Naming characters
Apr. 9th, 2010 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethNaming systems are complicated. You don't realise how many assumptions you've got until you start poking at them. I've got a character I was trying to name, so I started looking up Chinese names. I knew about surname first, and how actually a lot of immigrants gave up on that and flipped it for convenience, and how some have a traditional name and a westernised name, and how there's not very many different chinese family names. (Which I nearly wrote last names. Because updating programming takes a while.)
I still know nearly nothing about chinese names.
So far I've got as far as looking things up on wiki.
Yes, I know, wiki.
But
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames
has a list that makes the sounds simple 'only a few family names' into a massively complicated table with bits my browser just turns into squares of numbers.
so, not simple.
... I did think of having a character called Joe Lei, who secretly has two family names there, from two different chinese families, one who flipped it and one who didn't.
... and then the character would play with gender and never pin down which ze was.
... looking up gender neutral pronouns on wiki gets
[blockquote]In modern Chinese, there is no gender distinction in pronouns in the spoken language: the pronoun 他 (tā) means 'he', 'she' or 'it'. [/blockquote]
about.com says
[blockquote]There are just three basic pronouns in spoken Mandarin:
* I, me - wǒ - 我
* You - nǐ - 你
* He, Him / She, Her / It - tā
[/blockquote]
so if I knew how to say it that would be a useful pronoun right there.
... of course then I loop right back around to the 'diversity don't mean writing about stuff you know nowt about' thing for not one but two groups, and would have to Look Stuff Up and Talk To People and stuff.
I have this idea brewing about a world where the magic comes back, but the government's main priority is to make it go away again, by finding all the users and moving them into mass Mana Drain spells. Lower the mana in an area enough and you can't get any spells working. But in a system with aspected mana that's not exactly simple. Especially if you can't decide which aspects exist. The UK gov is working off a classical Earth-Air-Fire-Water system, but China uses their traditional Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Both sets think the other are being ridiculous. But independents are having some success both ways.
It uses the magic system I tinkered together, the one with the energy supplied by Supporters, its aspects monitored by specialists, then spells cast by a Focus, and possibly directed through a field agent who might have no particular magic themselves.
There's a team of five people who have the genes for magic, and some small skill, but aren't in the main government programs yet due to disability. They've got a Focus assigned them by the government, so if they want to get anything big done they have to convince this official type guy. Who is mostly interested in Not Doing or Undoing. There's not many Supporters to start with, or usually, because it's a volunteer job and they're not popular people. So it's all frustration and complication... but they do have magic.
I worry a bit about Disability Superpowers, but the world has people with magic-but-no-disability and disability-but-no-magic, so there's just this story to be told about the people with both.
I was a bit hazy on what the point was until my Wood element took everyone to visit Foxley Wood, which iirc from school is an ancient woodland, been there since the ice age, part coppiced with oak standards, diverse and well worked. Then someone planted conifers. Conifers change the soil composition until only other conifers like it. More and more conifers in neat little rows with bugger all else growing there. And then something comes along that kills conifers... But get rid of the conifers and the diverse ecosystem can restore itself, given time, or help.
So the Theme is diversity, neurodiversity, biodiversity. How the one size fits all is really one size fits none. I can work with that.
My Metal character is this Chinese character I was poking for names for. Possibly. Though I have no story for zir yet.
I have story for Water, Fire&Air, and Wood. Only small story, but a start.
What I know about Earth is she's a big black lady in a wheelchair, associated not with squishy soil but with concrete and granite and stuff. University and Library areas of Norwich.
And Metal is this Chinese person... possibly the SF geek of the set. I wouldn't know how to write it without one. Someone living for the future that logically never will be (but how much fun is logic really?). University and Library again, for the metal-and-glass bits.
Water is learning disabled with a special interest. He really likes water. He likes swimming, which isn't much problem for bystanders if he remembers his costume, or indeed for some if he doesn't cause he's really pretty. (He's gay, and does well for a sex life of one night pick ups, but gets sad nobody seems to stay once they know him.) He also likes fountains and showers and making water into interesting shapes, which kind of is a problem because bathrooms prefer water to be *simple* shapes, and so do people on the floor below you, and so does the walls and floors and things. Eventually they got him his own place and waterproofed the hell out of it. Now they can mostly leave him to it. Though his water bill remains exceptional. They're hoping the magic thing will keep his interest enough he'll maybe turn off the taps voluntarily sometimes. He likes the university (it has a great swimming pool) and the river.
Fire&Air lives in a tower block. He smokes. He knows it's stupid (possibly he's had bits chopped out his lung already), but he's also depressed and doesn't actually care. He's angry, all the time, about nothing much or everything, but in a tired way like a cigarette that's mostly ash. He's been this way most of his life and doesn't expect things to change much. He doesn't actively like very many places, but tall places feel better, so there's the residential towers, but also the library at the university.
Wood is new. She wears a hat with daisies on. People sing songs at it and make fun and use it for target practice and try and take it and throw it and it's very annoying except for the songs bit because she likes that even though she knows they're taking the piss. She's a mature student, studying very slowly. College sent her to learn about this magic stuff because she hasn't picked a career yet. She likes parks and green spaces. So, also the university.
This isn't just because then they can all meet at the university, I didn't actually imagine them meeting there, it's just that the university has lovely great green spaces and some open water and a swimming pool and a lot of buildings that are great if you like concrete and metal and glass. Especially concrete.
Nobody has a name yet. I've not got many Adventures for them.
I know a couple of supporting cast - Earth has a husband who often gets mistaken for her son because Earth looks older. People say things about him being nice to look after his old mum. He gets sad and angry and frustrated. He's her carer, for a while full time, but lately she's getting more independent and he's getting his time back. He's a bit relieved about this magic group because then he has a whole block of time to himself every week... but then he's got a whole block of time every week, and what to do with that?
Wood has a brother who is further along the spectrum and not so functional. He's still at the training center, planting things. And planting some more things. And going up the gardening place to plant more things. There's a whole plant theme to a lot of activities for the intellectually disabled.
They do not go around the table and introduce themselves by their disabilities. The only one you can see is disabled is Earth. The others are just... themselves. Noticeably.
Settings would most easily be the UEA, because you've got all the element-landscapes there. But in my head they were meeting more in the kind of halls you always get for the writers groups and art groups they send you to when you're mentally ill, the tatty nowhere places. I doubt the UEA runs one of them. Similarly Wood is studying, but only goes up the UEA for the library. City College has the courses that start with mentally ill people and Access groups and go up to degree level. Don't know if they have a science one... no, the English ones seem to be the only degree courses I can find. But they have Access to Higher Education Diploma - Natural Science. So I make Wood a bit younger and aiming to get into a different university, possibly involving moving away. Then she has a goal and hoops to jump and all. Hmmm, but, come to think, not an actual UEA library card. Eh, can work out details later.
The Focus is a grey government type who isn't exactly on their side. Wants to get them 'back' into work, specific into the gov program which spends all day doing counterspells and mana drain and wards. Group wants to use what they've got to fix what they can see, use magic to help, even though it keeps going a bit wrong with unintended consequences. And the problem of the week would be people misusing magic. But it would be like the line the private eye draws between police and criminals, finding a balance between unresponsive institutions that don't recognise the needs or existence of some people on the one hand and the take what you can get and go back for more types on the other. But instead of being one man taking a (vigilante/ultraviolent) stand on that line it's about building a community there.
The Focus isn't a character yet. More of a plot obstacle. But he'd have to have reasons for thinking he was right and they were wrong. They probably start with 'they're all crazy people'. Possibly I can use bits of that social worker who started going on about racism against white people. And every doublethinking catch 22 I've ever had said at me.
I was thinking of the model of magic, Focus and Sensors and Supporters and Field Agent, as kind of like Captain and crew and away team. But with the Focus like this is more like if the crew had to talk the Captain into it whenever they want to break the prime directive.
Which leads to the problem, how do they keep getting away with it? Does he not care? Does he not notice? Does he get won over and change what he is and be like Giles with Buffy and get replaced by someone new who does the whole thing over again? Do they want to lock people up for doing magic? That's an important one. What is the consequence of unauthorised magic, if the government is so keen on stopping it? Is it more like drugs or asbos? There's probably prison involved somewhere, but there's a rather obvious problem in getting a setting where magic users can power each other up and work bigger magic when together, and then putting them all in prison.
Some of the problems will be problems the government hasn't worked through because magic is new. How new? Not new-this-year, but new-this-century as a practical thing.
There's room to discover spells. There's a lot of room to discover spells, especially if you're using both aspected mana and prerequisite charts, because you'd need to work together to cast the complex things. And then the policy that simply bans magic would have been born of an incomplete knowledge, one where magic couldn't really do very much, and certainly nothing that technology couldn't do in a more reliable and controlled fashion. But as people discover more, and share their discoveries, there woudl be applications that technology couldn't touch... and some of them would be bloody scary.
Even a straight elemental progression... control fire -> create fire -> fireball -> Body Of Fire.
How awesome is that?
And what would you do with some depressed sod lives on the top floor of a tower block if he discovered it?
