they are definitely memorable, but i don't know if i would recommend them to anyone. see, now, i recommended ben bova's exiles trilogy to my wife to read on her kindle because in that case its all about the LAST book. it just has such a great fucked up ending that you wouldn't see coming in a million years. but, yeah, sure, red mars won't kill you.
― scott seward, Sunday, 15 September 2013 22:02 (ten years ago) link
Thanks -- having only read the first ten or thirty pages of _Red Mars_ I do suspect I would not enjoy pages & pages of ice talk, although that sounds hilarious right now! I guess I'll try to read _Red Mars_ and see if the spirit moves me on from there.
― Øystein, Sunday, 15 September 2013 22:11 (ten years ago) link
he repeats himself a lot. even in the same paragraph. those books could have been cut down substantially by a good editor and you wouldn't have missed anything.
― scott seward, Sunday, 15 September 2013 22:17 (ten years ago) link
I loved the Mars books, but read them as they originally came out, so had years-long gaps between the ice talk
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Monday, 16 September 2013 02:31 (ten years ago) link
Scott will enjoy KSR's new one, I'm sure, about a shaman in the Ice Agehttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/1841499994.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Monday, 16 September 2013 02:32 (ten years ago) link
mmm...icy...
― scott seward, Monday, 16 September 2013 03:28 (ten years ago) link
can we include fantasy too?
- eldritch
― click here to start exploding (ledge), Monday, 16 September 2013 10:06 (ten years ago) link
there are a LOT of them in this M. John Harrison book I'm reading. Here, I will open a random page and demonstrate:
ki-gasgamma-ablatedtalcthree-finner
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 16 September 2013 16:40 (ten years ago) link
credits (as currency)
― Øystein, Monday, 16 September 2013 17:02 (ten years ago) link
ESCARPMENT! jesus frackin' christ if i never see that word again it will be too soon. must be in the mars books 500,000 times.
so i've got 200 pages left of blue mars and i'm all of a sudden really digging nirgal hanging out with the feral space hippies. oh well, better late than never.
― scott seward, Monday, 16 September 2013 17:06 (ten years ago) link
Enantiodromic
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 16 September 2013 17:12 (ten years ago) link
That was in Jung before it was in science fiction.
Plasteel
― alimosina, Monday, 16 September 2013 18:53 (ten years ago) link
(something)-drive
― alimosina, Monday, 16 September 2013 18:54 (ten years ago) link
deathdrive! sexdrive! Also sega megadrive!
― Øystein, Monday, 16 September 2013 19:02 (ten years ago) link
You're right. Restrict it to somebody's name, or some pseudo-physics term.
― alimosina, Monday, 16 September 2013 19:06 (ten years ago) link
Wyrd
― alimosina, Monday, 16 September 2013 19:07 (ten years ago) link
not *only* in sf, but certain writers really cherish certain words
piers anthony: balkstephen r. donaldson: thewsfrank herbert: woolgathering
― mookieproof, Monday, 16 September 2013 19:45 (ten years ago) link
i probably haven't read a piers anthony book since i was 13 but i still remember all the balking
― mookieproof, Monday, 16 September 2013 19:46 (ten years ago) link
there are a LOT of them in this M. John Harrison book I'm reading. Here, I will open a random page and demonstrate:ki-gasgamma-ablatedtalcthree-finner
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 September 2013 20:10 (ten years ago) link
Lovecraft: gambrelAsimov: the phrase "not one but" (meaning "all")
― idembanana (abanana), Monday, 16 September 2013 20:24 (ten years ago) link
wub-fur
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 16 September 2013 20:29 (ten years ago) link
PKD had a bunch of these actually:
homeopapeservo-motor
Wankh
― came the time he flipped his lid came the time he flipped his lid (snoball), Monday, 16 September 2013 20:33 (ten years ago) link
Words you may discover in the works of M. John Harrison
1) Geological terminology:
Smoke and snow filled them, a pearly grey light like dawn over the tottering seracs of some marine glacier in the north beyond the North. It shivered and was wrenched away-"Methvet Nian!"Fused sand, and a sky filled with mica, the rolling dunes and dry saline wadis of the sempiternal erg.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 02:33 (ten years ago) link
2) Repurposed words given new futuristic meanings&3) Tropes/phrases he likes to reuse
They had innumerable soldiers, shadow boys in cultivars, cheap teenage punks with guns. Also, in their antique briefcases, or big, soft leather purses, they each carried a Chambers reaction pistol.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 02:38 (ten years ago) link
2b)
And the Cray sisters appeared in the tank farm doorway, shaking their heads and reaching for the pieces in their purses.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 02:41 (ten years ago) link
4) Dated slang, precisely used
