Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Freakzilla wrote:

SadisticCynic wrote:Two things. 1) he's went up how many chapters in ten pages? and 2) If Mateo can't pick up a language after spending a year immersed in it, how will the woman pick up his language just by him babbling at her?

My first post in the army was in Northern Bavaria, Germany. It took me one weekend at the disco to learn; please, thank you, your welcome (please and your welcome are both bitte, I thought that was weird.) one beer, please, where's the bathroom, can I bum a ciggarette, taxi, train station, I love your body, etc...

Now why doesn't that surprise me that you would learn that one so quickly....

SadisticCynic wrote:Two things. 1) he's went up how many chapters in ten pages? and 2) If Mateo can't pick up a language after spending a year immersed in it, how will the woman pick up his language just by him babbling at her?

1) The first quote is in Ch.56, the second in Ch.59, so there are four different chapters there. The longest chapter I've counted pages on so far is Ch.7 at 7 pages. (But even that's divided into 3 sections! )

2) Well, the woman is returning with them to marry their king, so presumably she'll be spending the rest of her life amongst his people, presumably more than "nearly a year". (I'm not sure the implication was that she'd learn his "dialect" during the trip, just that it would get her started.) And, after all, the "southern dialect" is presumably simpler than her native one, so it should be easier for her to learn, no? Here's some more from p.287, last paragraph of the "chapter":

Ilrida smiled at him, but Mateo could tell by her puzzled expression that she didn't understand much of what he said. Still, she seemed to enjoy his company and his voice, and he knew she picked up some basic words.

(I keep misreading Ilrida as Ildira, which is the home planet of his Ildiran aliens in the Saggy Suns. He must like the sound of it. Or ran out of ideas for names, maybe explaining why he used so many familiar European ones?)

How can he know what she understood, that she picked up anything?

DuneFishUK, I know what you're talking about. There was a British movie I watched a few years back (I can't remember the title now) that was set either in northern England or southern Scotland. At first I couldn't understand a word of what the characters were saying (and ended up reading the Japanese subtitles ), but by the end I was starting to catch on more. And that was in less than a hour.

Since I haven't read the whole chapters (or even looked at all the chapters about these characters' trip to the north), I can't say for certain that KJA doesn't TELL-TELL-TELL the reader about this Mateo's obvious disdain for the northern villagers and their language, or doesn't spell out explicitly how the northerners treat their wives and daughters as inferior (in contrast with the simpler speaking, more civilized peoples to the south). Wouldn't it be funny if these are things he's trying to actually SHOW?

But how likely is that?

Freakzilla wrote:please and your welcome are both bitte, I thought that was weird.

Weird, but maybe not that unusual. I think they do the same thing in Russian with pazhalsta.

Eyes High wrote:

Freakzilla wrote:

SadisticCynic wrote:Two things. 1) he's went up how many chapters in ten pages? and 2) If Mateo can't pick up a language after spending a year immersed in it, how will the woman pick up his language just by him babbling at her?

My first post in the army was in Northern Bavaria, Germany. It took me one weekend at the disco to learn; please, thank you, your welcome (please and your welcome are both bitte, I thought that was weird.) one beer, please, where's the bathroom, can I bum a ciggarette, taxi, train station, I love your body, etc...

Now why doesn't that surprise me that you would learn that one so quickly....

There are no words in any language...

Freakzilla wrote:There are no words in any language...

Nonsense: Bodacious mutatays!


(And BB managed to stop drooling long enough to type something, too. )

SandChigger wrote:

Freakzilla wrote:There are no words in any language...

Nonsense: Bodacious mutatays!


(And BB managed to stop drooling long enough to type something, too. )

But that comes no where close to including the liter mugs of Spaten (a damned good beer),and what you can't see... the circus sized tent and the giant wooden kegs... not to mention the "oompa" band.

Mugs of beer? What fuc- ... OH!

I didn't even SEE the beer. Sorry, never mind!

Freak, you would love the Oktoberfest out here. Every year the German Airforce puts on Oktoberfest, they fly in the special Oktoberfest brew, a real oompa band from Germany, and get down with it. No tent but they do hold it in one of the largest hangers on their end of Holloman, I have never had a bad time.

Rob

Back on topic,

What kja forgets is that words mean things. Just because he says it he claims it makes perfect sense. There's something really fucked up in his brain. Some kind of cognitive dissonance tied up with his ego and what the real world around him is telling him. He really can't see why so many people take such a harsh tone with him. He sees it all as jealousy and when an editor tries to tell him somethings fucked up, there's no way it's actually his fault.

