The italicize-once routine is something I've seen in some philosophical & nonfiction works, where there's a lot of jargon that gets repeated. The first time, the word's called out in some way (italics, definition, bolding, whatever) and after that, it's assumed you now know the jargon. The problem with that is that in fiction, we do look for patterns -- we also read fiction in a very different way/mindset than nonfiction.
One method of italicizing used in Companion (and that I've seen elsewhere) is when a word or phrase is part of a recalled or past conversation. It's still emphasis, but it's a kind of "pay attention to me, I'm dialogue/sound" and it's not that common (among the fiction I've read). Plenty of authors will just use quotes, even for things like: he recalled she'd said "please". I guess you could class that -- along with machine-noises, which I also tend to italicize -- as sound-that-is-not-dialogue. As in, a recollection of sound, or an overhearing of sound.
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Date: 6 Jul 2011 03:31 pm (UTC)One method of italicizing used in Companion (and that I've seen elsewhere) is when a word or phrase is part of a recalled or past conversation. It's still emphasis, but it's a kind of "pay attention to me, I'm dialogue/sound" and it's not that common (among the fiction I've read). Plenty of authors will just use quotes, even for things like: he recalled she'd said "please". I guess you could class that -- along with machine-noises, which I also tend to italicize -- as sound-that-is-not-dialogue. As in, a recollection of sound, or an overhearing of sound.