Comments on: Oh, Look, a Novella

By: Steven

Steven — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:42:07 +0000

As a one-time student of Latin, I get, literally, “Use (imp.) nothing not beyond the cry of a pig” which seems to me to imply a somewhat ironic twist on the common English expression “Use every part of the pig except the squeal.” That being said, I haven’t actually started the novella yet, and therefore can’t begin to guess at authorial intent.

By: Kelson

Kelson — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:57:51 +0000

And it’s a cute pig. On the cover. I feel a little sorry for the dood if the title is to be his fate.

By: Kelson

Kelson — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:18:06 +0000

I’ll wager dollars to doughnutz there’s nuthin’bout lipstick on swineage in this novella.

By: Avocado

Avocado — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:50:54 +0000

“You can put lipstick on a novella, but it’s still a novella.”

By: Watchman

Watchman — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:35:48 +0000

Vero lipstick piggimus (hey it could go on a candidate’s seal or something…)

By: tceisele

tceisele — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:13:34 +0000

Ok, “Use every part of the pig except the squeal” does make a lot more sense.

As far as that goes, my original mistranslation would probably make more sense as

“Inside of a pig, no one can hear you scream”

I mean, obviously, people can hear you screaming *outside* of a pig, it’s where you generally are when you scream, after all.

Unless you (and the pig) are in space, of course. Then, I guess nobody will hear you scream in any case.

On the other hand, if you are, in fact, inside a pig, then you have good *reason* to scream.

By: DG Lewis

DG Lewis — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:36:53 +0000

Quoth tceisele @#6,“Outside of a pig, no one can hear you scream.”

And inside of a pig, it’s too dark to read a novella.

But I guess since it was originally an audiobook, it’s OK.

By: Marc Moskowitz

Marc Moskowitz — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:08:41 +0000

Kerry, (et. al.)
Online Latin translators suck. A lot. This one is mistranslating “Utere” which is actually a 2nd person singular imperative of the verb “uti”, “to use”, and leaving “suis” untranslated, which is either “of a pig” or a plural ablative or dative form of “their”.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:18:53 +0000

@6: the online Latin–>English translator gave me: Either of the two Nothing Not Outside A scream Suis

I dunno – doesn’t make much sense that way, either.

By: kelson

kelson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:13:56 +0000

It just dawned on me to check responses over at Whateveresque, and Kazrak handed out this translation:

Re: Utere nihil non extra quiritationem suis
by kazrak on Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:35 am

“Use every part of the pig except the squeal.”

Sounds pretty spot on.