This is space. Can I say duct tape?

They're in space. Can I say duct tape?

A real question I asked my sister a couple of months ago (to clarify, I was writing a sci-fi novel at the time). Because, I mean, this is a long time in the future. Would it even still be called duct tape? Her response: Of course my characters would have duct tape. After all, it's duct tape.

Plus, if Drax suggested Scotch tape, which has only a quarter of the popularity duct tape has, they have duct tape in space.

And I needed something for my characters to tape their ship back together with. But anyway.

I saw a similar question in a Facebook group this week, and I keep thinking about it. I have a good bit to say on the subject, so I might as well dump everything here while it's still fresh in my mind.

The question was posted in the Facebook group Your Write Dream (my favorite Facebook writing group, by the way). It was a pretty long question, so I've decided not to copy and paste, but the basic gist was: If you're trying to write hard-ish sci-fi and the characters have never been to Earth and therefore don't speak English, should you use the same names for everything as we do on Earth, or should you make up your own words for it?

It seems to me that the options are pretty obvious: Either you use new words and potentially confuse/aggravate the readers, or you use the words that Earth people use, and it might possibly be less realistic.

If you don't invent new words...

My response to the question in the group was along the lines of: They're not actually speaking English if they're aliens, and even if the book is supposed to be translated over from the alien language, it would end up using our words anyway.

Another problem with inventing your own words for the novel is that you could just confuse people. I, personally, hate when people make up new words for something that already exists. I mean, if there's already a word, why would you go out of your way to make up a new word?? I'm really bad at naming anything using made up words as it is without renaming everything.

I once read a book where I think it was supposed to be in another language, and occasionally they would bring up new words in the language, almost like they were teaching it to you. But the problem was, after they told you what it meant one. time. they never told you the translation again. You were just expected to remember it. This is an interesting approach to using the language, but I couldn't keep up, so I don't think it really worked. I'm don't have the brain capacity to remember all these new words you keep chucking at me, okay?

If you do invent new words...

However, now that I've argued against making up new words, I'm going to switch sides and say a few words for the cause of making up new words.

Let's think about the really smart people, here, shall we? J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Paolini, J.K. Rowling, all those smart people. They created their own languages, and therefore their own words. It's worked into the world. Words like argetlam or muggle are special for people who know what they mean. These are people who have made it work. Good grief, half of the words in Doctor Suess books are made up, but we understand what he means!

or at least give them new names that are intuitive.
(also, these make me snicker)

So if you have the right skills, you can make it work. BUT! I think made-up words are best left to fantasy books.

The difference is that fantasy books are a world that is already set up. It's history with a twist. Everyone understands it. The concept of adding a language and a few new words is nothing new or overwhelming. But in sci-fi, you have to set up the world (a foreign environment to process) with alien creatures (another foreign concept to process) and unusual situations (even more to add to the brain overload). Adding a thousand new words is just going to make it more confusing. There needs to be a balance. Sci-fi is a delicate creature and can so easily be done wrong.

In Summary...

So yeah. For fantasy, it's fine, but in sci-fi, my opinion is the same as someone else who responded to the Facebook question: 'If it looks like a duck, it sounds like a duck, and acts like a duck, why would you call it anything besides a duck?'


That's all I got for today. What's your opinion on this? Have you ever seen anything renamed in sci-fi without causing confusion? Let me know.

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