Friday 26 August 2016

Women's Equality Day / Toilet Paper Day

So I've been grinning on and off as I alternately see posts celebrating 26th August as Toilet Paper Day and Women's Equality Day - appropriately, in that order of volume.

I'm grinning because I'm a sick person and that level of (possibly) unintentional satire appeals to my equally sick and twisted sense of humour.

I've sounded off before in my blog about having 'days' for social causes. Why? Well, because frankly it feels like a cop-out to me. Set up a 'day' for saving the turtles or whatever, and we can retweet a save the turtles post, congratulate ourselves on raising awareness, and go our merry ways without actually having to do anything material about saving a damn turtle.

26th August is Women's Equality Day and Toilet Paper Day, with toilet paper so far sweeping the stakes in 'awareness raising', at least in my feeds. On the whole, I think toilet paper is doing a whole lot better in terms of global acceptance than women's equality.

Possibly, some of the reasons for that can be explained by the etymology of the word 'woman'. It seems to have evolved from Old English, (see the Online Etymology Dictionary), sometime around the time of the Norman Conquest, c. 1066.
"adult female human," late Old English wimman, wiman (plural wimmen), literally "woman-man," alteration of wifman (plural wifmen) "woman, female servant" (8c.), a compound of wif "woman" (see wife) + man "human being" (in Old English used in reference to both sexes; see man (n.)). Compare Dutch vrouwmens "wife," literally "woman-man."
It appears to be fair to say that the evidence indicates that the view of 'woman' as a sub-species of  'man' isn't a new thing for humanity. Toilet paper, however, only has sub-species in certain public toilets; the kind that crinkles like grease-paper and tears like wrapping tissue.

So what material difference am I making to social and hygenic paper inequality? Well, I ensure I only buy the softest and most absorbent toilet paper. It adds to my personal comfort and doesn't add all that much to my budgetary discomfort.

It occurs to me that until it becomes more uncomfortable for society as a whole, not just the female parts of it, to ignore social inequality than to do something about it, social inequality will hang on. Not least because gender programming starts in the cradle, with little cutesy-poo pink or blue onesies, and carries on into adulthood with 'real gentlemen' opening doors for women who are clearly too weak to open their own doors, things that 'aren't ladylike', which include everything from covering too much skin (see the burkini debate') to not covering enough skin (see the multiple stories in rape investigations  of 'she was asking for it'), and muscles and belligerence being about the only universally-accepted 'male' attributes - which I see as damned offensive to either half of the species.

It also occurs to me that right now, a lot of women's rights movements are raising awareness - which, while it is a good thing, much better than nothing at all - still indicates that there are a lot of women waiting for men to change laws and society to women's advantage. Call me a cynic, but that just sounds a lot like wondering why the fox you left to guard the henhouse has feathers in his whiskers.

Sunday 14 August 2016

Etymology Excavation: "at full tilt"

First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

 What is etymology, and why are you excavating it?

Etymology is like the archeology of a language (definition: the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history).

In this series of posts, we're going to look at some of the English phrases, like 'at full tilt', 'toe the line', 'when push comes to shove' that are commonly used, and have an interesting history - and that people often get wrong.

"At full tilt" means flat out, at top speed, as fast as possible. Its origins don't have anything to do with being unsteady, at an angle, or, indeed poker.

The term derives from the sport of jousting, or tilting (ever heard of 'tilting at windmills'?), and 'at full tilt' is believed to have first come into use as an expression in the mid-1600s.

Common theories (check out http://www.etymonline.com for even more good stuff) are that it comes from either the practice of leaning in to meet the attack when jousting, or, conversely, from tilt or tent, referring to the flimsy barrier that separates the two riders when they joust.

Examples of 'at full tilt':
  • I ran down the hill at full tilt.
  • We're going to need to work at full tilt to get this done in time.
Is it still in common use? Depends who you ask. I'm a Millennial, and I use it; my parents' generation certainly did. On the whole, it's probably more likely to be used in British English than American English.

It's one of those phrases you can use to hint at a character's background in contemporary work such as a thriller - maybe your anti-hero is British and gives himself away with it, for example.

If you're writing fantasy or sci-fi, you can also adapt it this type of expression. If (random example, honest) your invented culture includes people swinging on big metal balls hung from cranes, you'd use 'at full swing'. (Oddly enough, 'in full swing' is another weird English idiom that I probably will be covering on another day.)

Thursday 11 August 2016

Deadlines, whistling in the wind


First seen on the Space Trash Blog.

Apparently the legendary Douglas Adams enjoyed the sound of deadlines whizzing by, so I figure I'm in good company.

I proudly published a Launch date of 6th August for Elemental Affinity, and hey, lookit that, it's the 11th and no sign of Elemental Affinity.

Why? You may well ask.

Well, it goes something like this: there was once a struggling young author, who worked all day and wrote all night, and this young yet talented artist once published a Launch date in June that turned out to be totally unrealistic in August.

Or, if you prefer the haiku form:

Time flying by me

Endless edits in my sights

Sleep, that little death.

Basically, I had some very good feedback from my beta read team, and in trying to implement it, I realised a bit belatedly that I was re-writing about a third of the book. This seemed perfectly feasible in June, when I got the feedback, but less so after ten hours of editing at 8pm local on 6th August, with 20K words still to go - many of which actually still needed to be written.

I am still shooting to have Elemental Affinity out, finished, edited and beautiful before the end of August. Really, this time? Well, yeah, I hope so. Partly because I think the book is a lot better, even right now in its partially finished state, with metaphorical dustsheets everywhere, and I'm looking forwards to seeing if my readers agree, but also because I'm really, really, really looking forwards to the next in the series ... Elemental Conflict.

Is there a link? Why, yes, perhaps .... and now you're all going to have to be nice and let me get Elemental Affinity into the best shape I possibly can for you. I hope you'll think it's worth the wait once it's in your hands.