Comments on: The Drowning City and Fantasy Naming

By: braak

braak — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:21:35 +0000

Oh, man, 100% agreed on that. Chekhov is a god-damned nightmare to try and read.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:52:43 +0000

You have thoroughly articulated why I am incapable of reading Chekhov.

Russia, fantasy-land; same difference when the names are 20 characters long, unpronounceable, come in four different variations per character, and have “diminutives” that are longer than the goddam original.

By: wench

wench — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:28:27 +0000

I tend not to read names unless I absolutely have to. Usually, I just sort of see a few key characteristics about a name. I starts with a J, ends with an N, and there’s an o somewhere in there – that’s one character. This one starts with an S and has a double vowel – that’s another. As long as none of the characters have similar-looking names I’m good to go, but stick a Reeferteezen and a Reefertoezen together in there and I’ll get really darn confused.

By: Jeff Holland

Jeff Holland — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:43:34 +0000

I feel at this point it’s important to link to the “Gentlemen Broncos” trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1113457177

By: braak

braak — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:43:11 +0000

Yeah, and some of Banks’ names are so outlandish and thoroughly distinct from each other that it’s easy not to confuse them.

I think the name of the drone Turminder Xuss is my favorite.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:22:25 +0000

My girlfriend had a similar difficulty interpreting The Age of Wire and String which, whilst not a fantasy novel (more a book of nonsense verse structured like a collection of allegories) was littered with peculiar words that sounded like something, but not closely enough to hang an interpretation on. It took her three weeks to read and at the end she said "I still don't get it". I felt bad telling her that well, really, there wasn't anything to get - like Jabberwocky, it was the rhythm and the sounds that made it work, not the meaning. More on topic, I like Bank's use of names - ludicrously long but mostly following a set pattern. They're almost immediately discarded for abbreviated nicknames, dispensing with much of the complexity and allowing the story to proceed much more smoothly.

By: richie

richie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:08:46 +0000

I usually don’t have a problem until I try to read a sequel a year later. Who the hell are these people with the funny names? Was he the one who wore the hat, or the one who could fly but didn’t because it was slowly killing him?

By: Moff

Moff — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:39:13 +0000

The names and the Architecture Wars were one of my favorite parts of The Translated Man.

By: Jeff Holland

Jeff Holland — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:37:00 +0000

“…but in The Translated Man you weren’t supposed to be able to tell a lot of the names apart. The rich guys with their hyphenated names were supposed to be largely indistinguishable and vaguely ridiculous. ”

Whuh- but…but I took notes! I TOOK NOTES!!!!

By: Moff

Moff — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:24:58 +0000

I'm not sure either, but I think a good place to start would be a ban on: (1) names where y is substituted for i, (2) names with ae in them, (3) and names with apostrophes. I have more or less stopped reading fantasy because of the above. I can't fucking take it anymore.