Yes, cloisonne is a very good example of what I was talking about. Craft words too, pottery terms such as raku or celadon, or words for carpentry exploits. I almost hate to reference fiber arts because it's too easy to give too *much* information that a particular character would not know, they'd never notice. It's maddening sometimes because looking up the details and the history will enrich the background of the story so much, and you realize how impossible it is to use a different unfamiliar word that's not technically correct but won't jar people so badly as the "right" word. I should probably add that I've read critiques that discuss the difference in expectations by lit'ry readers vs. scifi readers on unfamiliar vocabulary. You may already have seen this but, just in case... Lit'ry readers expect to have to go look things up immediately, the writer isn't going to cater to them at all. (Bits of untranslated foreign languages, for instance, for the naughty bits.) If you missed it that's not their problem. The scifi writers use throwaways a lot, and if you don't get it, don't worry, we'll explain the bits you really need to know for the plot, because we like wallowing in the tech so much it's disgusting. My personal opinion is, scifi *and* fanfic writers vary across a huge spectrum on how much they're going to hold the reader's hand. Some of them don't explain anything,t hey expect you to be up on your physics. Others are intermediate--if you get the injoke in this reference or that description, you'll enjoy it more, but we're not going to stop the train to explain.
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Date: 4 Sep 2012 04:12 am (UTC)It's maddening sometimes because looking up the details and the history will enrich the background of the story so much, and you realize how impossible it is to use a different unfamiliar word that's not technically correct but won't jar people so badly as the "right" word.
I should probably add that I've read critiques that discuss the difference in expectations by lit'ry readers vs. scifi readers on unfamiliar vocabulary. You may already have seen this but, just in case...
Lit'ry readers expect to have to go look things up immediately, the writer isn't going to cater to them at all. (Bits of untranslated foreign languages, for instance, for the naughty bits.) If you missed it that's not their problem. The scifi writers use throwaways a lot, and if you don't get it, don't worry, we'll explain the bits you really need to know for the plot, because we like wallowing in the tech so much it's disgusting.
My personal opinion is, scifi *and* fanfic writers vary across a huge spectrum on how much they're going to hold the reader's hand. Some of them don't explain anything,t hey expect you to be up on your physics. Others are intermediate--if you get the injoke in this reference or that description, you'll enjoy it more, but we're not going to stop the train to explain.