note: All three links from the first ask don't work anymore.
The issue with Ravkan names isn't that they're not strictly gendered, but that they're totally random. If it were occasionally inflected- all set in "male" form, with some women using the correct gendered one for example-, I'd say it's a dying habit, but how did Aleksander make it to Morozova?! Or Ilya?!
LB's manual for creation of names of places:
a.) Butcher an already existing name. Switch a few letters!
b.) Use a random root from language you didn't choose as your source.
c.) Pick a word that does exist in your chosen language, but slap in some suffix you've just pulled out of your ass. Don't forget to take your future US-American audience into consideration, so go for roots present in widely-known existing names, like place of nuclear disaster...
d.) Totally random whatever. Who cares anyway. TSARPUNK'S NOT DEAD, BITCHES!!!
So what's wrong with LB's pseudo-Russian "worldbuilding"?
She's cherry picking. Using her "inspiration" only when it suits her, all just for The Look™, ignoring anything deeper than the surface level. She's throwing around words like "servitude" without bothering to meaningfully engage with the issues. Placing random samovars and balalaikas somewhere people will notice, creating the cheapest parody of the vast historical background she stole from. That's cultural appropriation.
Apparently, Alina got her circle logic from her creator:
Here's my OTP: Bad and Light. Guess what happens when Light can no longer handle being separated from Bad? What could possibly be Bad for Light?
As @taragreenfield aptly pointed out:
First of all, it's kinda disrespectful- borrowing foreign words and ignoring their meanings. It's a bit similar to intentionally pronouncing non-English names wrong or outright turning them into English ones, because one cannot be arsed to learn the correct way.
Second-it makes no sense. Assuming the new Ravkan is simply "translated into English" for reader's convenience, the English connection wouldn't be there (Or are we pretending butchered Russian somehow turned into English naturally, as history progressed? Again -kinda offensive.).
There's no "⭐" in Starkov.
Third- to elaborate on the first point- the author's US entitlement is showing. Instead of coding hidden meanings in in-universe way, using the potential of the language she chose to draw from, she makes the world bend to her cultural glasses. She sees a thing as an English speaker, so she acts as if it were hidden there just for her use, even though a person from the culture she depicted has no reason to do the same, and worse- if Ravkan is truly supposed to come from Russian- they'll see something completely different.
This is still somewhere between frustrating, and hysterical.
Just... set google translate to EN/RU or RU/EN and play around with both the English translation and poor Uncle Google's attempts to identify the totally-not-Russian. This one's my fav:
Eeeeee-I hundred cutting or The tracker's tactical tramp stamp
Remember how Mal wanted Alina to get into her thick head she's not to keep seducing him with her presence?
Apparently, in Keramzin they didn't teach the Golden Rule...
Ruin and Rising- Chapter 5
A group of fugitives is camping near a big city. Alina brings her owner boyfriend loyal guard some news, since he's busy elsewhere:
Ehm...
Idk, but if he's so bothered by Alina's desire, why doesn't he go get dressed immediately? I'd feel uncomfortable half-naked in front of a person, who wants me against my wishes. It would be only natural to want to put some sort of barrier between them.
It's also basic consideration, since he requires the same from her. Like... why he keeps showing off solely in front of her?! Shortly after telling her how much he wants her, but refuses to pursue her for her sake?
Don't tell me someone, who has SO MUCH experience doesn't know how he affects female part of the population, when wet and bare-chested.
I won't even begin on the irresponsibility of playing half-naked in water, when on the run...
OMG, who could've guessed this is gonna happen?
I never saw it coming!
Attention and cookie points?
It's not like he can't also have it safely and quickly removed...
E... eeeee?!
ya... I
sta... NOT the first grammatical case of hundred?
rezku... 4th case of cutting, for some reason?!
This would make a delightful foreshadowing of a bit poorer relative of death by a thousand cuts, alas...
Likely the first thing ever we can agree on.
... and pretty dull one.
... whom the Grisha had followed... as if they had a choice...
... who'd told me I would be a queen? After finding out forbidding you doesn't work, so let's try to put you off.
Nah- in that case a possible reader could at least assume he doesn't mean it. That it's an irony...
Finally something that works!
He slut-shames her, virgin-shames her, tells her he wants to fuck her just like those many other girls before her, shows off his assets, and finally she can't resist!
She touches HIM in lustful way! No flinching this way!
I mean... he could always just swing his dick around, but that could look too direct and arouse her puritan upbringing instead.
note: Modern AU Malyen's totally sending Alina dick pics.
Who else?
He's just gullible enough to take Malyen's lovey-dovey act seriously. And everyone knows Tolya's the softer of the twins. More likely to appreciate such a romantic gesture properly.
