the things you read...

[lyssie]

So, I'm flipping through Diane Carey's 'Ghost Ship', one of the veryvery first Next Generation novels. And, and...

There's a bit where Riker looks at Deanna 'custodially'.

..

wtf?

So, he's thinking, "Man, I'd like to mop her deck."?

(shut up, I know there's another definition)

And, it hits me. People? Don't try to use huge vocabularies just because omg you think it is so cool. Just... use everyday language. A spade is a flonqing spade, for frak's sake.

*mutter*

Comments

[mitai.livejournal.com]

I would ask that you de-generalize that statement, though. There are so many exceptions:

Cable turned and said "Domino! Put the gun down!" Domino looked at him and said "Make me. Flonqer." Cable walked up to her and said "Okay. My place or yours?" Domino purred in his ear and said "Your place is floating up in space and got taken over by Magneto, so let's head to mine."

There are certain words that need to be changed occasionally to be more descriptive. For example, said. People can reply, retort, snort, grunt, spew, laugh while speaking, and even ejaculate a statement. Walking is another big one. Characters can sprint, skip, sidle, trip, schlep, etc.

I'm not sure I object to the word 'custodially,' but only if it were in a fic of the quality of, say, Alara Rogers, or maybe Ali. If there were any number of highly specific and descriptive adjectives being used throughout the fic, then we'd know that 'custodially' was used with specific purpose and that would make it a very important part of the fic. If it were inserted into the paragraph above, I'm so totally with you there.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Well, she was playing on the whole, "he is concerned for his crew omg" thingie. But, yeah.

Especially Riker. Deanna had no daddy issues, dammit!

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Oh, true. I just. Ugh. Too many people write with their Thesaurus open. (and I probably misspelled that)

arrrrr.

[thatpalebluedot.livejournal.com]

Hee. Star Trek novels. So much love. :)

Really. Seriously. I have almost all of them--well, less of the past few years, but.

They're such total brain candy. With occasional good writing and fun story mixed in. It's like ffnet, published!

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

...what's another word for thesaurus? *g*

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*eyes* Hush. I have been fabulously expanding energy on ranting all morning. I'm allowed to forget words like dictionary....

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

The first 20 weren't... that bad?

Eh, I tell a lie. But some of them were damned amusing. *g*

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

Hmm? No, I think you misunderstood my intent. A friend once brought up the point that, in a book used most often to find synonyms, there is no synonym for thesaurus. Which made my brain break, and is kind of funny.

Just jokin' around.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

oh! Gotcha. *points at above comment about energy expenditure*

*has coffee now* mmm..

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry if I added unduly to the expenditure. I just do happen to disagree with y'all's viewpoints in that instance, but I respect and love you all that I kind of wish to see a meeting of the minds about it.

Which isn't helped by my incessant, inescapable role as devil's advocate. *shrug*

Also, though...if it were a common thought (that there is no other word for thesaurus, a book that exists to tell you other words for things), then it wouldn't have broken my brain.

I just love the irony, you know?

re: coffee: I'm off the no-caffeine wagon, but not so far off that I need coffee (thank God...I don't really like). I made some coffee for my coworkers before I bailed on them this morning, though, and the Brazilian I worked with liked it, but everyone else thought it was too strong. I guess I used twice as much as you usually do...*has no clue, omg*

I liked Diane Carey's OS Mary Sue's...but by the time the Next Gen books were out, I was mostly given up on Star Trek novels. Still have a few, though, like Final Reflection and Imzadi.

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

I liked the one about Kirk's father and the original test fly of the Enterprise, where they end up in Romulan space and inadvertantly cause the Romulans to create the Cloaking Device...

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

heh. The NG novels have some gems. Almost every Peter David one is fab. And I still have a soft spot for Doomsday World... And Howard Weinstein. And John "Fanboy" Voornholt and Michael Jan "bigger fanboy" Friedman....

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I, er, never got into the original Trek ones. Next Gen was my show of shows. *pines for it, but watches B5 instead*

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

That one was fun. It was supposed to be a test run, but a Romulan sleeper agent was on board (human, not a posing-as-Vulcan) and jury-rigged things so's they ended up going WAYFASTER and totally off course, crossing the neutral zone. So in order to get back to Federation space, they key open communications and say, basically, "Err...fleet, our invisibilty screen has failed. We are re-crossing the border. Continue with maneuvers and we will rendevous will ALL of you at the usual place. Repeating, FLEET, our invisibilty screen has failed..." all the while they're high-tailing it back home. Bwah!

And of course, 20-30 years later, the Romulans have figured out a way to make their ships invisible, all because they were already convinced it could be done...

[thatpalebluedot.livejournal.com]

Peter David--Q-in-Law. Still makes me laugh my ass off, after a dozen rereadings.

Err...yeah, but that was within the first 20, I think. ;)

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Just... use everyday language. A spade is a flonqing spade, for frak's sake.

Sorry, I'm just amused by the juxtaposition of those two sentences.