Mind you, he'd be mostly Body Of Bad Smelling Smoke, but that too has it's scary points...
I think I've found my summer script project. I think it's looking quite interesting.
I still know nearly nothing about chinese names.
So far I've got as far as looking things up on wiki.
Yes, I know, wiki.
But
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames
has a list that makes the sounds simple 'only a few family names' into a massively complicated table with bits my browser just turns into squares of numbers.
so, not simple.
... I did think of having a character called Joe Lei, who secretly has two family names there, from two different chinese families, one who flipped it and one who didn't.
... and then the character would play with gender and never pin down which ze was.
... looking up gender neutral pronouns on wiki gets
[blockquote]In modern Chinese, there is no gender distinction in pronouns in the spoken language: the pronoun 他 (tā) means 'he', 'she' or 'it'. [/blockquote]
about.com says
[blockquote]There are just three basic pronouns in spoken Mandarin:
* I, me - wǒ - 我
* You - nǐ - 你
* He, Him / She, Her / It - tā
[/blockquote]
so if I knew how to say it that would be a useful pronoun right there.
... of course then I loop right back around to the 'diversity don't mean writing about stuff you know nowt about' thing for not one but two groups, and would have to Look Stuff Up and Talk To People and stuff.
I have this idea brewing about a world where the magic comes back, but the government's main priority is to make it go away again, by finding all the users and moving them into mass Mana Drain spells. Lower the mana in an area enough and you can't get any spells working. But in a system with aspected mana that's not exactly simple. Especially if you can't decide which aspects exist. The UK gov is working off a classical Earth-Air-Fire-Water system, but China uses their traditional Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Both sets think the other are being ridiculous. But independents are having some success both ways.
It uses the magic system I tinkered together, the one with the energy supplied by Supporters, its aspects monitored by specialists, then spells cast by a Focus, and possibly directed through a field agent who might have no particular magic themselves.
There's a team of five people who have the genes for magic, and some small skill, but aren't in the main government programs yet due to disability. They've got a Focus assigned them by the government, so if they want to get anything big done they have to convince this official type guy. Who is mostly interested in Not Doing or Undoing. There's not many Supporters to start with, or usually, because it's a volunteer job and they're not popular people. So it's all frustration and complication... but they do have magic.
I worry a bit about Disability Superpowers, but the world has people with magic-but-no-disability and disability-but-no-magic, so there's just this story to be told about the people with both.
I was a bit hazy on what the point was until my Wood element took everyone to visit Foxley Wood, which iirc from school is an ancient woodland, been there since the ice age, part coppiced with oak standards, diverse and well worked. Then someone planted conifers. Conifers change the soil composition until only other conifers like it. More and more conifers in neat little rows with bugger all else growing there. And then something comes along that kills conifers... But get rid of the conifers and the diverse ecosystem can restore itself, given time, or help.
So the Theme is diversity, neurodiversity, biodiversity. How the one size fits all is really one size fits none. I can work with that.
My Metal character is this Chinese character I was poking for names for. Possibly. Though I have no story for zir yet.
I have story for Water, Fire&Air, and Wood. Only small story, but a start.
What I know about Earth is she's a big black lady in a wheelchair, associated not with squishy soil but with concrete and granite and stuff. University and Library areas of Norwich.
And Metal is this Chinese person... possibly the SF geek of the set. I wouldn't know how to write it without one. Someone living for the future that logically never will be (but how much fun is logic really?). University and Library again, for the metal-and-glass bits.
Water is learning disabled with a special interest. He really likes water. He likes swimming, which isn't much problem for bystanders if he remembers his costume, or indeed for some if he doesn't cause he's really pretty. (He's gay, and does well for a sex life of one night pick ups, but gets sad nobody seems to stay once they know him.) He also likes fountains and showers and making water into interesting shapes, which kind of is a problem because bathrooms prefer water to be *simple* shapes, and so do people on the floor below you, and so does the walls and floors and things. Eventually they got him his own place and waterproofed the hell out of it. Now they can mostly leave him to it. Though his water bill remains exceptional. They're hoping the magic thing will keep his interest enough he'll maybe turn off the taps voluntarily sometimes. He likes the university (it has a great swimming pool) and the river.
Fire&Air lives in a tower block. He smokes. He knows it's stupid (possibly he's had bits chopped out his lung already), but he's also depressed and doesn't actually care. He's angry, all the time, about nothing much or everything, but in a tired way like a cigarette that's mostly ash. He's been this way most of his life and doesn't expect things to change much. He doesn't actively like very many places, but tall places feel better, so there's the residential towers, but also the library at the university.
