Ravings

Catch-21.95, the dilemma of cavespeak

What exactly makes a word or phrase “too modern” to be used by a resident of the Pleistocene? Can anyone give me a nice concise accurate dictionary of caveman-speak?

I don’t think so.

I am constantly amazed at how one person after another can pick out dozens of “wrong” words — and no two lists are anything alike. Each reader has a unique set of pet peeves. Most of it is from (IMHO) expectation based on assumptions ingrained by exposure to Hollywood crap. Movie cavemen must talk like cavemen. Pile it on, grind it in. They are dumb savages, right?

Wrong. They are our ancestors, and they were some damn smart cookies. They created works of art that put goosebumps all over modern viewers. They were human beings who concerned themselves with food, hunting, survival, what the neighbors were up to, and why the stars stuck to the sky. They had rich, complex language that we can only guess at from root words that survived in many modern tongues.

So, why is it wrong to interpret their (fictitious) thoughts in words that come as close as possible to what they intend to say?

Every word that I use to write is modern English. Where do I draw the line? And then there’s the other side of the coin. My vocabulary is large and eclectic. It isn’t limited to what some people hear on TV. Is it all right to use a word that Shakespeare liked?

Just gimme a clue.

Ayah-kayah.

A Drum is…

I’ve always kvetched about how clunky and horrible Java is. I suppose it still is, but now that I have DSL and am getting to be a spoiled brat, I have to admit that wordl is fun. Here’s all of ADIE in one tidy little word cloud:

A Drum Is...

I guess it’s kind of obvious who the MC is.

I’m having a genre crisis (and general rant)

Sometimes I have wondered if the story wasn’t taking on a YA tone, and thought maybe that was the way I should go. But my intent is to appeal to a wide age spectrum. I never set out to write YA. My MC is in his teens because that is when a pivotal series of events changes his life. Among his people, anyone his age is considered an adult. He is undersocialized, however; a paradoxical mixture of someone who is both mature and young for his age.

Why should the age of the MC matter? When I was young, I liked to read about adults, not stupid kids. I read heavy stuff, I wanted to explore. Now I’m an old foguette and I like lighter reading. Harlequin Romances aren’t labeled YA because they spare the brain cells.

What set me off is that someone somewhere said my query sounds YA — and mostly useless. What can I say? I try to get the MC’s voice into it, and get slapped down for oversharing. Wottever. I’m done with posting any kind of WIP anywhere for now.

Meanwhile, I have come to doubt my genre. That’s a shitty feeling. I don’t like being labeled. Should I knuckle under if someone points out that it’s a mystery because there are a few murders in it? Or that it is erotica because the MC has a coupla good boinks? What gaddamn criteria do I have to meet, what are the ninky little rules? It’s a friggin fantasy, all right?

Thank God(dess) no one can claim it is romance.

Here we go again

Working over WordPress is simple, if you know a little CSS. I’ve done it enough times, set up sites with it, so why not use it myself, right?

you bug me

Yes, foax, that is the first drawing I made on my first very own computer, The Thang. It was spring, hence the tulip. MS Paint doesn’t get called on so much these days. I have enough RAM to run The Gimp whenever I please. But it was fun back then to see what I could do–especially since my system only understood 256 colors.

I spent a whole Saturday evening at this:

waterfall

Click to see full-size. Lucky you–when I drew it, I couldn’t see the whole thing in my ancient monitor. I’m still pretty happy about how the water sparkles. 256 colors, remember.