They wore double-breasted sharkskin suits with the jackets hanging open so you could see they were heeled
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 02:47 (ten years ago) link
5) Gnostic or other mystical terminology such as "Pleroma." Don't have a copy of The Course of the Heart handy or I'd quote. But you can apparently buy a very cheap used volume called Anima containing both that and Signs of Life, which might be his two best books.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 02:55 (ten years ago) link
Finally there is this at the beginning of the first Viriconium book, The Pastel City
He wore a dark green velvet cloak, spun about him like a cocoon against the wind, a tabard of antique leather set with iridium studs over a white kid shirt; tight mazarine velvet trousers and high, soft boots of pale blue suede. Beneath the heavy cloak, his slim and deceptively delicate hands were curled into fists, weighted, as was the custom of the time, with heavy rings of nonprecious metals intagliated with involved cyphers and sphenograms.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 03:15 (ten years ago) link
OK, now back to Appleseed, by John Clute, which is so full of these words it will necessitate liveblogging on this thread.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 03:22 (ten years ago) link
Hah, already got one from that book, "sophont," first used by- guess who? Poul Anderson.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 03:42 (ten years ago) link
wadis of the sempiternal erg
Next album title to the first taker. GO!
― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 03:55 (ten years ago) link
And another, "fuligin," which he seems to have gotten from Gene Wolfe.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 03:56 (ten years ago) link
Think that was already a Macca remix album, Laurel.
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 03:58 (ten years ago) link
homeworld (not seen in this book, yet )
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 04:04 (ten years ago) link
Old-timey words otherwise most recently used for comedic effect by such writers as P.G. Wodehouse and S.J. Perelman such as "yclept."
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 04:09 (ten years ago) link
_- terran_^^This will be hard to top
^^This will be hard to top
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 04:17 (ten years ago) link
OK, another example of archaic word just showed up in this book, "appaumy." Amusing discussion of this actual passage here: http://books.google.com/books?id=uJyXcehjHCAC&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=appaumy&source=bl&ots=eZRcBMGpSV&sig=7F64OpWZq_4r6_8VZfRZ64xiuUo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1to3Uv27A8_a4AOh5YDoAg&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=appaumy&f=false
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 04:32 (ten years ago) link
Same article but easier to get to without google books search: http://extropians.weidai.com/extropians/0302/2570.html
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 05:23 (ten years ago) link
more from MJH
proteomenon-Abelian
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 15:46 (ten years ago) link
Fused sand, and a sky filled with mica, the rolling dunes and dry saline wadis of the sempiternal erg.
this is just fucking magnificent
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 15:49 (ten years ago) link
Forget it, Tracer, it's Viriconiumtown.
You never heard of non-Abelian before, Shakey? What kind of nerd are you?
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 15:56 (ten years ago) link
the kind who was bad at math
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 16:08 (ten years ago) link
"He wore a dark green velvet cloak, spun about him like a cocoon against the wind, a tabard of antique leather set with iridium studs over a white kid shirt; tight mazarine velvet trousers and high, soft boots of pale blue suede. Beneath the heavy cloak, his slim and deceptively delicate hands were curled into fists, weighted, as was the custom of the time, with heavy rings of nonprecious metals intagliated with involved cyphers and sphenograms."
I almost didn't make it past the first page, I hadn't had to look up so many words in an unabridged dictionary since reading Blood Meridian.
This seems interesting to me in terms of ~ reading strategies ~ -- like reading that (which I have done twice, I think, and I'm pretty sure never bothered with the dictionary) I feel like the narrator or implied author doesn't care too much if you follow precisely what's going on. (Like I want to claim that that's actually a part of the effect that Harrison's going for and insisting on reducing that bit of description to something that actually visually works is cheating him a little.)
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 17:00 (ten years ago) link
Moorcock is prone to similar descriptions of clothing
― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 17:38 (ten years ago) link
The phrase "intagliated with involved cyphers and sphenograms" just trips right off the tongue, don't it?
