Charlie Stross
#WritersCoffeeClub 9 Dec
Is it like slay to use sick street talk like in your lit literature, or is that just gonna give you salty vibes?
NOTHING dates (or localizes) writing like street talk: it's really best avoided EXCEPT in dialog (or narrative viewpoint) when you want to put a datestamp or location on your prose.
Be warned that old slang may age into quaintness or hilarity for cultural reasons, or just render your writing impenetrable and obscure.
Sandra Bond
@cstross Grody to the max, dude!
David Lee Holcomb
@cstross Some sci-fi authors sidestep the short shelf-life problem by creating their street slang from scratch. That way, they're not seduced into assuming that the readers of 2020 are going to be impressed by the street talk of 2010.
Charlie Stross
@davidleeholcomb Speaking as an SF author … my stretch goal is creating a new piece of slang that goes the distance. ( @pluralistic hit it out of the ball park with "enshittification".)
ploum
@cstross @davidleeholcomb @pluralistic :
I have no idea if it will stay but I’m quite proud to say that the title of my latest novel "bikepunk" has been generalized by Paris-Match as the name of a grass root anarcho-punk movement to fight cars and capitalism.
They managed to find a "bike punk" zine from the 70’s and a "bike punx" rock song form the 90’s (I was not aware of any of them) to write a whole paper about the "bikepunk movement"
spoiler: there’s no such movement, just a book ;-)
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
@Dss @bthalpin @cstross @davidleeholcomb @pluralistic
Is it wrong of me to wish a Brian Thompson on Elmo for the desecration of Iain M Banks' space anarchist memory?
Perhaps too trivial a reason to waste the waster?
Charlie Stross
@Lazarou @Dss @bthalpin @davidleeholcomb @pluralistic Naah, I just want him to come down with an aggressive androgen-dependent prostate cancer. It'd be poetic justice.
Brendan Halpin
@cstross @davidleeholcomb @pluralistic Heinlein did "grok" (which was fine for a while)
NKTSecurity
@bthalpin @cstross @davidleeholcomb @pluralistic it was fine until elno took it.
Charlie Stross
@SordidAmok @resuna There was a video based on the book? Presumably without seeking copyright permission?
Sordid Amok!
@resuna @cstross There was a book?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ALHOT-Ubho
Resuna
John Brunner's slang in The Stardroppers was already embarassing when I read it in the '60s. He really hit his stride in Stand on Zanzibar and Shockwave Rider though.
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