He's not careful enough to write what he means and it all comes out as sloppy shit, but to his uneducated fans it's gold because they don't know what words should be other things anyway. They're just looking for the next 'splosion.

Nekhrun wrote:What kja forgets is that words mean things. Just because he says it he claims it makes perfect sense.

A condition we used to describe as being "overcome with the exuberance of his own verbosity."

You know ... I just thought of something. He dictates this stuff and sends it off for someone else to transcribe (I forget her name) and then she send the files back to him. I've always just assumed that he then proofs and edits them in whatever word processor he uses (Word, no doubt).

But he's a Mac user, right? (And the kind of idiot Mac user who would buy one and then turn around and use MS Word on it. ) The built-in system Speech function has gotten pretty good and works in most word processors. I use it sometimes to listen to something I've been working on to help me maybe catch some typo or other mistake that I might be overlooking due to being too familiar with the text. I've often wondered how KJA can be reading through his texts and not pick up on gaffes like the TI one above. What if he's taking this "traditional oral storyteller" bullshit to the ultimate and listening to his texts, only looking at them when he changes or adds something?

Unlikely, I imagine, but would it really surprise anyone?

SandChigger wrote:

Nekhrun wrote:What kja forgets is that words mean things. Just because he says it he claims it makes perfect sense.

A condition we used to describe as being "overcome with the exuberance of his own verbosity."

You know ... I just thought of something. He dictates this stuff and sends it off for someone else to transcribe (I forget her name) and then she send the files back to him. I've always just assumed that he then proofs and edits them in whatever word processor he uses (Word, no doubt).

But he's a Mac user, right? (And the kind of idiot Mac user who would buy one and then turn around and use MS Word on it. ) The built-in system Speech function has gotten pretty good and works in most word processors. I use it sometimes to listen to something I've been working on to help me maybe catch some typo or other mistake that I might be overlooking due to being too familiar with the text. I've often wondered how KJA can be reading through his texts and not pick up on gaffes like the TI one above. What if he's taking this "traditional oral storyteller" bullshit to the ultimate and listening to his texts, only looking at them when he changes or adds something?

Unlikely, I imagine, but would it really surprise anyone?

Yeah, I'm surprised that he's not using one of those programs myself. The only thing I can think of is that he likes the idea of having an employee who will do his shit work for him that we should be using computers for. Then he can think of what a great person he is for keeping her employed.

Oh, you mean one of those programs to automatically transcribe his dictahike sessions into text? I've never used one of those, and I'm not sure how dependable they are, even after you train them. I imagine it's easier for him to train a human transcriptionist. And the factor you mention probably plays some role as well.

I just meant having the machine read back the transcribed files to him. That way he gets to be the "hearer" and experience the text as he created it, with minimal processing of it as a "reader".

Lots of people in my profession use DragonSpeak or DragonTalk, or something like that. Many swear by it, but do note that it takes some time to train the thing. Ive considered requesting it myself, and may do it one day.

Nekhrun wrote:Back on topic,

What kja forgets is that words mean things.

The KJALP have been consistent from the beginning that the meaning or established context of words is not important.
Rather, they own the copyrights to every word and they take that literally.
(We talked about this back in the day on Keen)

SandChigger wrote:Oh, you mean one of those programs to automatically transcribe his dictahike sessions into text? I've never used one of those, and I'm not sure how dependable they are, even after you train them. I imagine it's easier for him to train a human transcriptionist. And the factor you mention probably plays some role as well.

I just meant having the machine read back the transcribed files to him. That way he gets to be the "hearer" and experience the text as he created it, with minimal processing of it as a "reader".

One of my favorite kja fails of all time was when instead of releasing the first chapter he put out the audio version with himself as the reader.

Yeah, that was a MASSIVE FAIL.

The best part of it was it wasn't just us complained about it.

He probably wanted to add "audiobook reader" to his resume. It's not enough to be a "best-selling 'author'", he has to be a jack-off-all-trades.

SandChigger wrote:

Yeah, that was a MASSIVE FAIL.

The best part of it was it wasn't just us complained about it.

He probably wanted to add "audiobook reader" to his resume. It's not enough to be a "best-selling 'author'", he has to be a jack-off-all-trades.

