This week: to spice or not to spice, that is the question. Well, metaphorically anyway. We’ll get into it. Read on below!
Amanuensis
In writing circles, there's a piece of advice that goes something like, "never use a big word when a small one will do."1 The idea behind this is to keep your readers in the story; don't distract people from the story you're telling by using a word they're going to have to look up. People will either skip over it, or they'll stop reading to go look it up. And once they do that, they may be gone for good.
I kind of hate that advice.
On the one hand, it makes a lot of sense. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their early twentieth-century contemporaries made it a point to write as plainly and concisely as possible. By doing so they were consciously rejecting the more overwrought and flowery prose of the previous generations. In the process they more-or-less created the modern American literary aesthetic2.
On the other hand, it feels a lot like telling a chef to use salt and black pepper only and don't you dare think about touching the cumin or the cardamom. I mean, you can cook with just salt and pepper, but why would you want to?
I don't read as much as I used to, especially not in the classics, and I don't write as much as I used to, especially not fiction3. As a result, I don't read as widely; when I find an author I like4, I tend to stick with them and move their newest books to the top of the reading pile. What I've come to realize lately is that the authors who have made the cut tend to share similar writing styles5. They tend to write character-centric stories full of ideas and explorations rather than politics or machinations thereof. They write funny, often poignant dialogue, and they use both cumin and cardamom when the recipe calls for it.
At the moment, I'm catching up with one of my favorites, Charlie Stross, specifically a volume of Laundry files6. And there, in the middle of chapter two, was this:
She wouldn't be Rupert's amanuensis forever.
Uh huh. What the hell does amanuensis mean? From context, my guess is some kind of secretary or assistant, but let's get the official word in from Merriam-Webster:
one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript
So...a scribe? A secretary? Let's get another definition in just to help us out. This one is from Dictionary.com:
a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another; secretary.
Okay. Let's get some history, just for context. From Etymonline:
1610s, from Latin amanuensis "adjective used as a noun," an alteration of (servus) a manu "secretary," literally "servant from the hand;"
Right. I don't know that that helped, but we can safely say that secretary is a synonym for amanuensis. Ergo7, according to the rule above, Stross should have used secretary, right?
<shrug>
I don't know. Stross is a really bright guy and an incredible writer. I'm not even going to pretend to second-guess his authorial choice. What I am going to say is that, as a reader, I love that he made this choice. It feels like an unexpected bit of spice mixed in with all the salt and pepper8 and I really appreciate that these days. And while it may have taken me out of the world he created for just a second, it also drew me back in. Because I wanted to know why he chose it; I wanted to see why it was the right word for that moment in the story9. I'm not sure I've found it yet, but I'll keep looking. And, in the meantime, I'm still thinking about the story even after having finished the novel, which is a win for any author.
Down the Rabbit Hole
During the first few volumes of Charles Stross’ The Laundry Files, the world has yet to learn that magic is real and can be done with a computer and some maths10 skills. In fiction, this is known as the masquerade trope and it is where our rabbit hole begins this week:
Masquerade - all the conspiracies and secret plots are real and we have to protect the public from it, just like the…
Men in Black - released in 1997, it could have billed as a documentary; it was based on a comic book released by…
Aircel Comics - now defunct, the company was eventually acquired by Marvel, who made…
Thor - the Norse gods, it turns out, are real and from another world, thus bringing about…
The Unmasked World - everything has changed; no more hiding the truth. The lizard people are real and in control. Sorry.
From the Archives
In Volume Four of Learned, which ran during 2021 and early 2022, I wrote about words that were talking about other words, like “literature.” In this piece, I wrote about discovering books and literature through my local library as a kid. Enjoy!
Turns out, I think this was a paraphrase of the William Safire quote used in the header image: Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. And, to be clear, Safire wrote this and several dozen other rules as pure sarcasm. I’m not sure when and where this changed to real advice, but it’s good to know where it comes from.
As a ne plus ultra example, I'd suggest A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Hemingway.
I think nothing defines middle-age as much as the shift in one's perception of time; as a young adult, there's always more time. In middle age, there's never quite enough. I've heard from older friends that it only gets worse from here.
As with music, a lot of who I read as a teenager has defined and continues to inform my adult tastes.
We are all creatures of habit.
James Bond in a Cthulu universe; magic is real and is indistinguishable from very advanced mathematics. Really great, pulpy fun.
According to the rule above, I should have used "so" right there.
Am I over-extending that metaphor? Probably. Ah well, such is the spice of life.
To be clear, there may not have been a story-driven reason. Stross may just like the word or wanted to avoid using the word "secretary" too much. But I like the idea that it was deliberate, so I ran with it.
Stross and the main characters are all British, hence, maths with that silly ~s at the end.
I love for cumin and cardamom! Writing for audiences for whom English is not the mother tongue is often cited as a reason to simplify writing and even speaking (My husband and I have gotten into this discussion several times). I think that as word lover, I don’t want to dumb it down. I want to give opportunity for learning because I love it so...but as he points out it may not be kind to do that...
Speaking of Hemingway, this is my favorite written parody of all time:
The Bug Count Also Rises
http://www.workpump.com/bugcount/bugcount.html