The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Benja:

...and from abovesaid IS 100:

National Incident Management System (NIMS)

In response to attacks on September 11, President George W. Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5) in February 2003.

HSPD-5 called for a National Incident Management System (NIMS) and identified steps for improved coordination of Federal, State, local, and private industry response to incidents and described the way these agencies will prepare for such a response.

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security announced the establishment of NIMS in March 2004. One of the key features of NIMS is the Incident Command System.

http://emilms.fema.gov/ICS100G/ICS01summary.htm

Xopher, don't you now that the paste tenth of "to copywrite" is "copywritted?"

This is be cause the product, off a copywriter's work is the copywrit.

You use a copywrit in caught too proof that the defendent has no write to copy your copy (the low says they must rite there one copy).

Yes! Very pretty words! Lots of fun! :-)

rhandir, I didn't know the word "fictive." Cool. Multiple people learning pretty new words in multiple languages. :-)

If you like the children's stories connotation, Geschichtenwelt works, IMHO.

C.E., you have a good point about gesamtwerk. Werk sounds like something created by someone in particular -- for Gesamtwerk to include fanfic, you would have to imagine the author and fan community as a whole as the creators of this "work." In a way, it's simpler to mentally plug in the author / copyright holder as the creator, and have Fiktivwelt-Gesamtwerk mean the canon.

You're certainly right that Geschichte can mean different things depending on context. I suppose that in the right context, it would mean literary short story, for example -- or the fully general meaning, as in Teresa's "story is a force of nature," "Geschichten sind eine Naturgewalt". The example you give uses the "history" meaning of Geschichte, though, not the "story" meaning. (As you know, Bob, the two are homonyms in German. As usual with homonyms, there is indeed very little chance that one is mistaken for the other, given enough context.)

Naturgewalt. That's another very pretty word.

If anybody needs some genders for following this discussion, here are some: Die Geschichte, die Welt, das Werk, die Anschauung, die Arbeit, das Recht, die Entwicklung, die Natur, die Gewalt, die Perspektive, der Kommentar, das Blog, male, female, other, genderless, bigendered, trigendered, transgendered, intersexed and genderqueer. Hope this helps.

I agree with inge's points. To me, ideology is the default meaning of Weltanschauung. Using it to simply mean "perspective" works in a metaphorical context, I guess: depending on your world view, you might argue that fanfiction is not in violation of copyright (metaphorially using "world view" to mean "legal theory"). Want to dig up some quotations to pick apart?

The German Wikipedia article on Weltanschauung explains the non-metaphorical meaning in detail, if anybody's interested.

Be all this as it may: Fiktivweltanschauung is without a doubt another very pretty word!

But -- what it conveys to me is fictional world view / ideology. Or, if we've established the neologism "Fiktivwelt," it conveys a fictional world view or ideology in a fictional universe. At least that would be the default meaning to me...

---

So. Umh. What were we looking for, again?

A word for the entire body of works set in one geschichtenwelt / fiktivwelt, right?

Or was it, the geschichtenwelt/fiktivwelt considered as a work of art?

Aw, I don't have any good ideas now. I give up. This is fun, but I've been slinging enough words for now. :-)

- Benja

(Damn. I forgot how much our "host" hates "superfluous" "quotation" marks. But hey, at least fiktivwelt-gesamtwerk isn't a common English phrase, yet. hp wll b prdnd jst ths nc.)

Hi rhandir,

Oh, what fun. Fancy-sounding German compound word neologisms. That's "tiefsinnig klingende deutsche Wortzusammensetzungsneologismen" to you!

"Weltarbeit" sounds more like "world labor" and evokes images of international socialist movements.

You mean "fictional universe as a work of art," right? The translation for "work" you're looking for is "Werk."

A fictional universe can be called "Welt," but "Weltwerk" doesn't sound like this meaning of "Welt" is intended. Hmmm.

Let's try to find a word for "story world" first and then try tacking on "-werk" to the end of that. :-)

Okay, first of all, Geschichtewelt is grammatically incorrect. You're looking for Geschichtenwelt. (This is for "story world;" if you wanted "history world," that'd be Geschichtswelt, even though both "story" and "history" translate to "Geschichte." Languages are funky, aren't they?)

But "Geschichtenwelt" isn't quite right, because "Geschichte" doesn't sound so ... respectable, in German. It has a certain association with "children's story", at least to me. "Geschichtenwelt" sounds a little like a world where bedtime stories take place.

How about "Fiktivwelt"? The German Wikipedia uses the term "fiktive Welt", which fits the bill except that it's not a single word. "Fiktivwelt" sounds like -- hmm -- an imaginary world that someone pretends to be real, perhaps. But it seems ok. And since "fictional" is the translation of "fiktiv" that pretty much all English speakers will default to, I expect, it seems pretty good to me for our purpose. ("Virtual" is a translation conveying a different meaning of "fiktiv," but I expect that English speakers will conveniently not notice that subtlety.)

Ah, and I know what to do about "world-work." "Gesamtwerk," literally "entire work," is actual academic German and means one author's entire corpus; e.g., "Goethes Gesamtwerk." I hereby declare that from now on, it also refer to the entire corpus of works set in a particular fiktivwelt.

[Note that I'm not forgetting to inflect "refer." I'm inflecting it to be in the subjunctive mood.]

You have my permission to use "Fiktivwelt-Gesamtwerk" if you want to make clear which meaning of gesamtwerk you are referring to.

- Benja

To my mind, this is an established and efficient method of communication.

Teresa, that's such a wonderful post. I feel like I've just learned something important.

Thank you.

Especially because using the editor's likes and dislikes rather than some abstract criteria keeps the editors sane...

