"'The stodgy have triumphed again, it seems. You've done a remarkable piece of detective work, tracking us.'"
-Poul Anderson. The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 976 B. C., p. 44.
Thus, he anticipates the remarks of his female clone, Raor, when she is captured later in Everard's career. See Enemies' Appraisals II.
When Everard meets Shalten to plan the tracking down of the last Exaltationists, the latter refers to Wanda Tamberly as "'...Miss Wanda...'" and adds:
"'...(I will not employ that preposterous "Ms." appellation)...'"
-ibid., 1987 A. D., p. 70.
In The Devil's Game, Sunderland Haverner says:
"'Quite all right, Mrs. Thayer... Or do you prefer Miss, or even this ridiculous new Ms. I hear about?'"
-Poul Anderson, The Devil's Game (New York, 1980), INTRODUCTIONS, p. 22.
Although we should not attribute the opinions of fictional characters to their creators, I think that it is a safe bet that Anderson disliked "Ms."
Linguistic usage changes during our lifetimes and people find reasons to change terminologies. When I said "Chairperson," someone commented, "'Chairman' already applies to men or women so you don't have to say 'Chairperson,'" to which I replied, "But you don't have to object to me saying 'Chairperson!'"
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And, like Anderson (it seems) and the characters you quoted, I dislike the preposterous and ridiculous "Ms.," so many use for women! It also looks a lot like calling a woman "manuscript" (singular), the abbreviation for which is precisely that absurd "ms."
Another, even more irritating debasing of English is how "gay" has somehow come to mean "homosexual." I absolutely fail to see HOW a word that should mean ONLY "happy, merry, cheerful," etc., could mean "homosexual." These days you can get funny looks if you use the word "gay" in the older, CORRECT meaning!
And, yes, I dislike using the ludicrous "chairperson" for "chairman"!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Homosexuals were called "queer" so they retaliated by colonizing the word, "gay"!
Paul.
Sean,
We each make our own linguistic adjustments. I think that "chairperson" is ok if some people want to use it but I like the phrase, "Man makes his own history but not in circumstances of his own choosing," knowing that "Man" means the whole human race. It is a quote so we shouldn't change it.
When we say, "God and man," "Man and nature," "man and machine" and "man and woman," the word, "man," changes its meaning.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I disagree with that use of "queer" as well. Yet another word that gets you funny looks if you use it correctly!
And of course I agree with how the meaning of "man" can change, depending on context and on whether or not a generic sense is meant.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that English originally had 3 collective terms for "human beings": mann, wer, and wif. This followed the original Indo-European pattern.
Wer (cognate with Latin "vir"), meant "human male".
Wif meant "human female".
Mann meant "human beings in general".
In the medieval period "wer" dropped out of use except in some linguistic fossils (werewolf, for example). Wif did likewise (except in the specialized sense of "wife"). Mann became 'man' and now meant both males, and people in general. German retains this sense.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And these were much more NATURAL developments in the evolution of English thatn the grotesque abuse of "gay," for example.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment