Anyone else hate British cuteness?

[tigermilk]

I thought hanging on in quiet desperation was the british way?

And I will see you my friend on the dark side of the moon!

And here I thought you'd have something more to say.

[I'm afraid] The time is gone, the song is over.

 

[Gardenia]

Key difference being that he was a philologist, had a professor status in "English language and literature" and on top of that he was a professor of Anglo-Saxon. He also knew Middle English, Old English, Finnish, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Old Norse, Spanish, Welsh, and Medieval Welsh. And on top of that he was at the least familiar with Danish, Dutch, Lombardic, Norwegian, Icelandic, Russian, Swedish, Middle Dutch, Middle and Old German, Old Slavonic, and Lithuanian. So I'd say he was kind of qualified to make functional fictional languages.

Which also is a key difference, you can decipher Elrond into "Elf of the cave" if you do some digging. Elvish is a functional language (if slightly incomplete), you can at least believe that it belongs to a language you're simply not familiar with as opposed to most of those "cat walked over keyboard" names you see in my trashy fantasy novels.

Not to say that Tolkien's the be all, end all of fantasy, but I'm just saying that if you're going to come up with exotic names that you best make sure there is some reason and rhyme to it. Which is why I don't have much of a problem with Muggles, it could very well be an English slang word.

Oh yes, don't get me wrong. The names in Tolkien's work aren't generic at all. I'm Norwegian, and in some of the words, I can clearly see the influence from nordic languages. My gripe is not with Tolkien, but with all those who try to copy him.

 

[caffineking]

OP. You're living in the country that gave the world 'Tickle Me Elmo' FFS. Idiot.

 

[ToxicOranges]

How is this thread still alive?!

Seriously guys, what is there to discuss anymore?

OT: Brits are massively cynical.

 

[SckizoBoy]

How is this thread still alive?!

My thoughts exactly... blame it on Gardenia (post551) for replying 18hrs too late!

 

[vortexgods]

What the fuck are you talking about?
Maybe you've confused us with the fucking care bears or something?
Seriously, no one here as a clue what you are talking about.
Hell, i'm now tempted to set up a thread intilted- 'Anyone else hate American ignorance?' based off one person.

I was right there with you up until that last sentence. Then I was like :< because I'm an American.

Read it carefully, i'm not having a go at Americans, but just his method of british cuteness.
He decided to genralize a whole nation over one word in one authors book, so i made that point just to show how unfair it was.
Honestly, Americans... so ignorant...

Right guy I know your being ironic, fnaw fnaw fnaw, and all that but I actually do understand what hes talking about. Hes refering to the way all of our folklore sort of sounds "random in a simple sort of way". Like Brownies, Boggarts and Red Caps.

I always thought it was cute the way Red Caps kept their Caps Red by dipping them in the blood of murdered children.

I swear to God, is the Bing virus going around or something. As I said in my first big post, just because it sounds cute doesnt mean it is, ESPECIALLY when it concerns folklore. You know what a Red Cap is so chances are you know a couple of others and realise that their mostly boogie men which dont tend to have the "cutest" reputations.
To be honest I dont really agree with the OP. I hate it when writers just slap stuff with words that have no basis like "the spear of vol'kinarish", its just lazy. British folklore on the other hand sound weird for a reason, like the word Flibbergibbet... huhuhuh.

Right... um, that was just intended as a joke, not as a nasty, sarcastic response. (I just think it's funny that Red Caps do have sort of a cute name, until you find out why.... no offense meant.)

 

[Yeager942]

WP op

Troll successful

 

[PunkRex]

What the fuck are you talking about?
Maybe you've confused us with the fucking care bears or something?
Seriously, no one here as a clue what you are talking about.
Hell, i'm now tempted to set up a thread intilted- 'Anyone else hate American ignorance?' based off one person.

I was right there with you up until that last sentence. Then I was like :< because I'm an American.

Read it carefully, i'm not having a go at Americans, but just his method of british cuteness.
He decided to genralize a whole nation over one word in one authors book, so i made that point just to show how unfair it was.
Honestly, Americans... so ignorant...

Right guy I know your being ironic, fnaw fnaw fnaw, and all that but I actually do understand what hes talking about. Hes refering to the way all of our folklore sort of sounds "random in a simple sort of way". Like Brownies, Boggarts and Red Caps.

I always thought it was cute the way Red Caps kept their Caps Red by dipping them in the blood of murdered children.

I swear to God, is the Bing virus going around or something. As I said in my first big post, just because it sounds cute doesnt mean it is, ESPECIALLY when it concerns folklore. You know what a Red Cap is so chances are you know a couple of others and realise that their mostly boogie men which dont tend to have the "cutest" reputations.
To be honest I dont really agree with the OP. I hate it when writers just slap stuff with words that have no basis like "the spear of vol'kinarish", its just lazy. British folklore on the other hand sound weird for a reason, like the word Flibbergibbet... huhuhuh.

