A great blog posting by Erin McKean (she of VERBATIM) over on PowellsBooks dot blog. Brought to my attention by the ever-vigilant Language Hat.

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Lots of people ... believe that the dictionary is a Who's Who of words. That it's like Ivy League college admissions. That only the really good words, the ones that have eaten all their spinach and who play the oboe and who get high scores on the SAT, make it into the dictionary. That the words that make it into the dictionary are somehow "realler" than the words that don't.

I hadn't realized that Powells Books (a great bookstore, both online and in mortar and brick) had a blogging service. Cool.

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Originally posted by zmjezhd:


I hadn't realized that Powells Books (a great bookstore, both online and in mortar and brick) had a blogging service. Cool.

Nor had I, but then I don't even know what a blog is. People have told me, but I eally can't believe that so many people think they have anything worthwhile to say. Therefore, I assume they must be worng about the definition of "blog."

That notwithstanding, next time you come to Portland, look me up and we'll go to Powells. Shufitz, Kalleh, Sunflower and I spent a whole day there when they were out, and we didn't come close to getting through it all. Yep, it's some kinda book store!

Powells has a "review-a-day" service, and I've discovered some neat books through it.

Blogs are are just another kind of publishing, and as Ted Sturgeon said apropos science fiction: "Ninety percent of everything is crud." Blogs and forums have played important roles in exposing recent scandals like Rathergate (and also Howard Kaloogian's faked Baghdad photos) before the traditional media had any clue.

I've been to Powell's (the computer books and the main store) a couple of times, and the next time I'm in Portland I will look you up.

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Originally posted by zmjezhd:
... as Ted Sturgeon said apropos science fiction: "Ninety percent of everything is crud."

I'm going by my memory -- i.e. with no backup -- but I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who said that (wasn't it codified as "Clarke's Law"?), and I think it was 80%.

Any SF historians out there?

David

Oh, and I think it was "crap", not "crud".

I've always heard it called Sturgeon's Law. It was 90% and it was crud, though many say crap. I always try to link stuff like this. If you click on "said" in my posting above, you can read the Wikipedia article. I met Sturgeon once while tending bar in the hosptiality suite at a science fiction convention. He seemed a nice chap.

Clarke's Law, OTOH, I remember as "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." There seems to be three of them, though, as it mentions in the article, I've most usually heard it as the third one quoted above.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Theodore Sturgeon in Venture Science Fiction, March 1966:

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It is in this vein that I repeat Sturgeon's Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against the attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of s f is crud. The Revelation: Ninety percent of everything is crud. Corollary 1: The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and it is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere. Corollary 2: The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field.

See

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law

Edited to show link properly; BBCode doesn't like the apostrophe in the link.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

Nice find, Zmj. I have posted a reply over there, bringing up our 2 recurring themes:

1) How do you know whether a word is a word?

2) Ahhhh...and is "epicaricacy" a word?

Ah, but that's what I was on about before I got side-tracked into statistics. But, I must admit, I have to clear my conscience: the e-word is a word. I've thought as much for some time now, but I'm afraid I've been too stubborn in the past in denying its wordhood. It's not one I personally would use. About all it takes is two or more speakers to make and use a word, for if we accepted words from the ideolect, we'd have all sorts of monsters to contend with.

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Originally posted by zmjezhd:
I've always heard it called Sturgeon's Law. It was 90% and it was crud, though many say crap. I always try to link stuff like this. If you click on "said" in my posting above, you can read the Wikipedia article. I met Sturgeon once while tending bar in the hosptiality suite at a science fiction convention. He seemed a nice chap.

Clarke's Law, OTOH, I remember as "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." There seems to be three of them, though, as it mentions in the article, I've most usually heard it as the third one quoted above.

Wgll, ygw shfm tgh brz ... splut, gasp, cough ... sorry, I had to clear my esophagus: apparently a piece of crow got stuck halfway down.

Well, after checking on the web -- something I should clearly do more often before shooting off my mouth (especially in this crowd) -- I find that you're 100% correct in all details, with multiple independent confirmations.

It's funny the tricks memory can play. I continue to have this strong feeling that it was Clarke, tho I must also confess that I had forgotten about Clarke's (as it turns out 3rd) Law, so maybe I was linking the wrong author to the wrong law. My mind also continues -- in the face of contrary evidence -- to remember the figure as 80%. And crap not crud.

Oh well: 0 for 3 ain't so bad; it's a better average than Dubya's.

Ironically, I strongly prefer Sturgeon to Clarke as an SF taleweaver.

By way of apology for having questioned you, I offer you and the group Clarke's 69th Law (found on the web while researching the above):

"Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software."

<Slinking away with vestigial tadpole tail tucked between bowlegs>

David

I ain't never seen such a galant tadpole in all me life. But the mind it do play tricks on us. I still remember things quite clearly that never happened. My favorite Clarke is Childhood's End which I always thought would make a great movie.

Of course, Arthur Clarke was different from many other science fiction writers in that he did actually invent things that have come to fruition, rather than just write fantasy.

The concept of the communications satellite was Clarke's, and the geostationary orbit used for the myriad satellites we now rely on for so much, is honoured by being known as "The Clarke Orbit".

Another author who "invented" something in one of his books is Robert Heinlein. Waldoes (robotic arms) were first mentioned in his novella Waldo.

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Wgll, ygw shfm tgh brz ... splut, gasp, cough ... sorry, I had to clear my esophagus: apparently a piece of crow got stuck halfway down.

Froesch, you are so funny! Nobody here keeps track of "right & wrong" (thank heavens for me!)

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But, I must admit, I have to clear my conscience: the e-word is a word. I've thought as much for some time now, but I'm afraid I've been too stubborn in the past in denying its wordhood. It's not one I personally would use. About all it takes is two or more speakers to make and use a word, for if we accepted words from the ideolect, we'd have all sorts of monsters to contend with.

Funny, Zmj. I seem to be going the other way on that word.
Still, I noted this comment by Erin McKean: "Being in the dictionary, then, doesn't make a word 'real.' All words are real."

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Another author who "invented" something in one of his books is Robert Heinlein.

I'd forgotten about Heinlein - although I do remember his stories about waldoes. What I don't know, though, is whether the term is now common amongst industries where such things are used. To my mind Heinlein, although a grand storyteller, tended sometimes to lapse into fantasy rather more than does Clarke, most of whose work is fairly well science-based.

Actually, I suppose the greatest "invention" must be by Karel Čapek, whose 1921 play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)" introduced the word "Robot" into the language.

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the greatest "invention" must be by Karel Čapek

Was he an Englishman?

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Karel Čapek

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Was he an Englishman?

Sadly no - although I am sure he would have enjoyed England as Czechoslovakia (as it was in his day) is one of the bastions of fine beer.