As I wrote earlier- Malyen probably quickly figured out there's no place for him in Alina's cult unless he's a part of it. The Apparat isn't exactly fond of him- too aware of the danger Malyen presents to the saintly maiden he wants to parade around-, so the most likely allies are the twins, who aren't exactly happy with him either thanks to his drunken failure. So he makes the effort to change their opinion, proving just how much he wishes to rectify earlier error of his way. Loudly proclaiming how is he wholly devoted to Sankta Alina. That it makes him "just like them" is just a sweet bonus.
Inej mentions no sensation, when Nina makes her makeshift tattoo. Only an itch, when it's being erased by parem-high Nina, but then the scar under is also being healed.
Using one of Kaz’s lockpicks and copper pyrite Jesper had extracted from the roof, Wylan traced his best imitation of the Menagerie feather on Nina’s arm, following Inej’s description and making corrections as needed. Then Nina sank the ink into her own flesh. A Corporalnik didn’t need a tattoo needle. ... The harbor. Inej thought of the Ferolind with its cheerful flags, and tried to hold that image in her head as she watched the peacock feather sink into her skin.
SoC Chapter 28
Inej was glad she hadn’t had to ask. She pushed up her sleeve, baring the peacock feather and mottled skin beneath it.It took the barest second, the softest brush of Nina’s fingertips. The itch was acute but passed quickly. When the prickling faded, the skin of Inej’s forearm was perfect—almost too smooth and flawless, like it was the one new part of her.
SoC Chapter 42
Malyen's grand gesture was likely done in totally painless way.
Alina THE seductress.
As if he didn't get that tattoo to get her attention...
As if that weren't EXACTLY what's he aiming at.
As if he just didn't pass every chance he got to stop Alina before she gets too close.
A guy, who spent last year insisting you're a couple, and you should act accordingly, gets your name tattooed all over his back, makes sure you see it right after needlessly showing off his "admirable" skills, then pretends you're seducing him against his will.
The very same guy, who claimed to be basically a horse female whisperer not so long ago?!
Apologies, but the association just popped up in my head. The band rocks, they don't deserve it, but that's exactly what Malyen would be singing, were this a musical.
Metan, okay, I can see where did that come from, but what is "yez" supposed to mean?! Let's try to transcribe it with y/i/-
Sorry, Uncle Google, but I'm pretty sure Russian "without" is the same as ours- Bez:
As for "out", that reminds me of a word for running in imperative in Czech- Běž!- which could be in that sentence- David might be shouting: "Methane, run!" in Old Ravkan for some reason... But that would have "B" at the beginning, and apparently Russian has both infinitive and imperative a bit different:
Do you have any ideas/theories on what the ‘thisness’ vs ‘thatness’ mentioned in the first SaB book is? Or is it just one of those things we’ll never know because of the surface-level world building?
Some bullshit in pseudoRussian mentioned once to make it look like the author bothered with consistent, coherent worldbuilding?
The grounding principle of the Small Science was “like calls to like,” but then it got complicated. Odinakovost was the “thisness” of a thing that made it the same as everything else. Etovost was the “thatness” of a thing that made it different from everything else. Odinakovost connected Grisha to the world, but it was etovost that gave them an affinity for something like air, or blood, or in my case, light.
Shadow and Bone- Chapter 10
And that's literally EVERYTHING we get on these "basics" of Small Science. Ever.
Or not?!
“It is not too far,” she sneered. “You are as much there as you are here. The same things that make the mountain make you. It has no lungs, so let it breathe with you. It has no pulse, so give it your heartbeat. That is the essence of the Small Science.” She thumped me with her stick. “Stop huffing like a wild boar. Breathe the way I taught you—contained, even.”
I felt my cheeks redden, and I slowed my breathing.
Snippets of Grisha theory filled my head. Odinakovost. Thisness. Etovost. Thatness. It was all a muddle. But the words that came back to me most strongly were Morozova’s fevered scrawl: Are we not all things?
Ruin and Rising- Chapter 7
Sorry, that's just repetition of the terms, but nothing else. :(
If I understand it correctly, the first one is basically "Everything is made of particles.". Even if it's so, it's worded rather poorly.
The second one doesn't make much sense to me. Especially since whatever affinity's described, doesn't really matter if you have enough power to push through any differences. Besides we have no idea how do Grisha manipulate matter to begin with...
I miss my physics teachers.
I've also seen people point out the linguistic nonsense in these:
odin - one
eto - this
That's like... the same thing?! There's no obvious difference between meanings. If you're referring to something as "the one", you're basically pointing a finger at it, saying "I'm talking about THIS!".
