(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

...the hardest thing about writing fantasy is that a lot of common (or, I don't know, not so common) phrases that have a cultural context attached to them, and I'm not sure if I can use them here. Certainly not from Tirian's POV. One of the Pevensies', maybe, but not Tirian's.

Priest-hole, for instance...

Or shooting fish in a barrel. Although that one's not for Dust, it's for the post-LWW fic.

Comments

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

But the FUN thing about writing fantasy is that you can make up your own idiom. Well, I enjoyed that part, at least. *G*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

This is true! Except then I worry that the audience doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about, and I'm only writing fic; at least that I can explain in comments, if need be.

[lazaefair.livejournal.com]

You could pull a Tolkien - write with familiar idioms, then pretend that you were "translating" a fantasy language and were merely substituting equivalent English phrases in.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Alas, I do not think that would work in this story. *sad*

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Easy as stomping grapes in a vat? :D


A priest-hole would be useful. Just snip out "priest" and insert "hiding"...now, who would need to hide in a great House or palace? Why? What Age?...I can see it definitely being useful in Jadis' palace, for instance, by a 5th column of spies, smuggling out to-be-petrified victims and such. Or under the Telmarines' rule. I'm not sure if Cair Paravel would allow it, in the G.A.-a hiding place from "her" royals? Hmm.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Right now I have "hunting rats in a barrel", which...doesn't make all that much sense.

LB era. *sigh*

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Rats in a maze...? Er. *blinks* Well, what *would* you hunt rats in?


Perhaps "hunting rabbits in a warren"...?


LB-probably remnants of Telmarine architcture...they'd surely have bodyguards watching over their leaders from hidey-holes...and the Calormenes would adopt the usage with enthusiasm...they probably feel about the early Telmarines like *they* do about their version of Peter & Co. :D

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The specific instance is a Narnian manor in the oldest part of the city that's currently being inhabited by Narnians, but the Calormenes conduct random raids just in case they happen to be hiding any fugitives.

[dikela.livejournal.com]

*Hunting rats in a barrel* seems quite understandable. Though it sounds more Calormene. Somehow I can't imagine Narnians really hunting rats in a barrel/box. This is an amusement for a sadist, but I can see Lewis's Calormenes taking pleasure in it.

[almostinstinct.livejournal.com]

Catching fish in a barrel? I mean, they got nuthin' else to bite.

[isweedan]

Smuggler's hole/compartment/Shift+F7?

Bolt hole?

Ley Tunnels came up when I went to the wiki category for secret places. They're cool http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_tunnel but not what you're looking for, I think :P

I had a fun 30 min. googling 'equivilant shooting fish barrel' and then some more fun with 'as easy as *'

Which is where I found the unhelpful but fascinating http://www.omniglot.com/language/idioms/easy.php Much love for Understandable to a hedgehog

But what you're looking for, I gather, is something to also communicate the cruel pettiness of the fish shooting. Or else things like 'as easy as finding a robin in spring' or 'like finding sand in Calormene' could work. How about 'getting drunk in a winery?' or...I want to use the snowball dance from Silver Chair, but can't quite think of how.

Lol, can you tell I was thinking about this all through logic class?