e&tg 34

[rone]

Néfilo grinned.  "I'll send yez on a task, then.  Maybe a few errands, that should make us even."  He got up and walked to a chest, unlocked it, and pulled out a buckled leather case.  "Now, do yez know where the town a Pialesto is?"  I shook my head.  He continued, "It's three days a travel on foot north-northeast, just past the Tashpari border.  I need yez t'go there.  The last messenger i sent that way got roughed up by the Mafia before he left town, and i don't need them getting into any more a my papers."  He handed me the case.  "Now, once yez get to Pialesto, there's two apothecaries in town.  Ask around and find out which one is run by a dwarf, and go t'that one.  Once yer there, ask for a red clay poultice.  He'll tell you he's out, but he'll tell you how to get to a place where someone can get you some.  Her name is Dakel Yeniri.  Give her the satchel."

I looked at the satchel, then back at him.  "That's it?"

"For now, biggun.  Might be a while before i consider yer debt discharged."

"Not exactly a debt if you haven't given me the goods, is it?  I get the feeling you're going to hold me hostage as your errand boy as long as you can dangle those doodads in front of me."

He frowned.  "I'm not about t'start arguing semantics with yez, biggun.  Yez knows what yez wants, and yez knows what i wants."

I held up my hands.  "OK, fine, you have a point.  Can you just lend `em to me for a while?  I'd like to have a conversation with Kohasadi."  Kohasadi perked up and squawked.

Néfilo sighed and shrugged.  "Ahh, i suppose."  He handed me the arches.  "I'll get back t'my work and give yez two some privacy."  He grumbled on his way out the door.

I looked at the arches; they were too small to fit around my ears, but they just might fit on the inside of my ears.  I opened the door and yelled at the druid, "Hey, you got a mirror in here?"

"There's one in the tool cabinet!" he yelled without bothering to turn around.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I stopped capitalizing my is years ago, on the opinion that there's no good reason to capitalize a pronoun.

[thedarkages]

Shouldn't that be "i stopped capitalizing..."?

You and E.E. Cummings...

[palecur.livejournal.com]

When starting a sentence with the word 'he', the H is capitalised. Likewise the I, no? Abstaining from gratuitous capitalisation does not mean throwing out the rest of normal orthography with it.

[thedarkages]

It all depends on where you collect your gratuity. In my book, the pronoun "I" should be capitalized wherever it is employed. In rone's book, 'I' in the middle of a sentence should be lowercase. Introducing Cummings's position is merely the logical extension of the latter point of view.

Claiming universal canonicity for your particular brand of prescriptivism is a tired move -- a move Rone did not make himself.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I freely admit that my lowercase 'i' goes against my sacred prescriptivist vows. But i gotta be me.

Also, i have a universal canonicity in my pants.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Claiming universal canonicity for your particular brand of prescriptivism is a tired move -- a move Rone did not make himself.

Neither is it one I made myself, as it happens. Thoug I do find your habit of imputing motivations where none exist to be rather charming.

Wait, is 'charming' the word I mean to use here? No, I think it's 'tedious.'

Yes, that's definitely the one.

[thedarkages]

Several messages above, you wrote:

When starting a sentence with the word 'he', the H is capitalised. Likewise the I, no? Abstaining from gratuitous capitalisation does not mean throwing out the rest of normal orthography with it.

This tells me that you believe that there is such a thing as "normal orthography," but that the lowercase pronoun "i" in the middle of sentences is also "normal" -- that it's the opposite of "gratuitous capitalization." In my version of orthography, which I believe to be "normal," that pronoun should be uppercase in all instances. Who is to arbitrate "normality?" We have both made assertions; I was pointing out that you had made one.

As for your word choice, I would like to read more of what you've written in order to get a sense of your overall approach to diction. Making a snap judgment based on one word is never a good idea.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

OMG EVRY1 N DS THRD WZ SO HRSH W U D00D!

*** HUGZ ****

(really, I found your gentle swipe about universal canonicity to be well within the bounds of light banter. So --- HUGZ)

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

erm...I was just curious.

Logical reasons to do it that I can see are twofold:

1)ease of finding publisher (irrelevant if you don't want one) and,
2)ease of your readers, because when you see something you don't
expect your eye 'stutters', makes a little stop which interrupts
the flow of the reading and distracts from the story. People may or may not, though, be able to adapt to it after a couple of chapters and ignore it. I've been able to do so with _much_ more dramatic stylistic issues...ever read "Emergence"? Damned good book, but I had to grit my teeth to get past the first couple of chapters because the style _hurt_.

Your choice, no matter what, was just curious as to the reasoning behind it. I personally think that, yes, the language _could_ use some revision. We don't have enough pronouns. We need zie/zirs/zer or sie/sies/hir, IMO. The singular 'they' annoys me, and too many people don't recognize a formal 'he'. However, I don't write with them because it'd end up interferring with understanding of my writing, not enhancing it, so I'd have to have a really good _reason_ for using it, like having a truly gender-neutral char or something...eck, rambling again. Sorry. Anyway, wasn't meaning to be offensive or critical, just curious.

Vel

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

No offense taken at all. Ignore those louts. If anything, it amused me that it's taken this long for someone to ask about it.

I agree with the "not enough pronouns", but zie/zir makes my brain itch.