[carnett]

I've been reading The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, and for a while now I'm getting distracted by his repeated descriptions of various characters sucking teeth (or when they lack teeth, their gums). For example in the Last Argument of Kings:

'Do you speak Kantic?'
'Of course.'
'Then would you be so kind as to ask him some questions for us?'
Ferro sucked her teeth. A waste of her time, but if it had to be done, it was best done quickly. 'What shall I ask him?'

If this was once off event or a specific character's quirk I wouldn't be bothered. But all the characters apparently like sucking their teeth a lot in this world, and it happens every 5 pages or so. So my questions are: how does one suck their teeth? What does it mean when they do? What is the author really trying to convey here? I have no idea what the character does, feels or achieves when they suck their teeth. Every mention of teeth sucking jarringly breaks the immersion for me and I'm disappointed that a repetition of a phrase is ruining an otherwise good series for me.

What are some other 'eccentricities' that authors have that people dislike?

[Third Eye]

I've been reading The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, and for a while now I'm getting distracted by his repeated descriptions of various characters sucking teeth (or when they lack teeth, their gums). For example in the Last Argument of Kings:

'Do you speak Kantic?'
'Of course.'
'Then would you be so kind as to ask him some questions for us?'
Ferro sucked her teeth. A waste of her time, but if it had to be done, it was best done quickly. 'What shall I ask him?'

If this was once off event or a specific character's quirk I wouldn't be bothered. But all the characters apparently like sucking their teeth a lot in this world, and it happens every 5 pages or so. So my questions are: how does one suck their teeth? What does it mean when they do? What is the author really trying to convey here? I have no idea what the character does, feels or achieves when they suck their teeth. Every mention of teeth sucking jarringly breaks the immersion for me and I'm disappointed that a repetition of a phrase is ruining an otherwise good series for me.

What are some other 'eccentricities' that authors have that people dislike?

Are you referring to Glotka? He lost most of his teeth when he was captured and tortured by the Gurkish. He mentions sucking teeth/gums a lot. It is out of habit and a reminder to himself of what he had lost and what had been done to him. Hope that clears it up.

[carnett]

Are you referring to Glotka? He lost most of his teeth when he was captured and tortured by the Gurkish. He mentions sucking teeth/gums a lot. It is out of habit and a reminder to himself of what he had lost and what had been done to him. Hope that clears it up.

Yes Glokta does a lot of gum sucking which is fine and understandable. But the other characters do it a lot as well, and the example I've given above is from Ferro.

[GarrickW]

I remember one of the Star Wars Expanded Universe trilogies (I think it was called the Corellian Trilogy or something like that) had the author constantly using "a trifle", as in "a little (bit)".

I knew what the word meant, so I must have encountered it previously (though I don't remember ever having done so before these books), but it jumped out at me every time I saw it in that trilogy - and he used it at least half a dozen times in each book. For some reason I can't even explain, this really got on my nerves - especially in the third book, where the author (I can't recall the name just now) had the nerve to italicize it at least once.

Oddly, I have never, since then, seen "a trifle" used by any other author, at least not that I can recall. Thankfully.

As for the teeth sucking, I don't really remember that from First Law, but now that I think of it, I'm not too sure what it's supposed to convey, either. I get the impression it's somewhat similar to biting one's lip, but I can't be sure.

EDIT: Now that I think of it, it might be because "trifle" was always, for me, that spongy, jam-filled yellow cake roll thing my mother always made us for Christmas, and perhaps I was indignant at the cake's name being "misused" (I read the books when I was like 14 or 15, I think).

[ChrisW]

Well, I just sucked my teeth to see what it was and from that and the context it's used in the quote i'd say it's something like biting ya tongue but where you don't actually bite ya tongue you do suck ya teeth.

Jordan is well known for his sniffing women but I have seen other authors use it, just not as much. I think it has to do with the amount of airbourne Pollen in his world.

[Joe Abercrombie]

Place tongue against inside face of upper teeth.

Suck air between teeth and tongue with mouth slightly open and, typically, a disdainful curl of the lip.

A slightly squelchy hissing sound results, signifying disapproval and contempt.

I'm dong it right now.

[Sfinx]

Jordan is well known for his sniffing women but I have seen other authors use it, just not as much. I think it has to do with the amount of airbourne Pollen in his world.

Sniffing, braid-tugging, feet-stamping, looking-down-noses...it's quite a list ;)

And Abercrombie does indeed have a tendency to 'over-use' personal traits(the gum licking, the feet dragging and the teeth sucking of Glokta, the scowling of Black Dow, the strutting of Jezal, the pompousness of Morveer, the narrowed eyes of Ferro), but it stops just short of becoming annoying.

And I'd guess Joe is a 'teeth sucker' himself - probably using it as a means to stop himself from immediately resorting to physical violence when confronted with undesired behaviour or criticism :)

Cheers,

Sfinx.

[edit: didn't see your post there Joe - had almost added "he's probably doing it right now" :)]

[Rockx]

Jordan is well known for his sniffing women but I have seen other authors use it, just not as much. I think it has to do with the amount of airbourne Pollen in his world.

He's also known for snorting men. Why is it that females 'sniff' and men 'snort'? The snorting part always broke immersion for me when I read it.

[Andols]

He's also known for snorting men. Why is it that females 'sniff' and men 'snort'? The snorting part always broke immersion for me when I read it.

Erikson seems to talk about robes and armour an awful lot (boiled leather?). Goodkind has a ton of grimacing and scowling going on every other page. Seems everyone has at least one or two things that stand out.

I always wondered if editors and people who read ARC's pointed out things that broke immersion to the authors. I always assumed yes, but there are still so many floating around in even the best novels coming out.

Pretty subjective I know, but immersing readers must be pretty damn high on the list of things that authors want in their work.

[Banger]

Erikson also likes to have characters emote with their brows/eyebrows, e.g., furrowing a brow, raising eyebrows. I don't find it annoying so much as humorous, though. After all, we do express ourselves in this way, but the idea of a bunch of people walking about with overactive brows just makes me laugh.

Another one that way too many writers use is to have a character "make a face." What does that even mean? Occasionally context helps me figure it out, but more often than not I'm left puzzling over what emotion it was the author intended to convey (disgust? playfulness? frustration? did they just eat a lemon?), and that is annoying.