Another poll question - Alien Cameras!

[mary_j_59]

My sister and I are having a bit of a debate. She hates the word "holocam", which sounds, to her, too much like something from Star Trek I rather like it. At least it makes clear that it's a camera, and from the future. But what do you think? Should I change this word? If so, to what?
[Poll #1836699]

Comments

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

If you really need to you can explain somewhere that this is a translation of an alien word meaning roughly the same thing.

[anne-arthur.livejournal.com]

I'm happy with holocam - you know what it is and it doesn't draw attention to itself. But it does sound quite like something out of Star Trek.

I don't like 'electric scribe' or 'memory keeper' as names in English - they sound contrived. But an alien name (like 'ahnkat') which is explained as meaning, say, 'electric scribe', would be good. The question is perhaps whether you want to have a word that your readers won't necessary recognize, and whether you can get your characters to explain their culture without it sounding forced.

Sorry, that was a bit waffly. And just my tuppence worth, of course . . .

[deirdrej.livejournal.com]

Hi, Anne!

I fear that all my minor quibbles are making me sound unreasonable. Holocam is an OK word, as a word. I just don't think the novel has much in common with Star Trek, and the word sounds oddly
Star-Trekky or Star Wars-ish to me. But I think I do agree -- much as I would like some other word (like Ursula Leguin's "ansible"), I don't want to create problems of having to explain what it is. I was thinking that a generic word like "recorder" might work, too. Or, at some point, you talk about the "network." Maybe a word related to that.

Or maybe just "holocam," since everybody else likes it :-D