#i learned 'ipso facto' 'cui bono' 'cura te ipsum' from the writing

[hanzajesthanza]

one of the most least-important, yet favorite things about the witcher for me is that i initially felt the usage of latin to add emphasize in the characters' dialogue was, if you'll forgive me, pretentious, in a word, and strange outside of the mouths of characters who were intellectuals and scholars.

until i began to read interviews with sapkowski, and a little bit of his other writing, during which i realized, no, he just talks like that, peppering in aphorisms, sayings, and phrases in latin and other languages. and then the habit became less pretentious to me and, instead, endearing, as it made me realize that the characters, in fact speaking in the altered voice of their author, haven't been altered, but rather are the result of a natural flow of thought and storywriting...

#what's the annoying quirk you have in your speech that leeches into your characters? reblog and write it in the tags :D #he'd despise me saying 'characters speaking in the voices of their author' but i dont mean very literally as in this is the author's intent #just as in one's inner monologue and voice (for those who have one) meld with their imagination and storytelling #txt #andrzej sapkowski #the witcher is 'recreational casual easy reading' but that doesn't mean i haven't learned some new things from it #for example the pommel of a horse saddle i learned from baptism of fire ch 2. honestly i didnt know a lot of horse-related terms before. #i also learned 'anserine' which is of pertaining to geese; it's used in baptism of fire ch 4 - following bovine and porcine #and of course minor history lessons here and there about institutions and professions like troubadours and barber-surgeons :') #but also objects and ways of life. like trenchers - wooden plates with a dip to catch runoff oils. dandelion and yennefer eat from them. #i'd heard of these colors before like vermillion (philippa's dress) and mauve (fringilla's dress) but confirmed what they are bc of reading #i've also learned more about birds oddly enough. because tawny owl / sparrowhawk / nightingale etc... and nightjars are often referenced #as for the sayings #i learned 'traduttore traditore' and 'cherchez la femme' from interviews #i learned 'ipso facto' 'cui bono' 'cura te ipsum' from the writing #and 'omnia mea mecum porto' and 'primo secundo tertio' i didn't know when i first read it but then they popped up in my classes a year l8r