Slash! Parry! Dodge!
May. 17th, 2006 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyThe Mirador, Chapter 2: 14,874 words
Entirely new words: 3,730. Felix is a prima donna. But we knew that already.
That's a very long sex scene.
o.O
otoh, I finally got a chance to show Mélusine's sexual underworld in action, and I have invented more terminology in the past three days ...
I tried to use "sadism," I really did. And "masochism." But the moss trolls kept tapping me on the shoulder and saying Urr? politely. Because the Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch just don't exist in this world, and I know it. You can only be bothered by the Moss-Troll Problem if you know the etymology of the dubious word, or if you know the connotations you will be invoking. "Top" and "bottom" aren't necessarily anachronistic--they're bluntly descriptive enough that parallel evolution seems not unreasonable--but they have cultural context, and their cultural context is not Felix's cultural context. It's the same reason I use "molly" instead of "gay." Because you have to be careful about what you allow your reader to assume they know. You can't invite words in if they won't check their baggage at the door.
Entirely new words: 3,730. Felix is a prima donna. But we knew that already.
That's a very long sex scene.
o.O
otoh, I finally got a chance to show Mélusine's sexual underworld in action, and I have invented more terminology in the past three days ...
I tried to use "sadism," I really did. And "masochism." But the moss trolls kept tapping me on the shoulder and saying Urr? politely. Because the Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch just don't exist in this world, and I know it. You can only be bothered by the Moss-Troll Problem if you know the etymology of the dubious word, or if you know the connotations you will be invoking. "Top" and "bottom" aren't necessarily anachronistic--they're bluntly descriptive enough that parallel evolution seems not unreasonable--but they have cultural context, and their cultural context is not Felix's cultural context. It's the same reason I use "molly" instead of "gay." Because you have to be careful about what you allow your reader to assume they know. You can't invite words in if they won't check their baggage at the door.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 11:49 pm (UTC)