The poeple who are good at naming things are the people who shape our thinking. Labelling what’s in front of you, accurately enough so everyone else can feel that solid thump of recocognisation is one thing. Douglas Coupland. Chuck Palahniuk.
But inventing things and naming those things to make them seem utterly real and inevitable, well. that’s something else again. Ono-Sendai. Tessier Ashpool. Ice.
“flechette”, for example, is genius. You vaguely remember that a fleche has something to do with arrows, so flechette, tiny arrows, it sounds dangerous and automatic and very fast. It’s just a gun really. but it sounds accurate and deadly new.
Maas-Neotek. Dornier. Macrofoam. Derms...

Do you think WG liked Alfred Bester?

Gibson has mentioned in interviews that he considers that a great part of SF writing craft,altough he mixes "real" brand names with the invented stuff.Like Dornier, which is a German aircraft company.

Fléchette is actually a proper word, a proper french word, the diminutive of Fléche, ie a little arrow. You'd be surprised how little WG actually makes up, he seems to just pick the best and the most obscure references.

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Fléchette is actually a proper word...

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and sadly a proper product as well 'The 21st century alternative to buckshot'.

I have to agree that Gibson names have a Dickensian 'rightness' about them. Why waste 500 words on character backstory and development when you can do it all in a name? (Because it's very difficult to consistently get right, that's why)

haven't flechette guns been around since the 50s?

Someone did a great list of all the company names in the Sprawl stories:

http://www.lynellen.com/cyber/zaibatsu.html

I like the mergers WG has invented, like Dornier Fujitsu Automotive/Aerospace or Turk-Tuborg Breweries...

... may not have as much fun naming things as Charles Dickens had naming people, WG uses a dense referential language in his descriptions. One knows or at least has a passing familiarity with the terms invoked .

Tessier-Ashpool


Hotspur Hussar

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Originally posted by Blakkandekka:

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Fléchette is actually a proper word...

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and sadly a proper product as well http://www.angelfire.com/sk/sabot/.

I have to agree that Gibson names have a Dickensian 'rightness' about them. Why waste 500 words on character backstory and development when you can do it all in a name? (Because it's very difficult to consistently get right, that's why)

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by mr phoenix:
The poeple who are good at naming things are the people who shape our thinking. Labelling what’s in front of you, accurately enough so everyone else can feel that solid thump of recocognisation is one thing.
“flechette”, for example, is genius. You vaguely remember that a fleche has something to do with arrows, so flechette, tiny arrows, it sounds dangerous and automatic and very fast. It’s just a gun really. but it sounds accurate and deadly new.
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I agree, "labellers" are great. What would we do here if not for Wiener and his labelling of "cybernetic" ?
Actually, Gibson didn't really orignate the world "flechette", it is French, and it means darts... By the way, does someone know if there are any plans from Gibson to come to France ? He said to McCafferey he thought that Neuromancer would only be popular in strange places like in France... he was not far from the truth He has a lot of fans there (me among them)
bon jour

Leo