did spend several seconds afterward furiously thinking but squid aren't fish!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The lovely Greek-English/English-Greek online dictionary (http://www.kypros.org/cgi-bin/lexicon) over here on the website of the island of Cyprus (http://www.kypros.org/) says that the modern Greek for squid is kalamaraki. Does that help?

[Edited to make my CLOSE TAGS match my OPEN TAGS. ::facepalm::]

[queenofillusion.livejournal.com]

I like that one...kalamaraki. Close enought to get the idea across, but different enough to sound like a fantasy world version.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Also (because my brain is too small today to admit more than one thought at a time) I would assume that "calamar-fish" was "fish from Calamar." Which totally makes me want to invent the island city-state of Calamar, but does not lead me toward the idea of squid.

[squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com]

Why not squid?

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Because I've used 'squid' about 20 times already in this scene, and it's on the verge of becoming nonsense.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Cuttlefish are not technically squid, but they have ink and all the squid like things. There might be some words in this article you can use, including a cool word for pouch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish

And now back to laundry and battling the dust bunny army.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

Leather is made of dead animals, you see. And as such is affected by her magic, unlike silk

.. uh... silk is made of dead bugs...coverings..

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Pretty much anything that isn't synthetic is made of dead something. I have to draw a line somewhere.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

And you do not actually have to kill the silkworm to get the silk. Unlike leather.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

then I got to thinking about bio-engineered cows that shed their hides..

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

"Don't go in the north pasture today. The bull's getting ready to shed."

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

*snorfle* oh yeah, it makes them cranky it does. Then they tend to sunburn.

[caprine.livejournal.com]

This is fracking hilarious.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

I'll *never* get rid of that image, now.

It also matches the behaviour of moulting tarantulas, who are downright touchy while they wait for ther new carapace to harden.

(Sigh. Sorry for the comment spam.)

[caprine.livejournal.com]

Actually, you do have to kill the silkworm:

If the animal is allowed to survive after spinning its cocoon, it will release proteolytic enzymes to make a hole in the cocoon so that it can emerge as a moth. This would cut short the threads and ruin the silk. Instead, silkworm cocoons are boiled. The heat kills the silkworms and the water makes the cocoons easier to unravel. Often, the silkworm itself is eaten (see Cuisine). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombyx_mori)

Still, silk is not made from the formerly living tissue of the worm; like wool, it was never itself alive. So I agree that the leather thing totally makes sense.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I had understood that there were two different ways to harvest silk, only one of which involved killing the silkworm. But I freely admit I am the complete opposite of an expert on the subject.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

You are correct. Otherwise, how would they raise more silkworms?

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

No, you're right. Here's a good link: http://www.wormspit.com/polyspin.htm

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia isn't always right. To get filament silk, you need to kill the worm. But there's a less-expensive kind, called spun silk, that uses the broken cocoons. It's much easier to embroider with, and it gives a different effect from the filament silk.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Silk is still usable after the silkworm burrows out. You just cut off the parts that are gross.

http://www.wormspit.com/polyspin.htm

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

magic silkworm stories dont abound ..

[inaurolillium.livejournal.com]

Calamari is from a Latin root (calamarium, ink-pot), and so acceptable to me in a Greco-Latin-esque world. But if you're unhappy with it, fer pete's sake say "squid".

[inaurolillium.livejournal.com]

clearly I didn't read any other comments before saying that. Sorry. Very sleepy.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

If I type squid one more time in this scene, I will scream. That is the root of this problem.

[ammitnox.livejournal.com]

Seeing calamari wouldn't bother me, but my first impression would be the food version.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_eljefe_/]

Yes, this.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Me too - in English, I think the word is only ever used to describe the dish, rather than the creature.

[clarentine]

Calamari bothers me because, assuming the text is in English, we are presented with a foreign plural. I would rather expect calamaro and calamaros, or whatever you're using for your plurals.

Plus, yes, all the food connotations, though I don't consider calamari food, per se. *g*

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I don't think calamari would make me pause. What does make me pause are phrases still in foreign languages that English has borrowed without translating like raison d'etre or coup de grace. That just makes me cranky.

[csinman.livejournal.com]

Calamari is okay with me; so is calamar-fish. But I liked kalamaraki up there the best.