One of my pet peeves

[aesmael]

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Last night I read a blog comment in which someone claimed ey otherwise enjoys reading A Song of Ice and Fire, but are frequently thrown out of the story by too-modern word use on the part of the characters. Specific example used being the word 'fuck'.

I would be all on board with this except that:

(a) According to the sources I've checked, including the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word dates back to at least the 1500s and

(b) A Song of Ice and Fire is not actually a series of historical novels, nor even historical fantasy. It is a fantasy series set on a fictitious world with no connection to ours, and is under no obligation to be period accurate in the words used by its characters. I would say 'period accurate' is a nonsense phrase when applied to such settings, unless one is referring to a historical period within the setting.

This is, yes, a pet peeve of mine that some people seem to believe fantasy fiction set in fictitious settings is under some obligation to conform to the history of our Earth in whatever specific details they nominate. Presumably, the bits that don't have sorcerers, dragons, non-human peoples, unearthly deities, continents that never existed on this planet, political units that never existed on this planet, languages no human has ever spoken (sometimes no human could speak), or climatic arrangements that would be unbelievably improbable if not impossible in the real world. But most of the characters live under a feudal system of government and haven't discovered steam power yet[1], so they better not say 'fuck' when they cuss, 'cause that's unbelievable.

So long as the setting is consistent with itself, it is probably fine.

[1] I don't recall any, although it has been about 10 years since I last read the series.

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

this reminds me of a MUD i played long ago where somebody found out I (well the girl persona I was being, which technically was ACTUALLY me , so I works fine :D ) was bi and made a big deal about it and was homophobic and then it became this big thing in the comm whether or not homophobia was ok, and ppl argued that it was "immersion" and fitting of the setting to be homophobic cuz ppl were homophobic back then... and it's like.. um NO... this isn't the PAST it's a freaking fantasy that takes some superficial elements from the past, like swords and knights and samurai.. but dragons and demons and zombies and etc didn't exist back then, nor did magic or nething else! so dun give me this IT SHOULD BE ALLOWED B/C FANTASY = TEH PAST crap -__- (unfortunately I, and every female player who defended me was also not listened to until I switched to my sekrit male alt who said the same thing and EVERYBODY paid attn and then change happened and the GMs banned it... but I basically said the same thing but was seen as a straight guy so... YEAHHHHH >_< )