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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Are you sick of one-word Titles? (...and, what would you rename books?)

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Kol_Skywalker, Mar 11, 2009.

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  1. TKeira_Lea

    TKeira_Lea Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 10, 2002
    Zorrixor touched on this a bit, but I'm going to follow up.

    Perhaps this is a gender thing, but this is how I see it based on my life experience. When I'm in the airport bookstore or in the B&N at home there are always women right beside me in the fiction part, browsing. And from having the unfortunate experience of working retail in high school, I learned quickly that women look, pick up lots of things to consider, put them back, until another interesting thing piques their interest. Whereas men were more likely to walk into a store and buy. Not to say it doesn't happen the other way, but these are the trends which dictated how we stocked our shelves.

    I'm pretty confident bookstores operate on a similar principle. They make browsing interesting. And as a women who likes to browse the store it becomes about getting my attention, because I can raise my hand and say I've bought books, shoes, dresses simply because they caught my fancy.

    So to answer your question "Who cares?" The marketing folks should, and probably do, because it's not necessarily about selling to the fans but the potential fans. That's honestly why I'm surprised they've stuck with the one word titles. I think the idea is that the big SW, or the LotForce or the FotJedi will do the job of catching peoples' attention. But I'd counter that, especially someone like me who browses the bookstore weekly and notes series, I'd be less likely to pick up something I knew was in the middle or at the end of a series I'd recognize.

    On a deeper level, as fans, we should probably care, because we want people to buy SW books so they'll keep writing them.

    While the one words titles haven't been obnoxiously bad, as you say, neither do they all necessarily convey a sense of adventure or mystery. For instance, Fury with an unrecognizable character on the cover - yeah, we're going to buy it, but will it generate new readers?
     
  2. RebelJoseWales

    RebelJoseWales Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2008
    Sick of one word titles? Are you kidding? I just can't wait until they start running out of words, and begin to call books things like "Star Wars: Duck" or "Fluffy." And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I seriously want them to do that.
     
  3. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    I'm enjoying the one-word titles, but let's not over-emphasize the degree to which LotF and FotJ are representative of the entire publishing program - this is also the era that's been giving us thing like Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, Coruscant Knights: Patterns of Force, and of course, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction - A Novel of the Old Republic. The real difference between now and the Bantam-NJO era isn't that we're being dominated by one-word titles, it's that we're getting any one-word titles.
     
  4. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    "Dark Jedi Force."

    I like it. It has a ring to it.
     
  5. RebelJoseWales

    RebelJoseWales Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2008
    Personally, I'm torn between "Dark Force Jedi" and "Chupathingy." Ten points to whoever gets the referrence. ;)

    Seriously, though, I don't mind one word titles as long as they manage to stay relevant and specific. "Betrayal," for instance, was pretty good. Betrayal was a running theme through the book, what with Corellia splitting off from the GA, Jacen going all Sithly, and Wedge betraying the GA (or the GA betraying Wedge; that one's arguable).

    "Tempest" would be an example of a bad one, because while it described the story, it also described every other Star Wars story. Ever.

    "Invincible" is the bottom of the heap; it not only doesn't describe the book, it the exact opposite of the book. I mean, the story centered around the death of SW's favorite resident friend-to-all-living-things, after he went batshavit kriffing loco insane and tried to take over the galaxy. "Invincible" is about as far as you can get from the theme of the book, whether Han and Leia are lovey-dovey or the Jedi won or not.
     
  6. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I never said that the title was meaningless; what I said was that the number of words in the title didn't really matter. It's not something that I think has a big impact in making the titles better or worse. I have no desire to see Star Wars: Untitled or Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi Book Four. I'm just rejecting the idea that Fate of the Jedi: Dark Omen or Fate of the Jedi: Omen of Doom is a significant step above Fate of the Jedi: Omen.

    The "who cares?" was specifically for the issue of "what does Destiny's Way mean?" I'm not one of the ones who expects uber-literal titling -- the "no one was literally invincible in Invincible, we got gypped!" crowd -- and my point is simply that I want it to sound cool and not be dissonant with the actual book. It doesn't need to express a specific concept obviously present in the story, or summarize the plot or tell you what's inside. To a great degree, I think you're actually making my point -- it should sound catchy. It should have an "oooh, neat" attention-grabbing factor, and doesn't necessarily need to be analyzed beyond that.

    Why I should have to write a two-paragraph defense of my opinion that I think the specific number of words in a title don't really matter, I don't know.
     
  7. ATimson

    ATimson Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2003
    I'm not so much "tired of them", but I feel they rarely capture what the book's about.

    But then, some of my favorite titles come from Deep Space Nine ("In the Pale Moonlight", "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges") and Andromeda ("Its Hour Come 'Round At Last") and Farscape (...pretty much every single one, so we'll just give an example: "Into the Lion's Den, Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"). So maybe I'm just allergic to one-word titles. ;)

    The problem is, the LOTF titles mostly work; they're short, but because I fail at titling, most of my replacements are just longer versions of their one-word titles. So let's try something slightly different, with apologies to Yeats (who is overused, if not abused, but "The Second Coming" makes for great titles :p):

    Betrayal: Vexed to Nightmare
    Bloodlines: The Widening Gyre
    Tempest: The Centre Cannot Hold
    Exile: The Ceremony of Innocence
    Sacrifice: The Blood-Dimmed Tide
    Inferno: Mere Anarchy
    Fury: The Darkness Drops Again
    Revelation: What Rough Beast
    Invincible: Its Hour Come 'Round At Last
     
  8. QueenMother_LK

    QueenMother_LK Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2009
    Yeah it does :D

    Halo: blue vs red? If I'm wrong, there is a chupythingy reference in that and it is kriffing hilarious [face_laugh]:_|[face_laugh]

    agreed.

