TheGlitchMob
Posts: 1
11/23/2017
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I've been playing for a little over a month, and something keeps bothering me. I am constantly seeing names that are replaced by underscores. A for-instance comes from the notability card. The first sentence starts:
"The gentleman's card reads: MR ____ ______, Assistant to"
This seems to happen a lot, and always draws me out of the game. Does anyone have an explanation?
Thanks!
edited by TheGlitchMob on 11/23/2017
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Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
11/23/2017
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Those indicate names that have been censored from the text, because they'd be too scandalous to publish. Except in the specific example you cite of Slowcake's Amanuensis, who at one point mentions that he actually gave up his name, and now only has a name-shaped gap in reality to describe himself by.
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Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
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Optimatum
Posts: 3666
11/23/2017
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Sir Frederick wrote:
Those indicate names that have been censored from the text, because they'd be too scandalous to publish.
I thought that was just a stylistic thing to allow use of real names in dialogue without breaking from the Adjective Noun identification?
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Optimatum, a ruthless and merciful gentleman. No plant battles, Affluent Photographer requests, or healing offers; all other social actions welcome.
 Want a sip of Cider? Just say hi!
PM me for information enigmatic or Fated. Though the forum please, not FL itself.
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Kaijyuu
Posts: 1047
11/23/2017
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I was under the impression that they were censored or deliberately left out as unimportant (sort of like if you were reading a book or essay about a subject and the author didn't want to use someone's real name).
Slowcake is an exception where the underscores actually exist in-universe, which I guess means that he has a standard mass produced business card but didn't fill in a name in the box.
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Be of good cheer. Our contacts have assured us that your sins are forgiven.
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Ixc
Posts: 365
11/25/2017
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Doesn't the game do the same with the Department of __________, in the University? The __________ is said with a wink and a meaningful glance, if I remember correctly. It deals with... a certain explosive language, if you catch my drift.
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Pleased to meet you. Ixc, spy and detective. Inventor of the Correspondence Cannon.
Are you a Paramount Presence? Record your name here. For posterity, of course.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
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Optimatum
Posts: 3666
11/26/2017
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Ixc wrote:
Doesn't the game do the same with the Department of __________, in the University? The __________ is said with a wink and a meaningful glance, if I remember correctly. It deals with... a certain explosive language, if you catch my drift.
I think that's a bit different though - an in-universe redacting of something Supposedly Secret, rather than a meta-level redacting to maintain the game's style.
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Optimatum, a ruthless and merciful gentleman. No plant battles, Affluent Photographer requests, or healing offers; all other social actions welcome.
Want a sip of Cider? Just say hi!
PM me for information enigmatic or Fated. Though the forum please, not FL itself.
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PSGarak
Posts: 834
11/23/2017
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I think it’s done to make the writing authentic-seeming. It was a common-ish stylistic device of the times. It’s damnably hard to Google, but I seem to remember encountering names like that in the works of the real-life Mr Huffam.
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http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/PSGarak
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Ragnar Degenhand
Posts: 197
11/24/2017
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Very common in Victorian and 18th century novels, especially when the suggestion is that the story involves real-life people or places, possibly members of the nobility. To be found in Trollope, for example -- e.g. Barchester Towers, where the plot involves a change of "the Ministry".
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https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Ragnar%20Degenhand
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Plynkes
Posts: 631
11/24/2017
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You see it with place names (________shire) and dates (18__) in older fiction too.
Seems to me it was often purely stylistic, to create an impression of realism, rather than protect actual real people's privacy. Similar to the device you often find today where an author will claim (not very seriously) a work is old discovered papers that he has edited rather than fiction he has written himself.
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"Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop, but don't tell me."
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annalibertas
Posts: 161
11/26/2017
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Optimatum wrote:
Ixc wrote:
Doesn't the game do the same with the Department of __________, in the University? The __________ is said with a wink and a meaningful glance, if I remember correctly. It deals with... a certain explosive language, if you catch my drift.
I think that's a bit different though - an in-universe redacting of something Supposedly Secret, rather than a meta-level redacting to maintain the game's style.
The original example was from Slowcake which is also an in-universe rendering, he's canonically given up his name along with 'other encumbrances'
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https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Anna%20Libertas
Accepting all social actions & boxed cats
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Julliah%20Randolph
Alt, will accept all social actions whenever I log on
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