Yeah, sure, seeing new things is helpful as a fantasy writer. But. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that exposure to new things is the same as traveling. You know what else exposes you to new things?  The internet. Documentaries. Books. Freaking Youtube. So when you’re bored of cats and cooking tutorials, go on an adventure!

You wanna write create some fantasy creatures but don’t know where to start? Go check out some videos The Weird Creatures Earth has Had.

Want some inspiration for your Super Evil Villain’s Villanous Deeds?

Or maybe you want some weird locations to kick start your Fantasy World Terraforming?

Or maybe you need knowledge of bunches of historical places and cities and cultures?

But maybe you’re basing fantasy on the modern world?

Okay but lets say you want to start from the same inspiration as GRRM? (and part two!)

That’s just the stuff I could quickly grab. Things I’m subscribed to, that I know offhand. There is So. Much. Stuff. Online.

The best thing about the internet is that it means its not just the fortunate sons that get to learn, and explore and imagine and write. We get to see stories from all over the place, from all sorts of people, who bring All Kinds of New Ideas.

I like you.

[ID: a screenshot of a tiktok. The text says:

me trying to explain that booktok and social media has completely changed the way that authors advertise their books to the world, that they're more focused on having unnecessary amounts of "spicy" scenes to make it more taboo and forcing certain tropes into the book to pitch it towards their audience. More and more people are getting their book recommendations from tiktok and instagram than goodreads and blogs now. People are more focused on catchy "one liners" and crazy scenes rather than the literary strength of the writing and depth of the characters. This is why the term "booktok book" is now being used within negative connotations. Because these are books that blew up on this platform and are SPECIFICALLY written to appeal to a "tiktok centric" audience.

/end ID]

I was reminded of the 'party girl' quote, so here's what the passage actually says (lacunae are filled by other copies of the text).

This sounds far more like "If you found a good woman don't fumble her." Than it does party girl. And I dunno how anyone came to the party girl conclusion.

Yes, that's pretty much the line and would read well in the rest of the context of the Maxims of Ptahhotep. It's a wisdom text, passed down from father to son (Ptahhotep being the father speaking) about how to live a good Egyptian life. Something from the original is always lost in translation, and that goes doubly so for ancient texts. We're missing a lot of context and social norms that would have made this an easy read for someone back then.

So here's the translation I hate:

The first line (from both my image and this one in transliteration reads as follows: ir iri=k Hm.t m Spn.t

'ir' (the first two signs, one reed leaf, one mouth sign) is a conditional clause marker, giving the sentence the meaning of 'if'.

'iri' (the eye) is the verb 'to do/to make/to possess'. This is followed by pronoun =k 'you' (the basket beneath the eye).

Hm.t (the well with water, the semi circle of bread, and the seated woman) is 'woman'.

m (the owl) is a preposition meaning 'in' but...there's grammar stuff here I'm not gonna explain. It's unnecessary for the context.

Spn.t (the oblong pool of water, the seat sign beneath, the water sign beneath that, the semi circle of bread, and a pustule) is a relative form of the verb Spn and means 'one who is voluptuous woman'.

I'm not kidding, this is the dictionary entry for it on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptia.

We know it means that a) because it's used in other contexts to describe voluptuous woman (fatness is a sign of health and wealth in Ancient Egypt) and b) the pustule determinative marks it out as word that has something to do with the body or bodily functions. It's a word that describes the body, not a personality.

Here's a different translation, but for the same passge of the same text:

So, with that said, a translation of 'party girl' is so far removed from the context and meaning of the original text that the translator has simply written what they liked as a meaning. There's really no justification for it. It is quite literally nothing at all like the original text and it infuriates me to see a wisdom text from a civilisation whose culture modern discussion on barely gets out of 'they're obsessed with death and cats, and oh did we mention aliens and curses' reduced to 'party girl'.

If you wanted a better, idiomised translation, I'd go with:

'Find a wife from a wealthy family, one who is liked by all those in the town. Never divorce her! Treat her well! Life will be good for both of you.'

It's simple, it fits the context of a father imparting wisdom to his son, and doesn't wildly extrapolate from the meanings of the words themselves.

Bringing this back to remind you all that while the literal translation says 'voluptuous woman' it doesn't really mean 'marry a fat woman' in the cultural context.

In Ancient Egypt, fatness was relatively positive and was considered a sign of health and wealth. It's that last part that's key to understanding what Ptahhotep was trying to impart to his son. Since this is a wisdom text, Ptahhotep wants his son to marry well, and this would generally mean 'marry rich'.

But that's considered rather gauche. You can't just come out and say 'son marry a girl who's daddy's got money'. So, the language here is couched. He's using a well known (for the Egyptians) idiom (a word or phrase that has a different meaning to the words by themselves) to say it instead.

Since fatness = this person has wealth and prosperity in Ancient Egypt, we know that Ptahhotep isn't saying 'marry a fat woman' he's instead implying, through the choice of idiom, that his son should 'marry a rich woman and treat her well' and therefore he'll have a happy life.

I know it's tempting to take things at their literal meaning, but, particularly with ancient texts, it's necessary to see if the choice of words or phrases holds any cultural significance before trying to derive meaning from them.

TL;DR: translation hard, especially when you have to sift through ancient cultural context too

These posts are sisters