Thanks, Jules. Yes, (according to my limited understanding) the Urheberrecht/droit d'auteur of works for hire goes to the employing company. But I'm not talking of media tie-in novels here; I've never seen a German book that didn't list the publisher as the copyright holder (except translated works, of course, though they're always listed as copyright owner of the translation there), and this definitely includes works that weren't written for hire. So if you submit into a German publisher's slushpile, be prepared to give up your (c) -- though through which mechanism this works is still unclear to me.

(My "fortunately" was slightly ironic, you see -- I'm talking about the industry standard contracts folks apparently sign if they want to get published :-))

Perhaps Urheberrecht and the Berne treaty's (c) are different in German law?

Anybody else have any ideas? (Still curious.)

"What I Always Wanted to Know About Copyright Law But Was Afraid to Ask"

This is about international differences in copyright law, which will probably make it a geeky fringe topic even here, but I figured, where better to ask?

So, in my non-professional, IANAL way, I think I understand the following difference in principle between continental and Anglo-American copyright law:

Principle 1 (Anglo-American). Copyright is a transferable thing. When you create a work of art, you obtain the copyright for it; you can then sell this copyright to others or license it for use under certain conditions.

Principle 2 (Continental, i.e. French/German). When you create a work of art, you obtain the untransferable "creator's right" (droit d'auteur, Urheberrecht) on it, which you cannot sell, since you're the author and not somebody else. You can only license the use of your work. (Fortunately, smart lawyers have figured out that you can write licenses that give the licensee the full power over the work and the licensor, practically, none.)

However, I have also made the following observations:

Data point 1. Copyright notices on the first page of Anglo-American books look like this: "Copyright (c) 2003 by Naomi Kritzer."

Data point 2. Copyright notices on the first page of German books, on the other hand, look like this: "(c) 2001 by Verlagsgruppe Lübbe GmbH & Co. KG, Bergisch Gladbach" (even if your high school German is rusty, you may notice that this is no natural person's name).

What gives?

Dearest,

I salute you in the name of Him Who Cannot Be Named. I am the former wife of the deceased Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin and former Headmaster of Hogwarts, the School of Wizardry.

My husband was recently killed through an unfortunate accident due to the incompetence of the Minister of Magic during a Death Eater attack. After this, the Ministry of Magic has appointed a new Hogwarts Headmaster and seized all Hogwarts funds, including several accounts at Gringotts, the Hogwarts Tuition Fund and the Secret Cache of Slytherin. However, I have managed to remove the sum of thirty million gold gallons

(gal 30.000. 000)

from a treasury inside the Whomping Willow and dispose it in a trust in a neighbouring country. I want to move this money to your account in order to hide it from the Ministry of Magic pending the ultimate victory of Him Who Cannot Be Named.

My daughter Mary Sue Dumbledore will immediately proceed to meet with you and give you all the necessary details. Please send me an owl with your contact information at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Miriam Dumbledore a Widow

Congratulations! :-)

Jonathan: Nope, it's just the Panama palindrome(s) -- see the nielsenhayden front page and links from there. :)

A man, a plan, a state, an aim; a corps, a boss, a death, a dame;
a house, arrest, a fear, avail; a son, a court, a jail, a bail;
a guard, a husband, funds, decease; the feds, a bank, accounts, a freeze;
a stock, a hold, a claim, a lease; a trick, a move, a sum, --

( Thirty million US Dollars! )

-- a sleaze; a safe, a firm, an aim, a guise; a girl, a meet, a talk, surmise;
(no men: a cop, a search, the spies); a gift, rewards, a pay, a prize!
A mail, an address, contact, drama; a cat, a canal: Panama!

Hmm. Another thing I seem to remember about whatever inspired the main text of that spam song: It would often have a number of rhyming words in the same line, but then I think end the line with a word that doesn't rhyme with the others -- something like, "to lial on a trial with a pial it would seem" (only the words would make sense).

I still can't get my head around what it was, but surely someone can tell me now?

Regarding the above spam song, any native English speaker able to identify the song that inspired the chorus gets a big bonus point from me. I didn't realize it myself, and tried to find out through google, but no avail until I realized which song it was and googled for a different line from it.

One hint: It is about a place that "Nigeria" rhymes with.

Whoever can tell me what inspired the rhythm and melody of the main text (the latter of which I suppose you'll have to guess) gets a big thank-you, because I can't figure it out myself. I have this feeling that it's from a song where every stanza ends with "Hey!". Which for googling is at most a very mediocre clue.

...and this one I call:

I am Mrs. Miriam Abacha a Widow

I salute you in the name of our most high God.
I was a former leading lady overthrown by plot.
The late Sanini Achabachi army head of state
was my dear husband and provider; alas he is late.

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

I cannot leave my house and I'm a damsel in distress
while Móhammed my son has gone, to Lagos nonetheless,
to undergo a trial by a Panel it would seem
set up by our presently civilian regime.

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

My son is presently detained in prison custody,
if I could just get at my money he'd return to me.
The government has frozen our family accounts
seized buildings holdings stockings et cet by most careful counts,
yet thirty million US dollars for my family
I have removed to save our'selves from total bankruptcy.

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

( Thir-ty mill-ion! Thir-ty mill-ion! )

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

Through covert means I've moved away this cash to Kano State
where in a safe it guarded well Saní, my husband late.
A firm now holds it under cover and not in Nigere --
I want you to receive this money and send it back here.

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

Immediately my daughter will proceed to meet with you,
she is the only one of us who will be able to.
My men are always monitored by state security,
but you will well be compensate for your assisting me.

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

Please be just and help me to secure this money fast
before it is located by the government at last.
Contact me intermediately with my e-mail address
so that I can forward to you the details of necess.

( Thir-ty mill-ion! Thir-ty mill-ion! )

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi heissassa,

Nigeria! Nigeria! Alebalebachi bum.

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