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I like the style, but I felt as though I only caught a third of the references (technical and literary). Was the naming thing a reference to William Gibson, or
by startupdiscuss 10y ago
I like the style, but I felt as though I only caught a third of the references (technical and literary).
Was the naming thing a reference to William Gibson, or Rumpelstilskin? Is there really a language named after Le Guin? What other references did I miss?
- 100k 10y agoIn Le Guin's Earthsea series, magic is based on knowing the "true name" of a thing (this gives the wizard/witch power over it). The K language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_(programming_language)) is famously impenetrable to read but is not named after Le Guin as far as I know.
- spoiler 10y ago> In Le Guin's Earthsea series, magic is based on knowing the "true name" of a thing This is a common thing among many fantasy fiction works, so it's hard to tell what inspired it; might not be Eartsea.
- 100k 10y agoIt comes from ancient folklore (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name). I mention Earthsea here because Aphyr is referencing Ursula K. Le Guin specifically.
- duskwuff 10y ago> Was the naming thing a reference to William Gibson, or Rumpelstilskin? Much older. The idea that knowing a being's True Name gives you power over it is common to many human cultures. There is not actually a language named after Le Guin (at least, not that I know of). However, she did write a fantasy series (Earthsea), in which wizards gain their power from the use of names.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]