― Aimless, Tuesday, 17 September 2013 17:51 (ten years ago) link
This seems interesting to me in terms of ~ reading strategiesWill be back later to address this
― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 18:09 (ten years ago) link
if it were a movie where, say riddick showed up in a costume that was similarly unfamiliar and semiotically dense, would it also be a tar trap to the audience's attention, where the intended focus is riddick punching people?(i'm thinking that might actually be the case, hence the simplified tank top)
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 17 September 2013 18:16 (ten years ago) link
zardoz.jpg
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 20 September 2013 20:49 (ten years ago) link
but, i mean, semiotic denseness is harrison's intended focus -- it's not a book about tegeus-Cromis stabbing ppl
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 20 September 2013 20:50 (ten years ago) link
^excellent
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 11:46 (four years ago) link
words invented especially for sci-fi that describe a fictional concept, tbf(I know it from https://ansible.uk)
― insecurity bear (sic), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 12:21 (four years ago) link
yeah, me too
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 13:00 (four years ago) link
maybe that’s another thread, for words like that and “waldo.” There’s also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible_(software)?wprov=sfti1
― Jazz Telemachy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 13:02 (four years ago) link
"Iris" as a verb. ("The door irised open")
― Øystein, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 14:32 (four years ago) link
didn’t RAH famously come up with that?
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 01:34 (four years ago) link
Cranch
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 December 2019 01:59 (four years ago) link
apparently that is a real last name but yeah.The story also makes reference to “the wire of Eustace Cranch.”
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:15 (four years ago) link
wait, I just happen to own the Cordwainer Smith concordance, let me look in that.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:21 (four years ago) link
which quotes this from J. J. Pierce’s intro in The Best of:
At the time Smith wrote the story in 1945, there was an abandoned shop in his neighborhood called the Little Cranch—what “cranch” meant, he had no idea—but he used the word anyway.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:31 (four years ago) link
then adding that “cranch” is a variant of “craunch” which I see in other sources seems to be an ancestor of “crunch.” /themoreyouknow
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:35 (four years ago) link
And here I thought all along it had something to do with Lucas Cranach.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:36 (four years ago) link
Cranch, won’t pick it up
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:39 (four years ago) link
― Øystein, Monday, 30 December 2019 10:44 (four years ago) link
oh right the original was “dilated.” Still...
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:17 (four years ago) link
i thought iris as a verb was used early in the movie industry to describe the wipe
― Bojo Rabid (Noodle Vague), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:27 (four years ago) link
torus
― mookieproof, Monday, 30 December 2019 12:41 (four years ago) link
“strato-“ as a prefix
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:44 (four years ago) link
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 12:58 (four years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_shot
"iris out" and "iris in" are usually noun phrases -- "the film ends with an iris out" -- that encourage the belief in "iris" can act as a verb with "in" or "out" as its adverb: "let's end the film by irising out"
― mark s, Monday, 30 December 2019 13:07 (four years ago) link
Thanks for, um, irising in, Mark.
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 13:24 (four years ago) link
offworld
― Manitobiloba (Kim), Monday, 30 December 2019 14:44 (four years ago) link
The f-stop aperture of cameras was known as an iris decades before sci-fi got hold of the term.https://tubularinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/f-stop-scale.gif
― The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool (Sanpaku), Monday, 30 December 2019 16:45 (four years ago) link
"as a verb"
― mark s, Monday, 30 December 2019 16:51 (four years ago) link
https://img.apmcdn.org/fab975fb18fd043b3007cd9d7eb8a357e712cf50/uncropped/27c825-20110402-bob-dylan-1975.jpgIris, oh, Iris, you’re a mystical child
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 16:55 (four years ago) link
the element in a camera is anyway transferred from the anatomical region that surrounds the pupil in the eye, so-called (since 1525 via SOED) bcz it is rainbow coloured, iris being the greek goddess of the rainbow -- and "irised" did actually pre-exist (acc.SOED, i've never spotted it) as a poetic verb meaning "exhibited the characteristics of a rainbow"
so there's a quadruple meaning transference, which is fun: from name-of-a-god to colour quality to mechanism (purposive-muscular) to mechanism (purposive-mechanical) to mechanism (similar mechanism different purpose)
― mark s, Monday, 30 December 2019 17:01 (four years ago) link
El show de Iris Chacon to thread!
― The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 20:53 (four years ago) link
lidar
― mookieproof, Monday, 30 December 2019 22:42 (four years ago) link
there's a lot of lidar talk in 1491! which, okay, does read a bit like science fiction in places
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2019 23:22 (four years ago) link