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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Story words that just don't do it for me
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77083 is a reply to message #77081] Tue, 16 June 2020 08:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I'm wondering whether this almost falls into the realms of "He Said" and Variants. I know it's only once, perhaps twice within the same story [for a pair of protagonists]. Even so, how hard should we search for different expressions?

[Updated on: Tue, 16 June 2020 08:22]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77084 is a reply to message #77081] Tue, 16 June 2020 14:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
The Composer is currently offline  The Composer

Toe is in the water

Registered: September 2018
Messages: 87



What is 'normal'?
icon12.gif Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77088 is a reply to message #77084] Wed, 17 June 2020 12:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

Toe is in the water
Location: Somerset
Registered: May 2017
Messages: 64



'normal' = someone who shares your prejudices  Nod
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77094 is a reply to message #77088] Thu, 18 June 2020 01:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mark

Likes it here
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 275



To quote an old Internet saying: "Normalicy is like UFOs or Bigfoot - people claim to see it, but there's no proof!"
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77099 is a reply to message #77094] Fri, 19 June 2020 18:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Teddy is currently offline  Teddy

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: October 2006
Messages: 484



As far as I know, "Normal" is a setting on a washing machine. 🤣



“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77110 is a reply to message #77099] Fri, 26 June 2020 13:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
The Composer is currently offline  The Composer

Toe is in the water

Registered: September 2018
Messages: 87



So all the other options are 'abnormal'?
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77116 is a reply to message #77110] Sat, 27 June 2020 05:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Talo Segura is currently offline  Talo Segura

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Now I'm really in a spin, my washing machine isn't normal it's eco! 
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77213 is a reply to message #76825] Fri, 14 August 2020 20:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
NW is currently offline  NW

On fire!
Location: Worcester, England
Registered: January 2005
Messages: 1558



Well, I can cope with things like "boypussy" in limited quantities - quite a lot of late teens on Reddit seem to use them about their own pictures of their own anatomy (though I'm not sure whether it's because it's contemporary teen argot or because they've been reading too much one-handed literature).

What I find really hard to stomach is false elegance. Words that make me cringe include "procure" (instead of "buy" "steal", etc); "comestibles" (instead of "food"); "partaking" of a family meal ... I've even encountered the dreaded "esculent".

I know what the words mean. But, in a story about youngsters, for the invisible narrator to show off with words like these is something I find really jarring.



"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77215 is a reply to message #77213] Sun, 16 August 2020 13:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mark

Likes it here
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 275



"NW wrote on Fri, 14 August 2020 14:35"
What I find really hard to stomach is false elegance. Words that make me cringe include "procure" (instead of "buy" "steal", etc); "comestibles" (instead of "food"); "partaking" of a family meal ... I've even encountered the dreaded "esculent".

I know what the words mean. But, in a story about youngsters, for the invisible narrator to show off with words like these is something I find really jarring.

--

I think it happens because people are mindful of complaints from folks about using the same words to often, and are trying not to do that by adding variety without realizing that they're going overboard.  It's the reason why I don't like words/phrases like "meat lollipop" when referring to the penis - most people (especially youth) just don't talk that way!
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77277 is a reply to message #77215] Fri, 04 September 2020 16:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

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Registered: July 2019
Messages: 372



I don't recall that anyone reading this thread (including Timmy!!) actually volunteered to compile the list of words that "don't do it for me!"

We may have to add the word "homosexual" to the list!

Forum visitors, authors and readers alike, should take notice of this recent announcement by dictionary.com concerning usage of terms like "homosexual" and "gay."

http://forum.iomfats.org/?t=getfile&id=5180&private=0

Beyond the striking declaration that they will use "homosexuality" less are some other changes, and expansion of the uses of the word "gay." Of note:

The previously used terms homosexual and homosexuality originated as clinical language, and dictionaries have historically perceived such language as scientific and unbiased. But 'homosexual' and 'homosexuality' are now associated with pathology, mental illness, and criminality, and so imply that being gay a normal way of being is sick, diseased, or wrong.

This change carries with it the promise of more fully mainstreaming what it means to be gay. Some of the replacements, however, are quite interesting and will undoubtedly draw comments and perhaps disapproval:

Some changes that were made include replacing the word "homosexual" and "homosexuality" with "gay," "gay man," "gay woman" or "gay sexual orientation," based on discussions with GLAAD and in accordance with American Psychological Association guidelines.

