Quick notes in passing

[aadler]

 
Okay, it’s been awhile, so:

1. I’m well into my story for the cya_ficathon, and progressing at the rate of a few thousand words a day. Once that’s done, I’ll proceed to work on Round 10 of Remix Redux. Pushing things a little close together, but I’ve worked under pressure before.
    
2. Three days ago, my daughter was diagnosed with strep throat. The next day, I had to pick up my wife from work because she was feeling so awful she wasn’t sure she could drive (and she’s been home recovering ever since). Today, I can feel something in my right sinus that acts like it wants to turn into something worse. Will I survive? Stay tuned.
    
3. Because of our quasi-infectious condition, we’ve had to delay our planned viewing of “the Hunger Games”. I’m still looking forward to it, and am heartened to hear, not just that crowds are enjoying it, but that it apparently is hewing fairly faithfully to the book. However, I must take this moment to note that, though Suzanne Collins is a heck of an effective storyteller, she is guilty of two of my grammar/spelling peeves. To wit —
• stanch/staunch. She writes of ‘staunching’ the blood from a wound. Nope. Stanch – to check or stop the flowing of [stanched her tears]; to stop the flow of blood from (a wound); to stop or check in its course [trying to stanch the crime wave]; to make watertight. Staunch – watertight; sound, strongly built, substantial; steadfast in loyalty or principle. (Yes, staunch is also listed as a variant of stanch, but why use a word with multiple meanings — of which the intended meaning is the most tenuous and least-known) when there’s a nearly-identical word that means exactly what you want and only that?)
• Sheaf/sheath – she regularly refers to a ‘sheath’ of arrows. Sheaf – a quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw; any collection of things bound together; a bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer. Sheath – a case for a blade (as of a knife); an investing cover or case of a plant or animal body or body part; any of various covering or supporting structures that are applied like, or resemble in appearance or function, the sheath of a blade.
• (She also mentions ‘loading a bow’, or a ‘loaded bow’, when clearly it should have been ‘nocking an arrow’ or ‘an arrow ready on the bowstring’.)

More as things develop.

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Well, I like to defend really good writers, so... ;)

(Yes, staunch is also listed as a variant of stanch, but why use a word with multiple meanings — of which the intended meaning is the most tenuous and least-known) when there’s a nearly-identical word that means exactly what you want and only that?)

Because it's English, and she can. And actually, because afaik, more people are actually familiar with the "staunch" spelling than the "stanch." I'd never seen the one without the "u" until this post, not that I recall.

(She also mentions ‘loading a bow’, or a ‘loaded bow’, when clearly it should have been ‘nocking an arrow’ or ‘an arrow ready on the bowstring’.)

Couldn't this simply be a colloquialism? A bit too current-slang for future Panem, perhaps, but when writing in 1st person present, wouldn't something as imprecise (not necessarily incorrect) as this get a pass?

[aadler]

And yet ‘staunch’, while technically not entirely incorrect in this context, is markedly less correct, and jars on anyone who knows better.

As far as the use of ‘loading a bow’, it could indeed be a colloquialism peculiar to the era … only, it isn’t. Collins reliably identifies and explains the actual colloquialisms in her work; this one clearly is peculiar to her. (One can load a crossbow, but not a longbow.) Again, while not specifically wrong, it catches the attention, and when a reader is asking, Is that right?, he/she has been jolted out of the story.

I’m not criticizing Collins’ writing skill as such (truth be known, I’m deeply envious of her), but of small, relatively rare, but grating errors.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I am also quite envious of her skill. Did you know she wrote TV for years before switching to prose? *fangirls her*

I'm surprised you didn't catch the one slip out of first person. I might have to go find it to add to the list, here. I did not notice it the first time I read the books, which surprises me; in fanfic, nothing jars me more than random switch of tense. :-D

[aadler]

I didn’t catch it, no. In fact, where was that?