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Every end of year I post this meme. You can read the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 versions here (LJ) or here (IJ) (scroll down).
Surprisingly, I wrote three flashfics this year. (I hadn’t written any fics in 2008 and didn’t expect to write any fics in 2009 either.) But it’s still too few stories to do the meme properly, so I’ll just comment briefly on the three stories.
The first one, Du oder Sie, is a Snarry ficlet in German. Extremely short, just 72 words. Unfortunately, I had to stop studying German again. It’s not an easy language for someone whose first language is a Latin one, and I had more urgent things to do.
The second one, What it really matters, is a Gen flashfic featuring Snape and Dumbledore after "Deathly Hallows". Totally canon compliant. It’s a strange short story, especially because the scenery is a kind of Gothic Heaven.
The third flashfic is another one that I didn’t translate into English. I wrote Sempre o Herói (Always the Hero) for the Open Fest Magalúdico, a fest in hommage to my beloved friend ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) magalud. It’s a Gen (or perhaps pre-Het) flashfic featuring Snape and Lud herself. A Snaplud ;-). I posted it on ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) potterslashfics, a friends-only community for HP slash in Portuguese.
I didn’t write any original fiction. (I’ve been working on my Master’s dissertation, which has already about 65,000 words.) A few days ago I had an idea for a new original story, but I’ll tell you about it in a future post.
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Merlin: Watched "The Last Dragonlord", the last ep of Season 2!
( Cut for spoilers )
White Collar: Watched ep. 2, "Threads". Fun and charming, again. And inspiring! (No, I don't feel like writing fanfiction in any TV-based fandoms. But this show makes me want to write original stories about classy bandits.)
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| 2009-12-20 13:29 |
| Diversity is the Spice of Life |
| Public |
 quixotic |
| diversity |
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There have been many debates on racism and gender discrimination lately, and I've been silent because both subjects are complex and delicate.
But there's something that I'd like to say.
The Internet is a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith, multi-racial, multi-gendered space. In this fascinating prism of often contrasting worlds, perhaps the most serious danger to diversity is the limited perception that there is only one primary distinction, only a single border, and that one is always on one side of it or the other. Things are more complicated than that.
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House: Yay! I caught up with you all. I watched the latest ep, "Wilson". Awww! My House/Wilson shipper heart is beating madly!
Merlin: I'm nervously waiting for the last ep of Season 2.
As all the shows I've been watching have gone/are going into hiatus, I can choose another show to watch. I'll give a go to
White Collar: I watched the pilot, and liked it. It's fun, and charming.
Oh, and
Heroes: The fourth season will start in Brazil in January.
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So many countries spent so much money to send delegates to Copenhagen, and what's the result? Massive failure.
The Brazilian government fought the good fight this time; I'm proud. But there are major economic interests at stake. Who will pay the price of failure? The poorer countries, at first. But everybody will suffer the consequences, sooner or later.
I'm laughing not to cry, said Lula.
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I have already covered all the cases where the use of comma in English differs from that in Portuguese. Well, there are some cases where everything is different, like the way you English speakers write dates. It's so different that there's no way to compare or mix up.
Because we're approaching the holidays, I'm going to discontinue the posts on punctuation until next year, when I plan to discuss semicolons, dashes, ellipses, and so on.
Thanks for all your comments! I've been learning a lot. I wish I could have concentrated the discussion in one journal, instead of splitting it among four journals, but alas, it's hard to please everyone. (Some people don't like being redirected to other journals.)
[ETA: No, I'm not leaving! I'm just discontinuing this specific thread for now.]
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Here's the reply I received from LJ:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.
At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.
The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.
Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.
Regards,
LiveJournal Community Care Team
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Argh. LJ's changelog reveals that LJ is planning to make gender a mandatory field at account creation and remove the Unspecified option for the gender field. You can read more about the subject here. As I deeply dislike this plan, I changed my gender option to Unspecified here and left a polite comment here expressing my displeasure.
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3. Use a comma when two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
• She says she loves him, yet she continues to treat him like crap.
