Challenge 1056 Response discusses...
A Space Alien’s Conjugation of “Shoot”
with Bewildering Stories Review Editors
Challenge 1056 #5 can be accessed here
and Minding My Own Business here.
[LLW] “and my plan for getting back aboard was shot.” This seems an odd linguistic choice for someone who has just learned about firearms.
[DW] Good point. The space alien says his plan is “shot” not long after summarizing what he’s just learned about bullets.
What can our space alien do? He can hardly say his plan has been “phasered”; the space alien is not a Star Trek character. We’d have to invent an equivalent idiomatic expression in space-alien language.
[BK] How about “moot”?
[DW] A good choice. One might argue that “moot” implies that a plan or problem is unresolvable by its very nature. However, in the case of the space alien, it is not. But that may be entirely too fine a point.
“Vetoed” is another possibility, although it implies that the act is intentional rather than incidental.
“Impractical” and “unfeasible” are also good choices, but they are also rarer words than “shot,” and some might say they’re too big for their context.
Well, why not go big? “And my plan for getting back aboard was condemned to the clattering claws of the carnivorous creature of Clog—” No, a cliché proves its worth when it prevents an author from getting carried away.
What about a very short substitute for “shot,” namely “f--ked,”? In recent years, the word has become a mildly dismissive expression in colloquial North American English. No, sorry, not possible; Bewildering Stories allows the “f—” and “s—” words only in their literal sense (explanation here at #4). And BwS’ rule is what one would expect from a space alien, anyway. After all, what being but a human would refer to procreation with a naughty word?
Maybe, in the end, we can confirm a BwS motto that says simplest is often best but seldom easiest: “So much for my plan for getting back aboard.” It includes no legalism, technology or profanity. Surely the space alien’s language would have an equivalent.
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A classic discussion of problems in vocabulary and style appears in Speedways to Literary Oblivion.
