So the sentence is basically "That was before the bombing; before the biblical-Fucking-storm.
Now I know biblical can be used in the secular sense to mean a religious book, but in this sense I need a word there that has the serious gut-level connection, as in it brings to mind fire and brimstone, ancient times, primal force, etc. I think for the average american reader 'biblical' is the only word that works on that level; 'epic' or 'massive' or something else just doesn't cut it.
So. Fantasy setting. Using the word biblical - legal or no?
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"I'd advise you not to shoot my messengers. THEY'VE been advised to shoot back."
3,415 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 20 36
What's the name of a popular holy text in your fantasy world? I'd use that, instead. It'll help really immerse your reader into the fantasy world you're creating.
----------Liberal Feminist Hippie
50,082 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 20 54
Well the only thing really approaching that is a really old, dry work by a professor that's sort of cherished by the academia; like their version of Atlas Shrugged or War&Peace. And the name is 'Of The Sublime and Beautiful', which is a little unwieldy and doesn't really have the same descriptive quality.
----------"I'd advise you not to shoot my messengers. THEY'VE been advised to shoot back."
50,091 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 20 59
Honestly, unless you have a Christian Bible in your setting, it's going to sound out of place. When people use the word "biblical" as a colloquialism, they're generally referring to the Christian Bible... not just bibles (little b). Perhaps "mythic", "epic", "divine" proportions instead?
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Heather Dudley
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50,082 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 21 09
Yeah I agree that it's out of place, but I dunno. None of those hit the gut-level as hard with the reader; that one sentence is supposed to describe the sense of awe all the characters are in at everything they just went through, and the crazy primordial massiveness of what they've seen.
----------Maybe I'll just leave it and put a footnote for Future-Me who's working on the second draft. Between zombie and robot apocalypses, I mean.
"I'd advise you not to shoot my messengers. THEY'VE been advised to shoot back."
50,318 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2008 - 15 10
The problem is that I don't associate 'biblical' with the sort of thing you want it to. You say 'biblical-fucking-storm' and I try to think of various storms from the Bible and put them in context with what's going on in the story, and I'm just left feeling confused. I honestly sat there for five minutes going "... the flood? no, obviously not ... Sodom and Gomorrah? Nooo, that wasn't a storm ... uh ... what could they possible mean? o__O"
96,868 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2008 - 23 04
My personal inclination would be to use "epic" in this context, but perhaps I have just spent way too much time on the internet lately. :) ("That epic-fucking-storm was totally full of fail, dude, we got pwned like nobody's business!")
*runs off giggling to herself*
----------Title: Breaking Light
Goal: Finishing this novel. (Probably be 100k-120k at this rate.)
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4,594 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 05 17
In general, I'd say it's fine to use "biblical" as an English translation of the word in whatever language your characters really speak, meaning "of or pertaining to the holy scriptures".
The thing with "biblical" though, is that it conjures up for us - to quote Ghostbusters - "real, Old Testament, Wrath-of-God type stuff".
If your holy text is called "The Sublime and the Beautiful", then it may not have too much of that kind of thing. So your characters wouldn't use their equivalent word to describe a powerful storm, because that's not an image that it would conjure.
----------_______
If you can fly a Sopwith Camel, you can fly anything.
50,082 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 06 04
Yeah that's sort of what I meant. I *want* a word that conjures 'old-testament wrath-of-god-type stuff'. Dogs and cats living together; Mass Hysteria!
----------"I'd advise you not to shoot my messengers. THEY'VE been advised to shoot back."
50,040 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 09 38
What about apocolyptic or something similar? That's usually got the fire and brimstone, primal, gods and end of the world-esque feel to it and retains the religious type massive scale without the actual bible.
----------'04, '06, '07, '08: Wins
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0 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 11 20
I wouldn't use the word bible, personally. It's like using Spartan to describe a room in a world where the Spartans don't exist. (Granted, I don't know the etymology of the word bible.) Instead, I'd say something along the lines of "apocalyptic-fucking-proportions."
Also... Is your signature from your story? Where is it from? I love it!
0 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 06 17
I'd leave it well alone in a fantasy setting. To be honest, I don't find it a particularly hard hitting word in any context.
1,113 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 15 29
Then you need to use an appropriate "wrath of god" term from whatever culture you have built.
And to me, "biblical" as a descriptor has so many connotations to overblown hollywood B movies, that it lacks any "wrath of god" punch - it just means that something was pretty big and people are trying to make it sound bigger than it was.
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"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007)
2006 - Famine: A Novel - failed
----------2007 - A Midsummer Night's Dream...IN SPACE! - on hold
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"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007)
2006 - Famine: A Novel - failed
2007 - A Midsummer Night's Dream...IN SPACE! - on hold