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| Angel With The Sword: Language; Question about first edition | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 22 2007, 06:29 AM (411 Views) | |
| ericf | Dec 22 2007, 06:29 AM Post #1 |
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I read somewhere a long time ago that the first hardcover of any of Cherryh's books was Angel With The Sword from DAW. I also read that they had edited the language in it so that dialects were removed. Can anyone point me to a specific text/site where this is written? I think it was Cherryh herself that commented on a very busy editor. Thanks. Merry Christmas ericf |
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| suzdal | Jan 2 2008, 05:02 PM Post #2 |
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Minister of Silly Hats
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ericf: Your post looked lonely. Sadly I cannot help you, but I didn't want you to feel neglected. Peace, Suzdal |
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| ericf | Jan 2 2008, 06:55 PM Post #3 |
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Well, it could be that when she got back the galleys she found out that the editor had rewritten the foul language and she had to reinsert it. I got the HC edition just this week and I couldn't find any differences between it and my pocket version. However, I do remember Cherryh feeling down about the language because it was her first hard cover and it got "busted". ericf |
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| Surtac | Jan 2 2008, 10:54 PM Post #4 |
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Antipodean Assassin
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As I recall it, Angel With The Sword was DAW's first hardcover, not Cherryh's first. I hadn't heard the story about the language though. :invert |
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| Kokipy | Jan 3 2008, 12:34 AM Post #5 |
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I remember reading that an editor had "fixed" some of her language but I don't remember the book. That kind of editing would ruin Angel with a Sword. Jones' speech patterns are very much a part of her. |
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| Felicitous Sk8er | Jan 4 2008, 08:16 AM Post #6 |
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Ice Queen Assassin
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I remember -- somewhat -- a conversation about this. Carolyn commented that the primary female character was illiterate, & would not speak the way an editor would want her to. |
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| Felicitous Sk8er | Jan 16 2008, 04:22 AM Post #7 |
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Ice Queen Assassin
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eric -- This story happened to come up this weekend. Here you go, direct from Herself's :cherryh: lips: A well-intentioned but clueless copyeditor removed all the "ain't"s from the main character's speech, who was illiterate & would have spoken this way. Furthermore, in a scene late in Angel With A Sword, the use of "ain't" becomes crucial in a scene with Mondragon. Herself :cherryh: had a fit, and then had to go to a lot of trouble to override the copyeditor's edits. There are actually quite a few stories of Herself :cherryh: 'interacting' with copyeditors. Herself's use of language in Voyager In Night, Cyteen 1, and The Paladin have all flummoxed editors and caused consternation of one sort or another. . |
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| ericf | Jan 16 2008, 11:28 AM Post #8 |
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Good, I knew I had read it before. I also read that Cherryh sort of came to a truce with some of her editors, or was it just at the beginning of her career at DAW that some young male editor found so many faults that he suddenly decided that there was no point in correcting them? Grammar can be a problem. Cherry herself said, I think, that she has a very good grasp of the origin of grammar and language and so she can do what she does without really breaking any rules. Editors just have very narrow frame they work within. ericf |
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| Felicitous Sk8er | Jan 16 2008, 11:33 AM Post #9 |
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Ice Queen Assassin
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Hmmmmm. I don't know about a "truce" -- I'm unfamiliar with that story so will need to think to ask as it sounds like a great anecdote. I do know that Carolyn had such a reputation among copyeditors of "being a bear" that Jim Baen decided to edit The Paladin personally. Let me find that story for you. *Goes searching. BRB* Back. I can't find the anecdote. WIll see if I stumble on it later; will post it then. |
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| Kokipy | Jan 16 2008, 12:57 PM Post #10 |
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I can't imagine that a copy editor could read Angel with a Sword and not realize the grammar was both intentional and eloquent. That is pretty astounding. I wonder what that fellow would have done with Faulkner. |
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| byrdstation1 | Feb 8 2008, 10:54 AM Post #11 |
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There really are two types of copy editors: Those who work to enhance a writer's voice and those who change (they say "improve"; authors and reporters say "butcher" and many other far less printable things) that voice to what the editor thinks it should be -- which usually means how the editor would've written it. Doing these kinds of things to any writer's work is pretty inexcusable. The best compliment I ever received in this regard came from novelist Pete Dexter, who once told our boss he loved it when I edited his column -- he always wrote long -- because a week later he could not tell where the editing had taken place, that it all read like him. That's what a copy editor should be doing for Herself, not mucking it up by "fixing" things. Gad. Thank heaven she's a fighter and we get to, in the main, I'm sure, see what she wants us to! |
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