Every couple months, if I’m not paying attention, my iron levels get really low. As a result I get ridiculously lazy, tired, and sluggish, and my brain just doesn’t want to work. I don’t feel like reading, I don’t feel like writing, I don’t feel like updating my blog, and instead spend most of my time sleeping. Then, I usually wonder why I’m so tired. It takes a week before it dawns on me what the issue is and I say to myself “Hey, dummy. Take an iron pill.” Then everything is fine and I’m back on track.
Last week and a half or so this happened, but I finally corrected my idiocy. Unfortunately, I haven’t read anything. Which is sad. So today I trekked to my library to pick up some books.
And that brings me to a secret…
I haven’t read Dune
Shhhh don't tell.
I know, cazy right? This is one of those books I should have read long ago but never did. In my defense, I’m very solid fantasy girl, which is why I never had it high on my “To Read’ list. However Dune seems to be one of those speculative fiction books that straddles the line between Sci-Fi and Fantasy, so really I am running out of excuses to read it.
Anyways, after picking up Dune, I was looking through the fantasy section, searching for a second book. I was attracted by the cover of a book by R. Scott Bakker. Pulling it out, I read the jacket and the first name I read was this:
Anasûrimbor Kellhus
What the hell is that?
That’s not a name. That’s someone sneezing on a page and thinking it looks like a name.
And then there was this one:
Cnaiür urs Skiötha
Really now? Really?
This is something I hate about fantasy sometimes: ridiculous names. In more recent days, I think authors have calmed down, but you still find the random names filled with impossible to pronounce names with weird combinations of consonants, umlauts, angstroms, carons, and, of course, apostrophes.
I honestly can’t understand why writers do this. Here’s the thing, if no one can pronounce your name, then why write it that way?
I know when I read an unpronounceable name, I always pronounce it in my head a way I know is wrong. However, every time I come across it, I stumble. It breaks up the reading experience. It may look "interesting"--(Hold on,those quotes deserve to be bigger)--“interesting” (much better)
But I think I’d rather read something smoothly than admire an authors exciting new uses of punctuation.
I think sometimes writers get out of control and also that they lean on making their name cool as a crutch to make up for either a not very fantasy feeling world, or a not deep enough character to exist on his/her own. They are hoping their reader will think “Ah, a cool name that I would never encounter in the real world. The character must be awesome if he has three exclamation points in his name!”
The thing is, this book could be good. It could be great. But I’m not sure if I want to wade through names that are clearly meant to impress me and but don’t. Because they’re hard to read. And if you're a writer, you shouldn't be making your book hard to read.
And they’re stupid.
There’s that fact too.
