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Mistborn reference in Alcatraz versus the evil Librarians


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Okay, so now I wonder: did Brandon pull a Tolkien and invent his own "language" (read: slang), or was this based off of something that Brandon was already familiar with?

(Great catch, by the way. Sounds just like Spook's dialect.)

it is a direct quote:

“I’m dying of anticipation,” Breeze said. He turned his cane toward Lestibournes. “Spook, drink.”

Spook rushed over and fetched Breeze a cup of wine.

“He’s such a fine lad,” Breeze noted, accepting the drink. “I barely even have to nudge him Allomantically. If only

the rest of you ruffians were so accommodating.”

Spook frowned. “Niceing the not on the playing without.”

“I have no idea what you just said, child,” Breeze said. “So I’m simply going to pretend it was coherent, then move

on.”

Kelsier rolled his eyes. “Losing the stress on the nip,” he said. “Notting without the needing of care.”

“Riding the rile of the rids to the right,” Spook said with a nod.

“What are you two babbling about?” Breeze said testily.

“Wasing the was of brightness,” Spook said. “Nip the having of wishing of this.”

“Ever wasing the doing of this,” Kelsier agreed.

“Ever wasing the wish of having the have,” Ham added with a smile. “Brighting the wish of wasing the not.”

Breeze turned to Dockson with exasperation. “I believe our companions have finally lost their minds, dear friend.”

Dockson shrugged. Then, with a perfectly straight face, he said, “Wasing not of wasing is.”

Breeze sat, dumbfounded, and the room burst into laughter. Breeze rolled his eyes indignantly, shaking his head and

muttering about the crew’s gross childishness.

Vin nearly choked on her wine as she laughed. “What did you even say?” she asked of Dockson as he sat down

beside her.

“I’m not sure,” he confessed. “It just sounded right.”

“I don’t think you said anything, Dox,” Kelsier said.

“Oh, he said something,” Spook said. “It just didn’t mean anything.”

Kelsier laughed. “That’s true pretty much all the time. I’ve found you can ignore half of what Dox tells you and not miss much—except for maybe the occasional complaint that you’re spending too much.”

Edited by Catalyst21
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No, I mean the dialect as a whole, not that one line.

If you hate Spook's dialect, I apologize for this chapter. This is the place in the book where I spent the most time on it. I really like some of the phrases here—I tried to make the dialect focus on rhythm and sounds, making it alliterative and interesting simply to say out-loud. In case you need it, here's a loose translation of the exchange in this chapter:

Spook: "It's not nice to play with people like that."

Kelsier: "Oh, don't worry about what he does to you. He's not worth your concern."

Spook: "You're probably right."

Breeze: "What are you two babbling about?"

Spook: "He wants to be clever. He pushes people around because he wants to prove that he is clever."

Kelsier "He's always been like that."

Ham "He's insecure. I think he worries that he's really not that clever."

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just found a quote from Brandon about this:

source=http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/01/your-questions-for-brandon-sanderson-answered

Why does Bastille say they’re speaking Melerandian in book 1 and Nalhallan from book 2 on?

When I originally wrote Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians, I put that in there partially as a throwaway joke. Melerand is one of the main kingdoms in Dragonsteel, and I thought it would be amusing for them to be speaking that language somehow filtered into this world. By the end of the book I decided that Alcatraz could not be anywhere in the same continuity as Dragonsteel and that I was probably wrong for including that. Though there are other jokes in there relating to my other books—it’s much like the scene where Quentin speaks in Spook’s dialect. Those were just jokes, inside references to my other books.

Edited by Catalyst21
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Okay, so now I wonder: did Brandon pull a Tolkien and invent his own "language" (read: slang), or was this based off of something that Brandon was already familiar with?

It says in the annotations that he based the slang off of the way somebody in one of his forums spoke– I believe he describes it as poetic in an unintelligible way.

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  • 5 months later...

I believe that Ironeyes is right. I remember reading that somewhere, probably in an annotation. Also in the Alcatraz annotation for chapter 16 he talks about this very quote, among other references he makes, including one of the talking British dinosaurs making a reference to Micheal Crichton. (I believe he calls this chapter something along the lines of 'My Chapter for Random Obscure References'.)

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