{"id":2725,"date":"2002-09-30T08:37:08","date_gmt":"2002-09-30T13:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2725"},"modified":"2002-09-30T08:37:08","modified_gmt":"2002-09-30T13:37:08","slug":"turkey_talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/30\/turkey_talk.html","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Turkey City Lexicon<\/a> is a collection of useful terms generated by the Turkey City sf workshop. The terms refer to plot elements, styles, and other bits and pieces that appear in sf writing, usually presented in a cautionary fashion (i.e., “Don’t do this thing — it’s become a cliche example of bad writing”).<\/p>\n

“Call a Rabbit a Smeerp”<\/b>
\nA cheap technique for false exoticism, in which common elements of the real world are re-named for a fantastic milieu without any real alteration in their basic nature or behavior. “Smeerps” are especially common in fantasy worlds, where people often ride exotic steeds that look and act just like horses. (Attributed to James Blish.)
\nSquid in the Mouth<\/b>
\nThe failure of an author to realize that his\/her own weird assumptions and personal in-jokes are simply not shared by the world-at-large. Instead of applauding the wit or insight of the author’s remarks, the world-at-large will stare in vague shock and alarm at such a writer, as if he or she had a live squid in the mouth. (Attr. James P Blaylock)
\nJust-Like Fallacy<\/b>
\nSF story which thinly adapts the trappings of a standard pulp adventure setting. The spaceship is “just like” an Atlantic steamer, down to the Scottish engineer in the hold. A colony planet is “just like” Arizona except for two moons in the sky. “Space Westerns” and futuristic hard-boiled detective stories have been especially common versions. <\/p>\n

A useful read for someone wanting to write in any <\/i>genre, says I.<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Turkey City Lexicon is a collection of useful terms generated by the Turkey City sf workshop. The terms refer to plot elements, styles, and other bits and pieces that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potpourri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24248,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/05\/what-makes-fantasy-fantasy.html","url_meta":{"origin":2725,"position":0},"title":"What Makes Fantasy Fantasy?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Dec-11 3:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As opposed to, say, SF? Does the presence of psionics \/ ESP make something Fantasy (or SF)? How about things that are claimed to be tech, but meld up with Clarke's Law (\"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic\"?), including things that we'd currently consider impossible by our understanding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128344,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/18\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less-redux.html","url_meta":{"origin":2725,"position":1},"title":"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows (kinda-sorta more-or-less) (Redux)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Oct-15 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"So this is based on an article from a Popular Mechanics (!) article on \"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever\" [http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/culture\/movies\/g156\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows]. See here [https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/17\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less.html] for caveats and comments on that list. I've decided to do my own force ranking (thanks +Stan Pedzick), working within the same list (to do otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TV%2BGuide%2BSF.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":31932,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/sf-and-the-pitfalls-of-history.html","url_meta":{"origin":2725,"position":2},"title":"SF and the Pitfalls of History","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Dec-12 11:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"+Elizabeth Bear\u00a0discusses the inevitable datedness of fiction and the attitudes \/ assumptions of the author -- and what one can try and do about it. Embedded Link \u00bb Blog Archive \u00bb The pitfalls of history One of the great lies of science fiction is the idea that we are writing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7375,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/17\/even_the_zacath.html","url_meta":{"origin":2725,"position":3},"title":"Even the Zacathans would be moved","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Mar-05 3:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"SF god(dess) Andre Norton has died. Science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton, who wrote the popular \"Witch World\" series, has died. She was 93. [...] Norton requested before her...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/unchartedstars.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6456,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/31\/significant_sf.html","url_meta":{"origin":2725,"position":4},"title":"Significant SF Films","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 31-Aug-04 2:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Author John Scalzi is soliciting from folks their votes for the Fifty Most Significant SF Films. As some of you know, I'm currently writing The Rough Guide to Science Fiction...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50127,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/19\/writing-the-near-future.html","url_meta":{"origin":2725,"position":5},"title":"Writing the Near Future","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Apr-15 12:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing near-future stories -- SF or otherwise -- is a thankless task, because you will always, always, get something laughably wrong (a name, an obsolete product, a movement unpredicted, a technology that has died or has taken over). Predicting computer and video-telephones was common, but how many recognized that today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}