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Without looking, if you encounted the word torus and its plural form tori, would you know what it meant? And if not what non-corny substitutes could be used?
Posts: 1275 | Registered: Mar 2004
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"Torus" is no problem, although it might be a bit much for people who aren't mathematically or geometrically inclined. I'd probably get "tori", but depending on context it might make me stumble, second-guessing myself and wondering if it were a girl's name. I'd use "torus" in science fiction, but not in fantasy; I don't think I'd personally use "tori" at all unless I had used "torus" previously.
To offer substitutes, I think I'd need to see the context. "Donut" or "bagel" isn't corny at all in the right setting. The shape might remind the reader of the tire swing they had in their back yard as a child. "Like one of those plastic rings that hamsters run around in all day" might even be appropriate if that were something that your POV character would think. "A ring, like planetary rings, but instead of a flat cross-section, this object was tubular..." I think before I got to the lattermost, though, I'd just say "torus".
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Once I got into the second post a bit, I realized I know what "toroidal" means, but I wouldn't recognize Torus. And I know Latin. I would have assumed it was a made-up word.
Posts: 366 | Registered: Sep 2006
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The characters try to make sense of thier superhuman sight, not knowing how or why they have it.
In the first instance on page 15: [Despite closed eyes, a torus of white flames burned into his vision.]
There is in fact a tire swing in that scene that has nothing to do with the sight, which I hope acts as a twofold symbol, one for childhood, the other that hopefully and backhandedly reminds some of the torus field the characters experience from there on out.
On page 18, the viewpoint character [touched two fingers to his eyelids and held them closed. Two reddish tori wavered against the blackness, joined by a violet thread. "There're your doughnuts...]
They had a quip on page 3 about doughnuts, hopefully not a cliche one. The other character says, "More like a cosmic barbell", refering how the two shapes are linked by a thin line.
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited February 27, 2007).]
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I'm guessing you are using torus in its botanical connotation. But I had to look it up to figure that up. To me, the only thing that came to mind was taurus-either the bull or the car. You'd have to explain it to me for me to get it.
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Dose it have to be a jelly donut why not a cream filled donut. I could sure use a good cream filled donut and coffee after PT every morning. As for torus would not have a clue until looking it up, unless there was some context explaining what it was. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Would it be okay to say something kind of like, "A torus shape, like a doughnut or the tire swing a few geet away..." so the reader will know from there on out what you mean, if they didn't?
It sounds like something I might do, but I'm not sure if that would be a good technique or not.
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2001 was a grate movie and 2010 the year we made contact was not all that bad either. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Serendipity. I happened to be reading the March issue of Analog this morning on the train, and I saw this:
quote:Liz touched the net for a map. The Singer's habitable parts consisted of six spheres spaced hexagonally, like beads on a stiff hoop, around the magnetic field generation cable. Between spheres, sections of a torus enclosed the wire and a passageway.
From "The Small Pond" by C. Sanford Lowe and G. David Nordley. There's more, but this gives you the flavor.
This was a good use of "torus", I thought, in that the writers don't depend on the reader's knowledge of the word; from context, you can tell that it's a geometric term.
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I saw part of "2001" in its original run. About the time HAL started breaking down, my grandmother, who I went with, insisted we leave. It was nearly ten years before I got to see how it came out---the book was all different.
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HAL broke down because he had conflicting orders and became paranoid, in the 2nd movie they fixed him, and HAL had no memory of what happened. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Ah, Spaceman, mobius strips are lovely, but mobius spheres are where it's at!
Maybe if enough writers use "torus" in a way that their readers can understand, in a few years the word will become common enough that this discussion would be unnecessary. Go for it!
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