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Latin for Gamers: Intertextuality
Gamer-speak is very allusive (like the language of the Tamarians). The habit of quoting (or misquoting) poignant lines from (un)pop-cultural sources is found as much around the gaming table as it is in any other moment in a gamer's life (if there are others). It enables the gamer to participate in the rich cultural heritage of dorkdom, to display competitively his or her vast knowledge of this heritage, and to fill up gaps in conversation when an original thought simply will not do.
So we'd better translate some of these puppies into Latin. I have had to be highly selective; I could do an entire installment, no doubt, with quotations from just Star Wars or Monty Python, but I think we all get enough of that as it is. In a few cases I had to make sure of the exact wording of the originals -- and that, my friends, is what the internet is for.
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Gamer-speak is very allusive (like the language of the Tamarians). The habit of quoting (or misquoting) poignant lines from (un)pop-cultural sources is found as much around the gaming table as it is in any other moment in a gamer's life (if there are others). It enables the gamer to participate in the rich cultural heritage of dorkdom, to display competitively his or her vast knowledge of this heritage, and to fill up gaps in conversation when an original thought simply will not do.
So we'd better translate some of these puppies into Latin. I have had to be highly selective; I could do an entire installment, no doubt, with quotations from just Star Wars or Monty Python, but I think we all get enough of that as it is. In a few cases I had to make sure of the exact wording of the originals -- and that, my friends, is what the internet is for.
( Read more... )