So far, it’s just like in Portuguese.
You can omit the comma if the clauses are both short.
• He smokes and she drinks.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think this would be correct in Portuguese. When we have two different subjects, the comma is always necessary. However, what the English Grammar rule says is that you can omit the comma. It’s optional.
However, there is another exception:
If the subject does not appear in front of the second verb, do not use a comma.
• She used to study in Boston but now lives in São Paulo.
Well, this is impossible in Portuguese. And although I desperately feel the need for a comma before “but”, I’d respect this English Grammar rule, if I hadn’t found another rule that said:
Use commas to set off phrases that express contrast:
• The puppies were cute, but very messy.
• They agreed to release one hostage, but not the other.
I found these examples on the internet. The rule is not very clear to me, because “but” (and "yet") typically introduces phrases that express contrast. So... when is it okay to omit the comma?
And then I found dozens of examples of good authors, both American and British, who use a comma before a coordinating conjunction even when the subject does not appear in front of the second verb. I’m going to post just a few examples.
( cut for length )
What’s happening here? Am I missing something? Are they using commas to indicate a significant pause (or a contrast?) even when the more specific rule says not to use it? Am I allowed to do the same thing? I hope so.
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The plot thickens... This post may be polemical.
I told you I was going to comment on a few differences between the English and the Portuguese punctuation rules, but the following rule is the same for both languages:
2. Use commas after introductory clauses, phrases, or words that come before the main clause.
( cut for length )
Now, this is all and well. As I said, it works the same way in Portuguese. But!
Traditionally, formal written English requires writers to use a comma after introductory elements, that is, after clauses or phrases that are at the beginning of a sentence. However, the trend among contemporary writers — even well-educated, professional writers — is to punctuate more lightly, using fewer marks of punctuation. Readers too seem to prefer this contemporary style, feeling that the traditional punctuation practices create text that looks over-punctuated and "heavy."
It’s not that I didn’t notice the trend. I did. But this trend goes against my “instict” as a writer. We don't have a similar trend in Brazil. If the phrase has fewer than three words, I'm okay with omitting the comma. But with a longer phrase? It’s too... violent for me. You may think I’m exaggerating, but your native language is a part of you. Some authors whose first language is not English but who write in English decide to keep their "foreign accent", and some of them are successful.
Besides, I don’t write only for English speaking readers. I know that I have readers whose first language is Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and who knows which other languages!
There is more than one question involved here:
1) The contemporary writers are not following this specific Grammar rule. Is that a correct assumption? If it’s a correct assumption, is it a good or a bad thing? Some people may like it, other people may not.
2) An author whose first language is not English but who writes in English cannot become a native writer of English. Should s/he even try?
There is no simple, unique answer to these questions. For me, it’s a difficult decision. For now, I’m following the English Grammar rules, and not the contemporary trend. But this may change in the future.
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| 2009-12-13 07:36 |
| Shows I've Been Watching |
| Public |
 pleased |
| house, merlin |
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House: I've just watched the 6.08 ep, "Ignorance is Bliss". Loved it! Chase has become a younger version of House!
Merlin: I haven't watched the latest ep yet. The previous one, 2.11 (The Witch's Quickening), was a bit dark. It was to be expected. But I'm curious as to how the season will end.
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I’m Brazilian, and my native language is Portuguese. I’m trying to learn more about English punctuation, especially American English punctuation. So I’m going to talk about some differences between the English and the Portuguese punctuation. (If I make any mistakes, please let me know. I’m not trying to teach anyone; I’m trying to learn.)
1) Serial comma, or Oxford comma:
The serial comma is the comma that precedes the conjunction before the final item in a list of three or more items:
Most Americans tend to use the serial comma in all cases, with a few exceptions.
This post is dedicated to Beth H, Isis, and Tara Chan.
I’m very thankful to Kalena, Korekan, Maga Lud, Morgan D., and Teka Lynn for their help with my book. Most British and Australian style guides say you should omit the final comma, unless there is a risk of ambiguity. This post is dedicated to Beth H, Isis and Tara Chan.