Testing the waters for his Grammy winning performance of I'm a Big Fucking Baby of Dune?

Iboria. Calay. Is this shit real or have you just made it up, Sandchigger?

chanilover wrote:Iboria. Calay. Is this shit real or have you just made it up, Sandchigger?

Agh! One silly parody chapter and my credibility is RUINED forever!!!



I. Shit. You. Not.

Seriously, it's like he started out with the southern continent's peoples and culture and made up more original names, but then he got tired or ran out of ideas and just fucked off on the rest.

And people are going on about how creative and original the setting is. The only explanation is they're idiots who are totally ignorant of history and geography.

Average Americans, in other words!

It's fucking awful. I looked at the damned thing some more yesterday afton and then grabbed China Miéville's The Scar to soothe my eyes and brain. (It's supposed to be about ships and such, too. And Bas-Lag IS a vastly more creative imaginary world. No wonder KJA hates Miéville! )

I searched through my old blog posts and found one where he Twatted about having a human transcriptionist for just that reason.

The main reason for not using automation is probably that HE would have to spend more time doing editing work just cleaning up the mistakes made by the software. That would mean less time out on the trails (or inside on the treadmill ), doing his creative thang.

Chisra Sala Muad'Dib.

"...which, in the language of the desert, means the Glorious Origin of Muad'Dib."

Like FUCK it does.

This shit REALLY pisses me off. The Arabic for "glorious" is majiid. "Origin" is 'asl, the plural of which is usul, which should be familiar to everyone here as a personal name. (Muad'Dib is really Mu'addib, but we'll let FH have that one. ) Unless they're from some obscure Beduin or other dialect, those first two words aren't even Arabic.

Frank Herbert actually took the time and care to do some research on the language of his characters. Or he asked someone who knew some Arabic.

Kevin J. Anderson is a goddamned mother-fucking lazy son-of-a-bitch HACK who can't even be bothered to do that much. Just make it up, who the fuck cares, right?

Fucker.

That phrase, by the way, is what some Qizarate asshole comes up with as the new name for Caladan. Naturally, the proud Caladanians reject it and declare their independence from the Empire, thinking Caladan's special position as Muad'Dib's homeworld (but not his birthworld, remember ) will protect them. Fearing the retribution of the Qizarate and Jihad forces, Jessica invites the ten top leaders of the revolt to dinner at Castle Caladan so they can discuss the situation.

And she poisons them, preferring to kill ten to save millions.

This is the kind of shit (along with a stupid ass "guilt-caster" and Shaddam building a ghola army) that will be foisted on the world in The Winds of Dune.

THIS IS JIHAAD.

So in other words, Kevin continues to do a complete and total rip off of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy?

Paul of Dune had Separatists and cute unstoppable short beings, now he has a Clone Army and an Imperial Leader slaughtering resistance fighters...

Think the Sun Crusher will make an Appearance? I'm sorry I meant the "Star-Burner".

They will probably use foldspace to move the stars next to the planets they want to destroy, but the folding trip makes the star's core unstable; it somehow then becomes a supersize star that can go supernova and ends up destroying all the planets in the system accidentally killing billions, if not trillions (quadrillions?). Despite the fact that moving the sun would destroy the system anyway...

(That Sun Crusher idea really is annoying. In the Star Wars books they get rid of it by dumping it into a black hole while being chased by a Death Star. The Death Star fires at it but misses because of the gravitational pull on the laser. Then Kyp (pilot of the Sun Crusher) squashes himself into a message canister (size of a large child) and ejects to be saved by the Millenium Falcon. Except, if they are so close to the black hole that light is getting caught, how can something that has mass and is nowhere near c escape? )

That depends on whose fiction it is, right?

REASON #2: UNIMAGINATIVE "CLEVERNESS" IN COINING NAMES & WORDS

For unimaginative cleverness in coining names and new words:

Sonance, capital of Chusuk.

Harmonywood, used by Chusuk artisans to create their famed musical instruments. The trees are "infested" with "tiny borer beetles" that "create honeycombs in the wood"; the honeycombs make each instrument sound unique, blah blah blah. (It's this new material KJA has created that makes the instruments special, not the artisanship of masters like Varota, you see.)

Clonewood, the Tleilaxu-engineered, fast-growing, naturally honeycombed version of the above grown by the family/league of Ombar Ollic, much to the anger of natural harmonywood growers and traditionalist instrument makers.

[2009.10.27 edit: added REASON header]