Musings on clichés and archetypes
Jul. 14th, 2005 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageProbably the most interesting thing about setting this book underwater, in a dolphin realm, is that many of the clichés of speech that we take for granted simply don't work. I'm hesitant to use words like "territory," "homeland," or "house," for example. I've kept "territory" because I can't think of a suitable replacement, but "homeland" has become "homesea," which my spellchecker doesn't like at all, and my dolphins don't live indoors so "house" is not really a problem.
I've been trying to create new clichés and mottos that fit dophin society. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" has no meaning in a place where food is not cooked, so I changed it to a rather clumsy reference to fat fish being more nourishing than thin, young ones. I'm going to have to tweak that a bit, but the basic idea is right. My characters don't say, "What on earth," they say, "What under the sweet green sea." They don't talk so much as sing to each other, and while I use the word "said" for ease of use, I also use the word "sang" from time to time, and more melodic synonyms liked croon, hum, intone - all of those I use often.
At the only writing workshop I made it to at Anthrocon, reference was made to the fact that senses are different when your characters are animals. You can tell a good writer from an amateur by the volume of scent referents in their books. I don't think I was consistent with this in "Dreamcarver," though it was there at least sporadically. This probably has something to do with thinking of my characters as humans more often than not. Having changed milieux entirely, though, I'm forcing myself to think of my characters as dolphins. I have to make up mannerisms of speech and body language that fit creatures who live in three dimensions, who have no legs and therefore no waists or hips, and for whom light versus dark is less important than sound versus silence. And I have to couch these mannerisms in language that my readers will automatically associate with the clichés and archetypes with which they are already familiar. My characters have to come across as simultaneously human and dolphin - dolphin for the purposes of plot but human for the purposes of character.
I suppose that's the soul of anthropomorphic writing, right there.
I've been trying to create new clichés and mottos that fit dophin society. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" has no meaning in a place where food is not cooked, so I changed it to a rather clumsy reference to fat fish being more nourishing than thin, young ones. I'm going to have to tweak that a bit, but the basic idea is right. My characters don't say, "What on earth," they say, "What under the sweet green sea." They don't talk so much as sing to each other, and while I use the word "said" for ease of use, I also use the word "sang" from time to time, and more melodic synonyms liked croon, hum, intone - all of those I use often.
At the only writing workshop I made it to at Anthrocon, reference was made to the fact that senses are different when your characters are animals. You can tell a good writer from an amateur by the volume of scent referents in their books. I don't think I was consistent with this in "Dreamcarver," though it was there at least sporadically. This probably has something to do with thinking of my characters as humans more often than not. Having changed milieux entirely, though, I'm forcing myself to think of my characters as dolphins. I have to make up mannerisms of speech and body language that fit creatures who live in three dimensions, who have no legs and therefore no waists or hips, and for whom light versus dark is less important than sound versus silence. And I have to couch these mannerisms in language that my readers will automatically associate with the clichés and archetypes with which they are already familiar. My characters have to come across as simultaneously human and dolphin - dolphin for the purposes of plot but human for the purposes of character.
I suppose that's the soul of anthropomorphic writing, right there.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-14 04:57 pm (UTC)You've certainly hit the nail on the head.
Suggestion: seek out footage of dolphins and watch a lot of it. Watch them moving around and interacting with each other. See if you can find an aquarium or park near you that has dolphins and go watch them.
For me, writing an anthropomorph's mannerisms becomes MUCH easier once I have studied the animal's anatomy and can imagine all my bones and joints as if they belonged to the creature in question. With the vast majority of vertebrates, there are analogues for all of their bones in your body, and knowing that has helped me immensely.
But it may not help you; I am of scientific mind, and I don't know enough about you yet to know whether you are fundamentally of scientific or artistic mind, or what. But the watching dolphins thing should help no matter what you're like.
Other suggestion: If you haven't already, check out certain writings of Terry Pratchett, specifically those books that have a lot of the character Angua in them. (Feet of Clay, Jingo, and Fifth Elephant are probably the best of these, for this purpose.) Pratchett uses the metaphor of sight to describe how Angua (a werewolf) percieves scent, and how she remembers scents after returning to human shape. You may not want to use so obvious a metaphorical method for describing the senses humans aren't so good at, but it might give you some ideas. At least in your case you can focus on hearing, since that's the primary sense in many dolphin species, and it's easier to bend the human mind around fantastic hearing than an acute sense of smell.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-14 05:04 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, the nearest marine park to me costs about $40 a day to go to, and it's in Niagara Falls - I can't take the city bus to get there, and I can't afford it if I could.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-14 05:06 pm (UTC)