I’m very thankful to Kalena, Korekan, Maga Lud, Morgan D. and Teka Lynn for their help with my book. In Brazilian Portuguese language, we do as the British and Australians: we use commas to separate items in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a series. Please don’t be offended, but my personal opinion is that putting a comma before the “and” in a series of items is, to say the least, useless, except when its omission may give rise to ambiguity. In spite of that, when I have to write for an American publisher/newspaper/journal/audience, I try to follow the American rules. Mostly ;-). ~*~ Thanks for all your comments to the previous post on punctuation! isiscolo remarked that R.L. Stevenson’s use of semicolons is typical of the Victorian period. I think she’s right, but I still find that he exaggerates!
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Three videos from the same interview, where Alan Rickman talks about the HP movies. In the last video, he talks about meeting Dan Radcliffe when he was performng Equus in New York, and that they lunched together and...
You'll find the links on the Leaky Cauldron, here.
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This is the first of a series of posts I plan to write on the subject "Punctuation".
(First let me explain that I use the British style on my journals. Americans put commas and periods inside quotation marks; Britons will put the punctuation inside if it belongs to the quote and outside otherwise. So direct speech retains punctuation inside inverted commas in British English. This, I believe, is the most logical use. That's how it's done in the Latin languages.)
I'll begin in media res, shock treatment style, by an example. When I was a teen, I read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", by Robert Louis Stevenson, in a translation, and I loved it. Recently I read the English original, and I almost couldn't read it because of the semicolon usage. This is how the story begins:
MR. UTTERSON the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.
Seriously, it bothered me so much that I researched and found this reference saying that "This use of the semicolon is possibly influenced by RLS's youthful admiration for Baroque stylists such as Sir Thomas Brown [...]".
So it seems to be a matter of style, or an idiosyncrasy of the author. What do you think of Stevenson's punctuation style?
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aigooism has written a thoughtful review on Clippings. You can read it here. I’m glad that she liked the book. She’s a hard to please reader and reviewer. I agree with some of her comments and disagree with others, which is fine and expected. As an author, you get some reviews praising you for one thing, only to get other reviews criticizing you for that same thing. This is fine, and expected, too. For instance, aigooism says,
Yes, Daniel is naive; yes, Daniel is young; yes Daniel is a typical young man, but at the same time, his behaviour made me want to throw a knife at him.
I take this as a compliment, because that’s how I intended Daniel to be. Clippings is what the Germans would call a Bildungsroman, the story of a young man's development into maturity. It wasn’t easy for me to write him like that: I myself wanted to kick his ass sometimes ;-). So I was pleasantly surprised when most of my reviewers said they identified with Daniel. As a reader, I probably would agree with aigooism :-).
As for comma placement, I hope one day I can write a detailed post on this interesting subject.
Thank you for the precious feedback, algooism!
(There are links to other public reviews of Clippings on my site.)
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The excellent review site *Reviews by Jessewave* gave my romance Clippings five stars! I’m very happy with this review, especially because the reviewer, Aunt Lynn, emphasized the sociopolitical aspects of the romance.
The overall evaluation: "Clippings is a wonderful, unusual story that I highly recommend to readers of the genre."
You can read the whole, detailed review here. (There are spoilers, but if you haven't read Clippings yet, after all this time, you may want to be spoiled... ;-)
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| 2009-12-07 17:38 |
| Otoneurological Examination |
| Public |
 tired |
| health |
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Argh. It was horrible. Strong dizziness. But I'm better now.
It seems that there is a suspicion of Irritative Peripheral Vestibular Syndrome (IPVS). I have no idea what's that. I Googled and found out that many dogs seem to have this syndrome. And old people too. It's related to tinnitus and dizziness (duh). And something strange: most papers I found on the subject were written by Brazilians.
I guess I'll have to wait until next week, when I have an appointment with the ear doctor, to find out.
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nostalgic
sick
busy
okay
annoyed
curious
awake