You can read the piece at LGBTQ Nation, and share your reactions and comments in this Forum thread.

[Updated on: Fri, 04 September 2020 16:03]




Bensiamin
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77278 is a reply to message #76825] Fri, 04 September 2020 20:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shazamboi is currently offline  Shazamboi

Getting started
Location: USA
Registered: September 2020
Messages: 11



Oooh I hate it. I mean sometimes in the heat of the moment I've got no other choice because I'm already involved. But, I'd prefer not to have to see them.
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77292 is a reply to message #77277] Sun, 06 September 2020 10:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

Toe is in the water
Location: Somerset
Registered: May 2017
Messages: 64



My main reaction on reading the article is bemusement; I don't think I've ever associated the word 'homosexuality' with pathology or mental illness, and I don't think I know anyone else who does either. It feels like they are virtue-signaling more than anything else (and that's another nasty pandemic that's spreading around the world too...).
 
Or maybe it's an American thing given the current attacks on LGBTQ rights there.
 
...or maybe I'm just missing the point.
 
Don't get me wrong; adding more LGBTQ terminology is great, I just don't see why they need to find what strikes me as a weird explanation for why they are doing it; just get on and do it. (For completeness, I'm aware that in clinical psychiatry circles 'homosexuality' may have history as a pathology, but that is scarcely representative of the way 99.999% of the world interprets it).
 
Perhaps the aim to make the use of the word 'homosexual' offensive and so stop those people who are opposed to homosexual behaviour from using it? If so, I doubt that it will work (the people in that category have hides like rhinoceroses and positively WANT to offend the people they attack), and if it does, they'll just move on to using 'gay and lesbian'...and then, I suppose, we'll have to make using THOSE words unacceptable....
 
I have some other views about the bigger picture of communications that might be at risk here as well but that might better be left to another post.
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77302 is a reply to message #77292] Tue, 08 September 2020 10:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

Toe is in the water
Location: Somerset
Registered: May 2017
Messages: 64



My bigger concern is to do with what happens to communication when words mean different things (or nothing) to the majority of people. At the end of the day, communication relies on a common understanding of what words mean. Otherwise we find ourselves in the Humpty Dumpty situation:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."

Unless both parties understand a word to mean the same thing, then communication gets either fractured or completely lost. In the case of the new words added by Dictionary.com, I had to look up 'deadnaming' and 'ace'. I worry that the LGBTQ community is getting so hung up on the minutiae of having words that describe their particular view of their sexuality that we end up losing focus on the bigger game of protecting and promoting the concepts and words that embrace all of us. Minorities are better off standing together under one banner than fracturing into micro-groups. The whole thing gets worse when the general population hasn't the faintest idea what the language being used means. I appreciate that this is some distance away from the starting point of this discussion, but unless we remember to stand back and look at the bigger picture, it's little wonder that we end up not being able to see the wood for the trees (if that's not a mixed metaphor).
Re: Story words that just don't do it for me  [message #77356 is a reply to message #76825] Mon, 21 September 2020 14:28 Go to previous message
Matthew is currently offline  Matthew

Toe is in the water

Registered: February 2015
Messages: 73



"timmy wrote on Sun, 03 May 2020 10:26"
I read a lot. Sometimes certain words make me wonder whether to bother continuing.  Here are some:
  • Glutes
  • Rectum
  • Boypussy/boipussy

The first two are unimaginative. The third is feminising a legitimate body part. It is more imaginative, certainly, and yet I find it nauseating

--

Boy pussy, pussy boi, any other word used for penis or dick (unless it's part of a dialogue between characters in a funny kind of way) same with the ass.

I just think people feel the need to be different and unique, but it just puts me off. If it's a dick, just call it a dick or penis, if it's an ass, call it an ass, none of this lovechute crap, unless it fits into some kind of dialogue between characts that makes sense in context.

I think in my story, i have a couple of conversations between the boys, and they use different words, but they're boys and teasing each other and stuff, so it in that context, it's okay, but when you have a story, and i remember one vaguely that used a different word for a dick, each time it was mentioned, it was like they had a thesuarus next to them and went through every possible variation
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