Wood is new. She wears a hat with daisies on. People sing songs at it and make fun and use it for target practice and try and take it and throw it and it's very annoying except for the songs bit because she likes that even though she knows they're taking the piss. She's a mature student, studying very slowly. College sent her to learn about this magic stuff because she hasn't picked a career yet. She likes parks and green spaces. So, also the university.
This isn't just because then they can all meet at the university, I didn't actually imagine them meeting there, it's just that the university has lovely great green spaces and some open water and a swimming pool and a lot of buildings that are great if you like concrete and metal and glass. Especially concrete.
Nobody has a name yet. I've not got many Adventures for them.
I know a couple of supporting cast - Earth has a husband who often gets mistaken for her son because Earth looks older. People say things about him being nice to look after his old mum. He gets sad and angry and frustrated. He's her carer, for a while full time, but lately she's getting more independent and he's getting his time back. He's a bit relieved about this magic group because then he has a whole block of time to himself every week... but then he's got a whole block of time every week, and what to do with that?
Wood has a brother who is further along the spectrum and not so functional. He's still at the training center, planting things. And planting some more things. And going up the gardening place to plant more things. There's a whole plant theme to a lot of activities for the intellectually disabled.
They do not go around the table and introduce themselves by their disabilities. The only one you can see is disabled is Earth. The others are just... themselves. Noticeably.
Settings would most easily be the UEA, because you've got all the element-landscapes there. But in my head they were meeting more in the kind of halls you always get for the writers groups and art groups they send you to when you're mentally ill, the tatty nowhere places. I doubt the UEA runs one of them. Similarly Wood is studying, but only goes up the UEA for the library. City College has the courses that start with mentally ill people and Access groups and go up to degree level. Don't know if they have a science one... no, the English ones seem to be the only degree courses I can find. But they have Access to Higher Education Diploma - Natural Science. So I make Wood a bit younger and aiming to get into a different university, possibly involving moving away. Then she has a goal and hoops to jump and all. Hmmm, but, come to think, not an actual UEA library card. Eh, can work out details later.
The Focus is a grey government type who isn't exactly on their side. Wants to get them 'back' into work, specific into the gov program which spends all day doing counterspells and mana drain and wards. Group wants to use what they've got to fix what they can see, use magic to help, even though it keeps going a bit wrong with unintended consequences. And the problem of the week would be people misusing magic. But it would be like the line the private eye draws between police and criminals, finding a balance between unresponsive institutions that don't recognise the needs or existence of some people on the one hand and the take what you can get and go back for more types on the other. But instead of being one man taking a (vigilante/ultraviolent) stand on that line it's about building a community there.
The Focus isn't a character yet. More of a plot obstacle. But he'd have to have reasons for thinking he was right and they were wrong. They probably start with 'they're all crazy people'. Possibly I can use bits of that social worker who started going on about racism against white people. And every doublethinking catch 22 I've ever had said at me.
I was thinking of the model of magic, Focus and Sensors and Supporters and Field Agent, as kind of like Captain and crew and away team. But with the Focus like this is more like if the crew had to talk the Captain into it whenever they want to break the prime directive.
Which leads to the problem, how do they keep getting away with it? Does he not care? Does he not notice? Does he get won over and change what he is and be like Giles with Buffy and get replaced by someone new who does the whole thing over again? Do they want to lock people up for doing magic? That's an important one. What is the consequence of unauthorised magic, if the government is so keen on stopping it? Is it more like drugs or asbos? There's probably prison involved somewhere, but there's a rather obvious problem in getting a setting where magic users can power each other up and work bigger magic when together, and then putting them all in prison.
Some of the problems will be problems the government hasn't worked through because magic is new. How new? Not new-this-year, but new-this-century as a practical thing.
There's room to discover spells. There's a lot of room to discover spells, especially if you're using both aspected mana and prerequisite charts, because you'd need to work together to cast the complex things. And then the policy that simply bans magic would have been born of an incomplete knowledge, one where magic couldn't really do very much, and certainly nothing that technology couldn't do in a more reliable and controlled fashion. But as people discover more, and share their discoveries, there woudl be applications that technology couldn't touch... and some of them would be bloody scary.
Even a straight elemental progression... control fire -> create fire -> fireball -> Body Of Fire.
How awesome is that?
And what would you do with some depressed sod lives on the top floor of a tower block if he discovered it?
Mind you, he'd be mostly Body Of Bad Smelling Smoke, but that too has it's scary points...
I think I've found my summer script project. I think it's looking quite interesting.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-09 09:55 pm (UTC)I think.
In the context of emigrants to the West, things can be different.