the plush-lipped forger's violet-eyed trouser snake: or, the dreaded epithet
I wasn’t sure I was going to tackle this one, but then I found schwa's post about epithets here.
A linguist and native German speaker, he reminds us that stylistic trends may vary in non-English speaking contexts, writing that “my teachers (German and foreign languages) always told us that actually using names all over is bad writing. I don't know what to believe anymore.”
I’m going to assume that most of us in fandom (at least in Inception fandom) are familiar with the epithet controversy. I’m not even sure it is a controversy and more of a widely accepted rule-No Epithets. Epithets are a well-accepted “automatic backspace”. And what’s more, people’s definition of an offensive epithet varies. It’s not just “the point man” or “the lithe soldier” or “the violet-eyed purple trouser snake”. To some, saying “the girl” or “the other man”--seemingly neutral, non-descriptive placeholders-are just as unacceptable.
I know that this is a loaded subject, so before we go any further, I’m just going to say that my intention is not to tell anyone what to do; it’s just to discuss my personal feelings and observations about this subject. Everyone has things they hate to see in fic, so I’m not here to judge anyone for liking or disliking epithets.
1) As I'm sure many of you know, norms vary from fandom to fandom. When I dabbled in Spartacus: Vengeance fandom, stories were rife with “the gladiator”, “the body slave”, “the German”, “the Syrian”. It tended to bother me, and I’m not sure why. Was it the frequency? The use of national/ethnic epithets also tends to bother me, and I had a really hard time reading fics that addressed Nasir as “the Syrian” all the time. Epithets can definitely be offensive, and furthermore, there have been many times when I wondered “of all the ways you could describe a person, why would you choose that one?
2) Speaking of Spartacus fandom, I wonder if epithets are more acceptable when writing about different periods in history. Ancient Greek and Roman literature, for example, made copious use of epithets. If we are attempting to write in a style that reflects the period, might epithets be one way of doing that? Or would it just sound affected?
3) When I looked up epithets on Google, most of the sources advising against epithets were fandom-centric sources. I’ve never taken a fiction writing class, but I’d be curious to hear if anyone’s heard the “no epithets” rule in non-fandom contexts. Do we tend to talk about it more in fandom because epithets are more often abused here? Or is it really just less of a rule in other contexts? Even if epithets are used in published fiction (and I’ve seen them used in decent published books many times), that doesn’t necessarily make “no epithets” an invalid rule-fanfic doesn’t need to obey the same rules as published fiction, and in many ways I like the idea of fanfic as an organic genre with its own conventions.
4) UNPOPULAR OPINION: I have seen fics where I think epithets were used conscientiously. One fic I read had Arthur thinking of Eames as “the forger” at the beginning and then had him grow to think of him purely as Eames. Now, one might argue that there are other ways to show that Arthur’s view of Eames changes from professional to personal over time, but I thought it was clever. You might also argue that no one actually thinks of people in terms of their occupations or other defining characteristics-but there are many tricks of perspective in fiction that people don’t necessarily really do.
That's all I got right now. Curious to hear opinions.
A linguist and native German speaker, he reminds us that stylistic trends may vary in non-English speaking contexts, writing that “my teachers (German and foreign languages) always told us that actually using names all over is bad writing. I don't know what to believe anymore.”
I’m going to assume that most of us in fandom (at least in Inception fandom) are familiar with the epithet controversy. I’m not even sure it is a controversy and more of a widely accepted rule-No Epithets. Epithets are a well-accepted “automatic backspace”. And what’s more, people’s definition of an offensive epithet varies. It’s not just “the point man” or “the lithe soldier” or “the violet-eyed purple trouser snake”. To some, saying “the girl” or “the other man”--seemingly neutral, non-descriptive placeholders-are just as unacceptable.
I know that this is a loaded subject, so before we go any further, I’m just going to say that my intention is not to tell anyone what to do; it’s just to discuss my personal feelings and observations about this subject. Everyone has things they hate to see in fic, so I’m not here to judge anyone for liking or disliking epithets.
1) As I'm sure many of you know, norms vary from fandom to fandom. When I dabbled in Spartacus: Vengeance fandom, stories were rife with “the gladiator”, “the body slave”, “the German”, “the Syrian”. It tended to bother me, and I’m not sure why. Was it the frequency? The use of national/ethnic epithets also tends to bother me, and I had a really hard time reading fics that addressed Nasir as “the Syrian” all the time. Epithets can definitely be offensive, and furthermore, there have been many times when I wondered “of all the ways you could describe a person, why would you choose that one?
2) Speaking of Spartacus fandom, I wonder if epithets are more acceptable when writing about different periods in history. Ancient Greek and Roman literature, for example, made copious use of epithets. If we are attempting to write in a style that reflects the period, might epithets be one way of doing that? Or would it just sound affected?
3) When I looked up epithets on Google, most of the sources advising against epithets were fandom-centric sources. I’ve never taken a fiction writing class, but I’d be curious to hear if anyone’s heard the “no epithets” rule in non-fandom contexts. Do we tend to talk about it more in fandom because epithets are more often abused here? Or is it really just less of a rule in other contexts? Even if epithets are used in published fiction (and I’ve seen them used in decent published books many times), that doesn’t necessarily make “no epithets” an invalid rule-fanfic doesn’t need to obey the same rules as published fiction, and in many ways I like the idea of fanfic as an organic genre with its own conventions.
4) UNPOPULAR OPINION: I have seen fics where I think epithets were used conscientiously. One fic I read had Arthur thinking of Eames as “the forger” at the beginning and then had him grow to think of him purely as Eames. Now, one might argue that there are other ways to show that Arthur’s view of Eames changes from professional to personal over time, but I thought it was clever. You might also argue that no one actually thinks of people in terms of their occupations or other defining characteristics-but there are many tricks of perspective in fiction that people don’t necessarily really do.
That's all I got right now. Curious to hear opinions.