Delightful Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 (edited) There's this trend I've noticed more and more around here, involving weirdly placed exclamation marks. e.g. sideburns!Elend Of course I conveniently can't find any more examples now that I actually want to ask about it, but they seem to follow a pattern of Noun!Name. Anyway, where does it come from, and why does everyone seem to use it? Did this become part of English when I wasn't watching? Am I the only confused one? Edited April 23, 2014 by Delightful 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claincy Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 I...really dunno. Just so you know you aren't the only one. Cos I'm nice and helpful like that ; ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 Never seen 'em. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 I've seen it before, but I really don't have the foggiest clue where it comes from. I've seen it used for parallel universes (goatee!Spock) and for different versions of a character (sideburns!Elend). I'm actually now confused whether all of the examples I've seen "in the wild" have been referring to a character's facial hair. Puzzled!Kobold King out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 I will guess Tumblr. It seems like a thing that would start there. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PorridgeBrick Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 Huh. I thought I was just the crazy one here and everyone else knew what it meant. Now I have friends in my ignorance. Perplexed!People unite!? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 It's a handy method of notation, though. It lets you use a noun as an adjective without confusion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasimir Posted April 23, 2014 Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 (edited) Delightful, on 23 Apr 2014 - 9:23 PM, said: There's this trend I've noticed more and more around here, involving weirdly placed exclamation marks. e.g. sideburns!Elend Of course I conveniently can't find any more examples now that I actually want to ask about it, but they seem to follow a pattern of Noun!Name. Anyway, where does it come from, and why does everyone seem to use it? Did this become part of English when I wasn't watching? Am I the only confused one? Kobold King is right--at least as far as I know, it comes from fandom. Not the crowd at 17s; more the fanfiction writing crowd in fandom, so places like livejournal, tumblr, FFN, etc. The noun is mostly used as shorthand to denote a type of character, so people might talk about 'dark!Harry' (example from Harry Potter) or 'manipulative!Dumbledore.' Why exactly the '!', I'm sorry, I don't know. (At least when I was paying attention to the fanfiction crowd about...oh, ten years ago, I'd seen it in circulation.) Edited April 23, 2014 by Kasimir 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted April 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Hmm, I don't get it but I kind of understand it now. Good to know I'm not alone! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasimir Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Delightful, on 24 Apr 2014 - 2:41 PM, said: Hmm, I don't get it but I kind of understand it now. Good to know I'm not alone! Thanks I guess (just one last attempt)--it's a pretty succinct way of conveying information about what kind of things a reader can expect in your fic, which is useful. No one wants a long story summary, and something like: 'Sometimes you have to start taking back what is yours. D!Harry, Mentor!Snape, Slyth!Harry.' is within conventional character limits (if you're writing on FFN, there are character limits to your summary) and it lets fans immediately know if it's what they're after.For example, dark!/creature!Harry fics are pretty much a genre on their own. You can't always tell from a story's summary, but these tags let you know what you're getting. Eventually it just spreads out into: sideburns!Elend, Radiant!Adolin, Dark!Adolin and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 I've never used the system myself, but I usually see it to denote a character in different stages, like the Sideburns!Elend you mentioned, referring to his pre-WoA state. Things like Possessed!Charactername is something that I see a lot when distinguishing various stages of character development. Then again, I hold a burning hatred in this shriveled raisin I pawn off as a heart for the place known as Tumblr, so my interpretation of the system is quite likely flawed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 There are definite flaws with Tumblr. At the end of the day, though, it produces GREAT SA fanart, so I don't have a problem with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 I believe that, whatever its origins, it could be a useful form of notation. We could use it for surgeon!Kaladin in AU fics. Certain other characters whose names may or may not begin with "T" change enough on a regular basis so that they can be efficiently referred to with tumblr!Notation. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 Astronomical Unit fics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 Astronomical Unit fics? Alternate universe fics, though I've seen fanfictions in which the other could apply. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 Oh! I assumed you tried to say SA and were auto corrected. Sorry about that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted April 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 Actually sideburns!Elend was referring to Hans from Frozen (due to his all-white fancy clothing) so I think we actually have a second application of this. Changed state of character refers to another similar character? Or is that really just the same thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King Posted April 25, 2014 Report Share Posted April 25, 2014 Actually sideburns!Elend was referring to Hans from Frozen (due to his all-white fancy clothing) so I think we actually have a second application of this. Changed state of character refers to another similar character? Or is that really just the same thing? Hans was a Scadrian Emperor? Or... oh wait. White clothes don't actually mean imperialism. My bad. And yeah, I think it's pretty much the same thing. exclamation!Notation is essentially a way of using a noun to modify another noun. It dispenses with adjectives and uses a more direct, precise method of communicating characters or other concepts from a certain point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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