Daibhid's Journal

So, with it being the Year of the Dragon again (my own Eastern Zodiac sign), I'm thinking about year names in fantasy fiction. It's something I mostly associate with Discworld, but I've seen it in lots of other places. And I'm not sure where it comes from.

Obviously, the fact I made the connection means there's a superficial similarity to year names in the Eastern Zodiac. But it's not really the same.The Eastern Zodiac has a set pattern of twelve animals and five elements, for an overall cycle of 60 years. Learn that pattern,and "I was born in the Year of the Fire Dragon, and it's now the Year of the Wood Dragon" provides pretty much the same information than "I was born in '76 and it's now '24". But if I tell you Windle Poons was born in the Year of the Significant Triangle and it's currently (according to the Emporium) the Year of the Moribund Aardvark, that tells you absolutely nothing, because there's no pattern. The only way you can use that to calculate Windle Poons's age is if you've memorised all the year names.

This really struck home the other day when I was reading old Dragon magazines (appropriately enough), and there was a lengthy article about the history of Forgotten Realms, and every time it said an event happened in the Year of the Unstrung Harp or whatever, it added the year number in Dale Reckoning in brackets. Because without that, the year names are useless. But with that, the year names are unnecessary. The bit you need to know is that it was 1371 DR, and the Unstrung Harp bit is just decoration.

So does anyone know who started this trend in fantasy fiction, and why it caught on as something a fantasy society would do? It's not Tolkien for once; his cultures all had different calendars, but they all numbered the years sensibly, rather than giving them random names.

It's been one of those weeks where I ignore all my year-old WIPs because I've had A New Idea, write a handful of introductory paragraphs, and then realise I have yet to attach that idea to anything that might be called a plot. I don't know when or if I'm going to get any further with it, but I'm quite pleased with the thinking behind it, so I thought I'd share. (It's a Kim Newman Diogenes Club/Drearcliff School thing, so if you don't read those, it probably won't mean much.)

( Read more... )

Just seen this on Netflix and on balance, I think I liked it.
( Spoilers )

I was just reminded that I asked about some books on TV Tropes's Remember That Show... thing ages ago and didn't have much luck (although they did manage to identify one story I read as a kid as one of Joan Aitken's). As a result of which, they've started annoying me again, so I thought I'd see if they sounded familiar to anyone here.
( What I remember about them, such as it is )

Not really memed from anyone this time; I was just bored and remembered its existence.

The rules are:

1: Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order.

2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it’s an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list ’em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it’s always been about creativity.)

3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting - make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don’t have to include it in the half-drabble - it’s just inspiration.

[3.5: If you don't think this is enough to make your brain explode, follow john_amend_all's example and make the demidrabbles themselves poems. That ought to do it.]

4: Bravo! Have a cookie.

The fandoms were:

1. Blackadder
2. Diogenes Club
3. Discworld
4. Dragons: Riders of Berk
5. Murdoch Mysteries
( The results )

Some of you may be familiar with Sue Limb's Radio 4 comedies The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere and Gloomsbury, which are about oddly familiar groups of writers: The former features, as well as William and Dorothy Wordsmith, Percy Jelly, Lord Biro and Sir Walter Spott, while the latter stars Ginny Fox and Vera Sackcloth-Vest, as well as D.H. Lollipop, T.S. Jellytot, and so on. They're very funny, even if you only have a vague idea about the originals.

So, in the spirit of those I came up with:
( The Clinklings )

In which we learn why these stalwarts have been assembled, your humble author desecrates another children's classic, and there's at least one entirely unnecessary cameo.

Oh and I don't want to say too much about the cliffhanger, but I'm quite pleased with the cliffhanger.

The story continues to be here. Final two chapters (and I've just realised I'm not sure why I'm releasing it in two-chapter chunks) coming soon.

Memed from lost_spook: Write a list of 12 characters from any fandom. Then answer the questions under the cut. (Don't look at the questions before you make your list!)

1. Captain Angua von Uberwald (Discworld)
2. Clara Oswald (Doctor Who)
3. Hank McCoy/Beast (X-Men)
4. Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who)
5. Solomon Cohen (Dodger)
6. Inspector Nightingale (Rivers of London)
7. Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)
8. Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stuart (Doctor Who: The New Adventures)
9. Father Jack Hackett (Father Ted)
10.Arnold J Rimmer (Red Dwarf)
11.Ted Kord/Blue Beetle (Justice League International)
12.Lu Tze (Discworld)

( Read more... )

Just reading this in Johnny Alucard and wondering: have some of the names been changed? Because they don't all match the listing in the Anno Dracula character guide. Specifically, there wasn't a "Rogers" or a "Maverick", although there was a character called Gardner who had the codename "America" (Grant Gardner was the Captain America in the 1944 serial) and a rookie codenamed "Banshee".

Anyone know what the deal is?