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Post by Dante on Jun 1, 2012 8:38:49 GMT -5
Openlibrary has a short new synopsis of the book which reveals the name of the fading town: Stain'd By The SeaSo not Lake Lachrymose or Tedia then.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Jun 1, 2012 14:44:03 GMT -5
"Tiny dot of a town" - I wonder how relative this is. Perhaps more importantly, I wonder if it's relevant. "Stain'd By The Sea" - the linguistics remind me of pirates. "Stain'd" has, appropriately enough, a negative connotation. "By The Sea" is more ambiguous ... although not really: it could mean "next to the sea" or "the sea stain'd the town," but I think most people would read it as the latter.
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Post by Dante on Jun 1, 2012 15:12:29 GMT -5
It's a pun, partly, I feel I should explain; there are a lot of towns called Whatever-on-the-sea or on-sea or by-the-sea and so on, whereas this town is, rather grimily, stained - Stain'd - by the sea. I'm kind of surprised that the setting of all four books has such a joke name, but on the othr hand, it might not be mentioned much.
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Post by Hermes on Jun 1, 2012 15:14:48 GMT -5
X-by-the-Sea is a quite a common form for town names in Britain - in fact I'm going to one such place tomorrow - and it normally means 'next to the sea', but in this case it's clearly a pun.
Coincidentally, the town of Staines in Middlesex (or, according to some, Surrey) has recently changed its name to Staines-on-Thames. It is indeed on the Thames, but the name still doesn't sound right.
Edit: snap!
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Post by Christmas Chief on Jun 1, 2012 15:25:22 GMT -5
Never heard of a by-the-sea location, but now that I have I agree it's a clever pun. I'm not so surprised the name is a joke, on the other hand. Many ASOUE location names are funny, and "Stain'd By The Sea" isn't absurd to the point of embarrassment .
For that matter, is abbreviating common, too, in the same way some olde shoppes add extra letters for mood, or is "Stain'd" unique?
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Post by Dante on Jun 1, 2012 15:56:28 GMT -5
I think that's a more artificial piece of olde-worlde charm. Makes it look more like a name and less like an insult.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Jun 1, 2012 18:51:32 GMT -5
We know of two other humorously named locations in ATWQ: the Museum of Bad Breakfast and the Hemlock Tearoom.
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Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Jun 1, 2012 19:28:23 GMT -5
Ha, I knew it wasn't gonna be Lake Lachrymose! And I think almost all of the locations in ASoUE are humorously named, so it's only natural for ATWQ to continue that tradition. (Have yet to read the chapter - Damn, I'm exited!!)
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Post by Kensicle on Jun 1, 2012 23:38:42 GMT -5
The chapter was different to what I expeccted, but it's still pretty darn good. Yeah, it's natural for ATWQ to continue ASOUE's traditions, but one tradition it doesn't continue is alliteration in names.
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