Nomenclative confusion
Feb. 9th, 2009 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swan_towerMy poor copy-editor, dealing with London place-names. Fully half the queries on this book go something like this. "St. Laurence Jewry" -- do you mean St. Laurence Pountney? "St. Giles Cripplegate" -- do you mean St. Giles-in-the-Fields? "Aldgate" -- do you mean Aldersgate? No, no, and no. Last book, it was people names instead; she kept double-checking to make sure this Edward whoever was not supposed to be that Edward whoever.
I'm glad she does it, of course. One of these days I will name two St. Laurence parishes when I only mean to name one. And to be fair, it took me a remarkably long time to sort the two St. Gileses from one another, and to figure out where each one was. But the queries amuse me. If this were a secondary-world fantasy, I wouldn't repeat names half so often as the real world does, precisely because of this confusion.
I'm glad she does it, of course. One of these days I will name two St. Laurence parishes when I only mean to name one. And to be fair, it took me a remarkably long time to sort the two St. Gileses from one another, and to figure out where each one was. But the queries amuse me. If this were a secondary-world fantasy, I wouldn't repeat names half so often as the real world does, precisely because of this confusion.
