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Fantasy: December 19, 2018 Issue [#9282]




 This week: Greetings and Partings
  Edited by: Robert Waltz Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

Send out a cheerful, positive greeting, and most of the time you will get back a cheerful, positive greeting. It's also true that if you send out a negative greeting, you will, in most cases, get back a negative greeting.
         -Zig Ziglar

The word 'aloha,' in foreign use, has taken the place of every English equivalent. It is a greeting, a farewell, thanks, love, goodwill. Aloha looks at you from tidies and illuminations; it meets you on the roads and at house-doors. It is conveyed to you in letters: the air is full of it.
         -Isabella Bird

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.
         -Nikola Tesla


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Letter from the editor

Hello, greetings, salutations, welcome, hey there...

This newsletter comes to you in the midst of the holiday season, a time of connecting and reconnecting with friends and family. So I thought I'd take some time to talk about greetings and their inevitable counterpart, partings.

It seems to be a universal human trait to mark the occasion of meeting someone, or parting from them, with words. In English, the somewhat formal expressions are "hello" and "goodbye," but there are many others, of varying levels of formality: Hi, hey, yo, 'sup; farewell, bye, later, see ya, take care - just to name a few. Other languages have other words, of course; some even use the same word for both (e.g. shalom, aloha).

Which word is used for each depends on factors such as how well the people know each other, how informal the meeting is, relative social status, and so on. Most of us wouldn't say "yo" to greet our boss at the company holiday dinner, or "farewell" to the kids on the way out the door.

It's noteworthy that "goodbye" seems to be almost as old as English itself; it's a corruption/contraction of the expression "God be with ye." In this sense, it's similar to "adios" or "adieu," though - in English at least - it's lost all religious connotation. By way of contrast, "hello" is a much younger word, though I haven't been able to determine if it's related to the much older greeting, "Hail."

We have other words as well, ones that are even more context-specific. "Good morning" and "good evening" are formal greetings for particular times of the day; oddly, "good night" is always a parting.

Okay, Waltz, what does this have to do with the fantasy genre?

Glad you asked.

Like I said, these words are formalities, like putting the word "Dear" in a letter's salutation (a "letter" was what people wrote to each other before emails, texts, and Twitter, and was, confusingly, actually a collection of letters arranged in words, sentences, and paragraphs - and, moreover, was often handwritten). As a formality, its translation is usually not literal. What I mean is, for instance, the Hebrew word "shalom" is generally translated as "peace," but could also be translated as "hello" or "goodbye" depending on the context.

So, say you're writing a fantasy story in English - but the story takes place in another time and/or on another world. There might or might not be actual humans involved. Presumably, the characters aren't actually speaking English, and you might not even have come up with a language for them (we can't all be Tolkien). In such a situation, it could make a lot of sense to use words other than "hello" or "goodbye." The old pulp science fiction trope of "Greetings, Earthlings" comes to mind - the hypothetical alien in such a story could just as easily use hi, hello, salutations, or howdy.

People in your invented culture might have a formal hierarchy, with different greetings depending on where the speaker and listener stand in said hierarchy. As with our own cultures, there might be different words used in a nautical (or astronautical) context. Members of one tribe might have one greeting for other members of the tribe, and another, different greeting for members of other tribes: "Good day," as an example, for the former, and "Prepare to be annihilated" for the latter.

As with our "goodbye," the word or phrase might have even lost its original connotations, such that the example about annihilation might even be considered a warm, friendly welcome - at least by the speaker.

It's not even necessary to make up words for hello or goodbye. Just using an alternative English word or phrase could be enough to do the job.

Another reason to think about using nonstandard greetings and partings is this: you'd be signaling to the reader that this is, indeed, a different culture. Every word between the hail and the farewell could be plain English, and yet by simply changing these opening and closing words, you can tell us something about the people involved.

It's also possible to imagine cultures without these formalities, and those might be the most alien of all.


Editor's Picks

Some works of fantasy:

 The Lady in the Tree Open in new Window. [E]
A story about a boy and a mysterious woman. . .
by Weirdone-Back in the games Author Icon


 The Lords Of The Hunt Open in new Window. [E]
Tahmry is too curious for his own good and ends up on a quest to save his world.
by Okami Author Icon


 To my Sons and Daughters Open in new Window. [E]
A short and slightly unconvential story.
by Nicholas Mark Author Icon


O What Knight Open in new Window. [13+]
A poem to a poet knight from a Lady he admires and would serve!
by eyestar~* Author Icon


 Mildred Open in new Window. [E]
Story of a spirited lady
by BillW Author Icon


 Bounty Hunting Open in new Window. [18+]
A short fantasy story about a bounty hunter and one of his missions.
by Lothmorwel Author Icon


 This One's For You, Mom Open in new Window. [13+]
A young man dedicates his achievement to his mother. Written for 11/21/07 DFF Contest.
by Sam N. Yago Author Icon

 
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Ask & Answer

Last time, in "Excelsior!Open in new Window., I paid tribute to Stan Lee.

BlackAdder Author Icon: Awesome newsletter! However, if you're looking for some sci-fi, don't forget the Science Fiction Short Story Contest, which has several good entries this month! [SUBMITTED ITEM: "The Science Fiction Short Story ContestOpen in new Window. [18+]]

         Thanks for the comment and link!


BIG BAD WOLF is Howling Author Icon: Sometimes one man can make a difference. Other times, he or she is assisted by a bunch of unknown allies.

         Rare indeed would be the person who acts entirely without assistance.


Angus Author Icon: Great Newsletter, Robert! Stan Lee truly was one in a million, and he will be sorely missed.
But NEVER forgotten!
PS-Spiderman Rules!


         Glad you liked the editorial!


And that's it for me for December - see you next year! Until then, farewell, goodbye, catch ya later, and...

DREAM ON!!!

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