04-21-2010, 04:36 PM | #51 | |
Join Date: Apr 2010
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Re: Flat Black
Quote:
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08-28-2013, 07:54 PM | #52 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Cussing in the Imperial Service
I read a thing a while ago by one of the writers of Deadwood, who said that all the cussin' in the actual Deadwood would have been blasphemy, not obscenity, but that if they had written it that way audiences wouldn't have got how shocking it was to contemporary sensibilities.
For a long time I have been unsatisfied by blasphemy and obscenity as cuss-words in the Imperial Service in Flat Black, where 85% of the people have no experience of religion, almost no-one is legitimate (as opposed to a bastard) in any discernible sense, and ******* and ******* are things you do with acquaintances when all the squash courts are booked. So what is tabooed talk among Imperial servants? It struck me yesterday: violence and killing. "Nuke", "bomb", "kill".
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08-28-2013, 08:08 PM | #53 |
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Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Cussing in the Imperial Service
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08-28-2013, 08:18 PM | #54 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Flat Black
Eating multicellular organisms?
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08-28-2013, 08:23 PM | #55 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Flat Black
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08-29-2013, 01:23 AM | #56 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Cussing in the Imperial Service
Quote:
Actually a list of such names would be useful, even though most of the actual names they use will be fictional since it takes place many tens of thousands of years into the future. The only name I can think of offhand, is that one, "Lysenko". |
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08-29-2013, 02:47 AM | #57 |
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Location: a crooked, creaky manse built on a blasted heath
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Re: Flat Black
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08-29-2013, 02:48 AM | #58 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Flat Black
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
08-29-2013, 08:08 AM | #59 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: Flat Black
I can imagine a graduated series of cusses using the "D#" terminology.
"My little deetee" (D3) translates roughly as "rapscallion." It is humorous exaggeration to imply a youngster is so chaotically energetic that they are a small natural disaster. A larger natural disaster of a child, or 'deefer,' is less affectionate and more exasperated. Applied to events, it implies manageable annoyance. "This deetee computer" causes lots of trouble, while "the deefer enviro plant" is more trouble than it is worth and should be replaced. "A real deezix" (D6) is roughly equivalent to "A right bastard." "That's dettin awful" (D10) is not fit for company. Implies a CT strike on a high tech colony. "Deefinity" is either beyond the pale or back into the realm of humorous exaggeration. Possibly both. |
08-30-2013, 02:21 AM | #60 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Flat Black
Maybe. It seems to me that spamming is only possible in systems which enables anybody to "send" to anybody else. That's the case with the kind of email we have, but it doesn't seem to me that all electronic communciations systems necessarily have to have that "feature". On Facebook, for instance, mails from strangers are placed in an obscure folder that most people never look in, and often don't even know exist.
Much of the problem behnid spam is also that you can't be sure of the identity of the sender. It's possible to fake the sender's identity. I'm not sure that's a given either, but rather a feature of the design of our current email system. Other worlds, and far future worlds, may use a differently designed email'ish system where you can't do that. |
Tags |
flat black, planetary romance, sci-fi |
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