From: A_Tina_Hall@kruemel.org   
      
    wrote:   
   > David E. Siegel (siegel@acm.org)  wrote:   
      
   >> But then, hours are a quite old concept, nor are they tied to a   
   >> particular astronomical feature.  I wouldn't feel drastically upset   
   >> to read of an "hour" in a work set on another world, indeed rather   
   >> less by an 'hour" than by a "mile" or a "meter", I think.   
      
   > I use hours in Cantata and Pavane.  Just not in the stories set in   
   > Racciman's World -- 'cause I'm just weird that way, I guess.   
      
   > Okay, no, actually it's because I think of Cantata and Pavane as   
   > having been written in some other language, and I'm translating.  So   
   > I would have translated whatever they actually use into hours.   
      
   > But I don't think of the Racciman's World stories as being   
   > translations.   
      
   I don't like the idea of a story being a translation, but I just have to   
   use that concept in the Magic Earth series. Some people can watch our   
   world, and know our languages, and theirs are definitely different (with   
   some mentioned to be influenced by languages here). So the story written   
   in English, while the people definitely don't speak English, just has to   
   be a translation. Sigh.   
      
   Not that hours is a problem for them. (See 'some can watch our world'.)   
      
   But I get to do funny things with words they don't have due to the   
   technology not being allowed, while someone who can watch our world uses   
   straight word translations for things he built, like:   
      
   ----   
   [...]   
      
   Dener looked round, eyes wandering from one pile with weird looking   
   things to the next. "What _is_ all that stuff?"   
      
   "Don't ask me. The only thing I ever found useful was that watch thing.   
   Don't ask me why he called it that, either. It told you what time it   
   was, and then the Shan, or rather his guards, purged it from the city."   
      
   She went over to a pile and pulled out a little, two finger thick, round   
   metal thing on a thin chain. "This." She held it up to her ear. "Looks   
   like he doesn't use it, either." she said, opening the lid and looking   
   inside.   
   [...]   
   ----   
      
   As just one example.   
      
   I think the Seasons&Elements trilogy is more along the lines of 'not   
   translated'.   
      
   --   
   "Hah! A joke!"   
   "Must be the influence of the bad company I can't get rid of."   
                                  -- Karja & Sil, Magic Earth 7/6   
   Excerpts at:    
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)