Thursday, February 18, 2010

"You can't let the little pricks generation-gap you."

Larry Correia asks "Prithee, doest thou thinketh that the language changeth over time?"

Considering that whole novels have been written in the vernacular before, and that the piece of slang in question is right in the target audience's wheelhouse, I don't see why there was even a question...

Writing for an internet audience is different than writing for dead tree stuff in one crucial respect: I used to be extra-cautious with using hyperlinks to explain technical terms or obscure historical or pop-culture references, but I stopped doing that only a few months into the blog, figuring "Anybody reading this is, by definition, hooked up to the repository of the sum total of human knowledge as well as weird anime pr0n. If they don't catch a reference, they can damned well Google up an answer."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

But, Tam, I love the obscure historical links (the pop-culture ones I usually get... we're close in age). OK, 'love' is relative... while I enjoy poking the mental fire with a new stick, I usually wind up spending a couple hours soaking up some history when I should have been doing other things, like working.

"Holy smokes, Bullwinkle! I missed the meeting! Well, at least I know a lot more about Carthage."

Tam said...

Oh, I still post up the occasional Wikiwander, fear not. That is the awesomest time sink ever devised. :)

Anonymous said...

When I first started writing I used alot of links, but they really do get in the way of the reading and many spoil real quick.

Joanna said...

Language pedant powers, activate!

Should be "dost", should be "think", should be no "that". "Prithee, dost thou think the language changeth over time?"

And yes, this is on topic -- if you're going to reference something, whether it's a fact or a style, it's important to be accurate.

Plus people who think adding "-eth" to every word makes it "all Shakespearey and junk" get under my skin no end.

Language pedant powers, deactivate!

Unknown said...

William Gibson, FTW!

Tam said...

Joanna,

Excuseth me! ;) (...and I knew better on "dost".)


Brett,

Bingo. :)

Joanna said...

I am ... The Grammar Avengerrrrrr! *flies away to a trumpet fanfare; reminds self to finish morning coffee before posting to prevent future tirades*

"Doest" is correct in some cases, BTW, but it's more akin to "doing" than "do."

I'll shut up now. X-D

Ken O said...

Love the Neuromancer quote Tam!

Earl said...

I am still gun shy of looking up words or acronyms, after I found out what one of them meant. But this one I looked up, liked Wiki's answer best and I know how to pronounce it - me the guy that didn't know that epitome and E-pity-me were the same word said differenty - one in my mind and the other through my ears.

Anonymous said...

Can you at least link us to that weird anime pr0n?


j/k

Vaarok said...

lmgtfy.com is the greatest invention since Wikipedia.