    And "SWDBPODANOTOR", or whatever, is [face_laugh]. Can we make our abbreviations like that all the time now?? [face_praying]
     
  9. Excellence

    Excellence Jedi Knight star 7

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2002

    You're talking my language, Kol_Skywalker. One word titles are reprehensible, uncreative, and a detraction of someone's hard work.
     
  10. RebelJoseWales

    RebelJoseWales Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2008

    We Have a winner!

    Grif: "Yeah, but why do you call it the 'warthog'? I think it looks more like a... puma."

    Sarge: "A what?"

    Grif: "A puma, you know, like a big cat."

    Sarge: "I think you're makin' that up."

    Grif: "I'm telling you, it's a real animal!"

    Sarge: "Okay, see these tow hooks? They look like tusks. And what kind of animal has tusks?"

    Grif: "A walrus."

    Sarge: "Didn't I just tell you to stop making things up?"

    [a little later]

    Sarge: "Now, if Grif doesn't have any more mythical creatures to suggest, we're gonna call it the warthog. How 'bout it, Grif?"

    Grif: "No, sir."

    Sarge: "You sure? How about pegasus, or manticore?"

    Simmons: "Leprechaun?"

    Grif: "Hey, man, he doesn't need any help."

    Sarge: "How 'bout Bigfoot? Hey, Simmons, what's that Mexican lizard, the one that eats all the goats?"

    Simmons: "You meant the Chupacabra, sir?"

    Sarge: "Hey, Grif, Chupathingy. I like it. Has a ring to it."
     
  11. MasterKenobi1138

    MasterKenobi1138 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    May 24, 2008
    Before I add my post, just a quick shout-out to RebelJoseWales: "Bow chicka wow wow!" I was sorely tempted to add a note as well about this whole "Sword of the Jedi" business and refer to Jaina as being "a key all the time, and when you stick her in front of a Sith, she unlocks their deaths.":p

    Now, then: I haven't had a problem with the one-word titles thus far. As others have pointed out already, the main issue is the discrepancy or redundancy with the titles and the stories they're attached to. Frankly, I would've never used Invincible or Revelation as titles. My philosophy is that the title should fit the story, not the other way around.
     
  12. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    That's an interesting point.

    I'd actually have enjoyed the one word titles of LOTF more if they'd somehow integrated them in a Star Wars film-type logo clone that included the words LOTF, kind of like what they've done with the KOTOR logo. LOTF: Invincible is fine, as, while the title may be one word, it also has a bit more "Star Warsiness" to it.
     
  13. TKeira_Lea

    TKeira_Lea Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 10, 2002
    Did I say that? [face_thinking]

    We're just having a polite conversation here. No reason to be defensive just because we see things slightly the same and slightly differently. [face_peace]

    Revelation ended up with a lot of fan speculation about what the revelation was. And as far as one word titles I didn't mind that one. A one word title wouldn't prevent me from picking up a book when I'm browsing but some words are more catchy on their own. While I would have liked SotJ better for Invincible I think the word fit the story on many levels.

     
  14. QueenMother_LK

    QueenMother_LK Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2009
    YESSS! :D[face_dancing] I remember the first time my brother showed me that; I cried from laughing haha.


    Yeah, the one word titles are fine, as long as they make sense/a part of the story. I'm cool if they're ambiguous, but not stupidly ambiguous. I'm definitely with the argument that the title should reflect the story, make you think about the story, or provide some insight one way or another. But a bad title isn't going to make me hate the book either; ie: I like Invincible a lot, but I hate the title.
     
  15. Kol_Skywalker

    Kol_Skywalker Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 9, 2006
    Instead of Dark Force Rising, and in keeping with the pulp feel, why not The Katana Peril ?

    Instead of Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, how about The Empire Strikes ?
     
  16. darthadimentsu

    darthadimentsu Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 24, 2007
    Beautiful!

    I'd personally go for longer titles, if only because I'm a post-rock fan - when Godspeed You! Black Emperor is the band name, and the album/song names still longer, you start to like:

    Betrayal = The Clouds and Illusions Now Gather
    Bloodlines = Our Destinies Do Pursue Us Even Now
    Tempest = The Storm of Foolhardy War Does Break
    Invincible = The Sword of the Jedi and The Lightning Rod of the Sith

    Etc...
     
  17. Celeste_Morne

    Celeste_Morne Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 28, 2008
    LOTF Betrayal or Poor Nelani
    LOTF Bloodlines or Boba's Got Cancer
    LOTF Tempest or That Nutty Twi'lek
    LOTF Exile or The Revenge of Bescat Offdurmin
    LOTF Sacrifice or Not A Day Over 20
    LOTF Inferno or Only YOU Can Stop Forest Fires
    LOTF Fury or That Doesn't Look Like Ben
    LOTF Revelation or There Goes The Canon
    LOTF Invincible or Nuttier Than A Drunken Skunk


    I like the one word titles.
     
  18. Inara

    Inara Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 30, 2005
    [face_laugh]

    When I saw the titles of the LOTF books, I thought they sounded like chapters in a fanfic.


     
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