Right... um, that was just intended as a joke, not as a nasty, sarcastic response. (I just think it's funny that Red Caps do have sort of a cute name, until you find out why.... no offense meant.)

Aaaah, my bad. Im sorry guy, I have an older brother whos like a robot and a younger sister whos like Chandler from friends combined with the Ice Queen so I get confused over sarcasm vs sincerity. I wasnt mad so sorry if I messed with you in anyway.

 

[Febel]

The british don't make things cute, they make things depressing. And rainy. And good television.

 

[TeeBs]

Because these two are often compared I will use them to represent the U.S. and Great Britain.
Twilight (representing the good ol U.S.A.) keeps the name but changes what the myths in general does, as in vampires that sparkle and such.
Harry Potter (representing Great Britain) changes the name but ultimately keeps what the myth in question does.
and for fun
Anime in General (representing Japan) Butchers everything in the name of cuteness. (though I still like it more then the American counter part.)

 

[Duskwaith]

British+cute=no

British+Sardony=yes

This is a very strange perspective on British culture

 

[Comando96]

As an American, I do like British culture, especially comedy, but I can't get over their obsession with making everything cute.

I'm not even sure if cute is the right word, it's just the best word I can muster. They don't just apply cute names to things like the Japanese do, but apply cuteness and expect everyone to take it seriously. I can't get into Harry Potter, though I'm sure it's brilliantly written, just because non-magic users are referred to as Muggles. To compare, the Final Fantasy series has creatures called Moogles, but FF doesn't force us to take them seriously.

Again, it might just be the fact that I'm American. I'm used to mystical things sounding sort of Asian or Middle Eastern and putting apostrophes in random places. An ancient secret society should be called Kal'sur and the mystical weapon should be Dor'salim. So if non-magic using people in the HP universe were called Cara'sin instead of Muggles, maybe I wouldn't be posting this on the net, but as it is, Muggles is a word that forces me to accept the fact that I'm reading a book written for an 8 year old even though the later novels grow with the audience.

As it is, I hate British naming of Fantasy things. Posters should feel free to add their own grievances.

Well... British guy here...

One thing the English have is a very complicated Language which has evolved over a good millennia and more which (according to wikipedia) has over 1,000,000 words in it.

America picked up the English language in its form in 1786 taking little of the depository the rest of the United Kingdom have to draw upon as its is part of our history. If you want a quick sample Shakespeare.
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." - Hamlet

Yes... methinks is a an actual word

 

[E.Blackadder]

Fracking American and his fracking ignorance....just search up 'Mitchell and Webb quiz' or 'end of Blackadder' and tell me that the British are, as you say, cute.
This was brought to you all the way from kiwiland.

 

[DSK-]

Believe it or not, one of the officers involved in the Dambusters raid had a dog called ****** :/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_%28dog%29

Now that's just wrong!
You wouldn't name a dog "Mittens" or "Honourable Chairman Miao", just like you wouldn't name a cat "Poncho" or "Woofington". For christs sake, there a clear and simple rules on the different rythms and/or levels of hillarity present in animal names and they should be enforced, damnit!

Yes, well unfortunately it simply wasn't regarded as 'offensive' in those days. There was also a lot of stigma towards the Japanese who were regarded as "small, yellow and buck-teethed" and generally inferior people.

How wrong they were

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Believe it or not, one of the officers involved in the Dambusters raid had a dog called ****** :/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_%28dog%29

Now that's just wrong!
You wouldn't name a dog "Mittens" or "Honourable Chairman Miao", just like you wouldn't name a cat "Poncho" or "Woofington". For christs sake, there a clear and simple rules on the different rythms and/or levels of hillarity present in animal names and they should be enforced, damnit!

Yes, well unfortunately it simply wasn't regarded as 'offensive' in those days. There was also a lot of stigma towards the Japanese who were regarded as "small, yellow and buck-teethed" and generally inferior people.

How wrong they were

My granny owned a dog called '******' around that time, although now they try and pretend it was called 'Blackie', but we're in Ireland, and we didn't have anywhere near the same levels and extremes of racism that America experienced, so I think it was more of a xenophobic thing than being maliciously racist, like the Golliwogs, it was crude, ill informed humour.

 

[Dominic Burchnall]

British cuteness?

Come take a day trip around Canton, see how cute we seem after that.

As a member of a nationality that spent several years sticking flags and bullets into the ground and people respectively and calling the resultant pile of wealth and corpses an Empire, followed by battling empire builders alongside your countrymen for the first half of the last century, I really don't see how anyone could construe the British as a stereotypically "cute" nation.

 

[technoted]

Yeah, I have no idea what you're on about here. last I heard us Brits were just cynical and sharp witted and quite the opposite of cute.

 

[drummond13]

This thread is still going on?