(no subject)

[erastes]

This was posted on one of my Historical Fiction yahoo groups, so I'm quoting the poster here. I knew this sort of thing went on in children's fiction, but .... really!!! There are no words.

"An author friend of mine writes medieval romances set in Scotland, She is half Scottish herself and knew her history very well, however, her editors wanted a lot of historical facts taken out of the story and she was told to dumb the book down. Why? Because the publisher ( a large mass market publisher in New York) said that the American public don't want too much history in their historical romances!

"So, she had to take out the real medieval words, like destrier and replace it with words the general public would know, like war horse. To me, this is disgusting. I know when I read a book and there is a word I don't know, then I'll look it up and feel better for knowing a new word.

"So, sometimes the lack of historical detail isn't the authors' fault. Sometimes, it's the publisher, who thinks the public don't want to be educated even in a slight way."

I have to praise my publisher mightily in this respect. My novel is pretty hard to catagorize, being a historical homoerotic romantic fiction, but she never once said to me "Do you really have to bang on about Linnaeus?" The editors did question my use of "big words" once or twice but I was firm and said that if they didn't know what words like "bursary" meant then they could go and look 'em up.

But really. I've ranted about this in Harry Potter fandom, where they changed the books to suit the American market and had the kids eating Jello and Fries instead of Jelly and chips, but dumbing down in historical novels? I learned a lot of my history from Jean Plaidy, and if I didn't know a word I looked it up. It's almost as if there's some conspiracy to keep people stupid. How is one supposed to improved one's vocabularly if you are never presented with a word you don't know? Call My Bluff is the best game EVER. Rant ranty rant rant.

Rant.

Comments

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Err, not that people don't LIKE the English Regency, it's just that it seems like it and Victorian London are about the only historicals some romance houses will publish. And while I myself am a huge Georgette Heyer fan, and have been since I was, what, twelve, and found them at the library, it would be nice to have more variety in the romance history of the world. (Myself, I'm gone for Georgian fashion, for men. MMMM. All that lace!)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Damn. I should have done more clothes description in Standish. I did very very little. I suppose it's coz i don't like clothes much, that it never occured to me that others would!!

Oops!

[rwday.livejournal.com]

You could have described the clothing as it comes off. Clothes off is much more interesting than clothes on. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I saw a sporking of a scene which did exactly that it literally was something like

"He undid the coral buttons held on with the black oiled silk, then slid the watered silk blouse from her shoulders before moving on to the calico undervest..." only far far more detail than that it was about 2 pages of uber description!

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

I do not care a whit for current fashions, per se, and certainly not for my own self, but I adore reading/visualizing men in those lovely long coats and waistcoats and the shirts dripping in lace, and the kneebreeches. Best if they're pirates or highwaymen so they can have *swoon* the kneehigh or higher boots. Yes, yes, I do have a specific "hardon" for those clothes. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

[andsaca369.livejournal.com]

Buttons! It's very important that whatever the era, the mens' clothes have lots and lots of buttons. Imperative, even!


~off in her own little button-filled world...~

[erastes.livejournal.com]

giggling at the icon!

[andsaca369.livejournal.com]

I'm v. much a fan of buttons. ~purr~ And the lovely Commodore, but that's a whole other shipful of seamen.

[julesjones]

Button porn! Yes!
[remembers that there are not one but two deadlines to be met, and reaches for plot bunny stake]

And people wonder where authors get their ideas from...

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Mmmm buttons. Though they must be shiny and textured.... oh dear, I *am* supposed to be working here!

(goes off and tralala's her way into thinkng about buttons and lace and more lace and buttons and how those kneebreeches fit so nicely around ....)

[andsaca369.livejournal.com]

oh dear, I *am* supposed to be working here!

Me, too. *wg* Although I am supposed to be writing smut, so I suppose I can justify this as helping to create the proper mood...

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Alas, I am copyediting mathematics and NOT writing smut. Sigh....

And I do so want to take my time and envision my boys. MMMMM mmmm mmmm mmmmm mmm.

Oh God that icon! Bwah hah hah! I love it! (Goes off to listen to some more Holmes/Watson on the otr podcast.... perhaps I can sate myself with that.)

[andsaca369.livejournal.com]

*g* Holmes was my first crush, and I giggle every damn time I read/watch/listen to The Devil's Foot. My god! The slash!

Eet maketh me happy.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Actually I often wondered about CS Forester - he seemed to bang on about knee breeches and Hornblowers stockings far more than seemed normal...

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

But that's why I loved reading it. Smut my dear, smut in my little impressionable mind. (Though to be fair, what really got me was Sabatini and -- oh, who IS that writer? ah -- Frank Yerby, who wrote the Golden Hawk... and his descriptions of the hero's clothes.)