Brave New Words – One of which is, of course, “Smeg”

[Baz]

Just picked up “Brave New Words – The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction” (ed. J Prucher, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN- 10:0-19-530567-1).

“Smeg”, is in it naturally, so is “Smegging”, “Smeggy” and “Smeghead”, all correctly credited to R. Grant and D. Naylor, all the Red Dwarf examples being taken from “Son of Soup”.

smeg v. [abbr. of smegma] expressing anger, disgust, frustration or contempt. Usually in phrase “Smeg off”. Also as interj. In non-Red Dwarf use, often a jocular euphamism for “fuck”. Compare “Frell”

There’s even a small section on “Expletives and Profanity” that states “The BBC’s Red Dwarf has been by far the most successful- in terms of propogating its made-up invective, anyway- gracing us with the versatile and evocative smeg…”

It ends with “…since they’re not real swear words, you (probably) won’t get in trouble for it. (And if you don’t smegging believe me, just give it a frelling try, gorram it!)”

RD gets a mention in “Stasis” and “Hologram” that I’ve found so far. Anyway, it’s on the shelves in Foyles, ?17.99.

Topic

[Danny Stephenson]

> R. Grant and D. Naylor

Why does it look odd when it’s written like that? I nearly thought “who are they, then?”

[Pete Part Three]

I had to google “frell” (Farscape is, like, totally gay), whereas I think most people wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you said “smeg”. They’d probably look at you as if you’re a bit of a mentalist, mind.

[Baz]

In the bibliography of books quoted, it includes-

Grant, Rob and Doug Naylor. Son of Soup. Penguin, 1996.
Naylor, Doug. Last Human. Penguin, 1995.

and also

Naylor, Grant. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. Roc, 1992.
__. Red Dwarf. Penguin, 1989.

Hang on, thought I, that last one, they’re the same book. Then I realised that it must be different contributors with different editions, one of whom refers to it by it’s sub-title. I know it’s generally referred to as Infinity, etc, but that’s an unofficial title surely?

[Pete Part Three]

The Red Dwarf Omnibus (including Infinity or Red Dwarf or whatever you want to to call the bloody thing) came out in 1992, so it could refer to that. Or a reprint, maybe.

[Pete Part Three]

Or, more likely, it refers to a US edition.

[Pete Part Three]

Sort out the clocks John, there’s a bag of chips in it for ya…

[Baz]

It is the American edition, contributor has just referred to it as “Infinity…” rather than “Red Dwarf”. Typical bloody yanks, always having to go one bigger, we get a penguin, they have to have a roc…

Interesting cover on “Better Than Life” though. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0451452313/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-6909971-7893621#reader-link

[Andrew]

> but that?s an unofficial title surely?

‘Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers’ has been absolutey confirmed as part of the full, official title of the first Red dwarf novel.

[Pete Part Three]

The one for Red Dwarf (harcover) is even more bizarre. Think it’s been discussed on here before but wtf was the artist thinking?

[Baz]

I bow to your superior wisdom in these matters, Andrew.

As for THAT cover…

Yeah… See what you mean. Lister looks like Rimmer, Rimmer looks like… Smeg knows, and the Cat has wandered in from Man-Kzinti Wars IV.

[Seb Patrick]

I’ve been investigating that cover… it’s a US book club edition, from the looks of it. Very strange indeed. I like, though, that it completely ignores the TV series, and just goes by descriptions in the book – although it has me wondering if Cat is ever described as having humanoid facial features. It’s also clearly depicting the “robot fish” bit from Future Echoes…

The regular US edition of IWCD is almost identical to the UK one – I think it’s just shinier. I do like the US edition of BTL, but it’s a bit generic, and I prefer the UK one, I think.

And yeah, as per Infinity as a title – the hardcover edition of BTL (which would be the first thing published to have listed it as an “Also available” book, presumably) lists it as being Red Dwarf : Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. Although a lot of other copies do just list it as Red Dwarf.

Stay tuned for an interesting (read: boring) G&T article on worldwide book covers and titles and stuff soon, anyway…

[John Hoare]

Sort out the clocks John, there?s a bag of chips in it for ya?

You have to do it manually for now – go to your account settings, and there’s a timezone section. Sorry. I think there’s a module that does it automatically – I’ll look into it when I upgrade the site.

I absolutely LOVE that US BTL cover. Far better than the UK one. I suppose it is a bit generic, and maybe it doesn’t reflect the book as well as the UK version… but it just looks so damn COOL.

[pfm]

Smeg appeared way before Dwarf, as we all know. It’s in the Young Ones book for a start.

[Dave]

smee v. [abbr. of smeeeeee] almost expressing anger, disgust, frustration or contempt but tempered by programmed politeness. Usually in phrase ?Smee Heee?. Also as interj. In non-Red Dwarf use, often a jocular euphamism for ?eff?. Compare ?Freee?

[Nakrophile]

Oooh frell. Must get that ridiculously over-priced mega-ultimate Farscape boxset. So what if I can get all the individual series for far cheaper, that’s not the point… dammit.

[Dave]

I haven’t seen much of Farscape, but I do like what I’ve seen. Then it got cancelled, the fans wrote in, it came back as a miniseries apparently, and then the cast all ended up in Stargate. Oh how the mighty have fallen…

[Nakrophile]

Eh SG-1 is pretty good. Farscape is really excellent, though. As in loads and loads better.

I like how BBC2 randomly showed the last half of series 2 a couple of months ago. Clever, that.

[Danny Stephenson]

I must admit my whole family really enjoyed Farscape, and then we missed like 3 fundamental episodes and then we lost the plot completely…

[Nakrophile]

Mmm it was a bit of a bitch in that respect. Still, I like to think that the winning personalities of the characters could tide one over when all else fails… heh.

[Author]

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