Italics in New TNG Books

[Smiley]

One thing I've noticed in the new TNG books is that all dialogue from transimissions or the other side of a viewscreen communication is now italicized. What is the rationale behind this decision?

From this reader's perspective, the increased amount of italics is distracting and harder on the eyes. It also makes it harder to differentiate between internal thoughts and out-of-the-room dialogue. Before, italics either meant emphasis or internal thoughts, and the amount of italics made it instantly obvious which of the two was happening. The author would make it clear before or during a conversation if a speaking character was not in the same room.

With this change, the reader has to look for the quote sign to determine what the italics mean. It's more work for no apparent gain. Please consider changing this editorial stance before Greater Than the Sum is released.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Smiley, that's the norm.

Just pulling the Trek books I have here in my cubicle, I see comm conversations in which one side is italicized, while the party actually in the room is in normal type. Pages 354 and 355 of Grand Designs, for instance, have Scotty briefing the SCE on their mission from his office back at HQ. Scotty is italics. The team is not.

 

[David Mack]

^ Allyn is correct. This is not a new trend. It has been the TrekLit house style for at least seven years, and probably longer.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I'm pretty sure it's been longer than that. I used the technique when I was writing In the Name of Honor, and I was mimicking what I'd seen in other/older Trek books.

 

[Stevil2001]

Indeed, I can recall a few time noticing that the comm conversations (commversations?) weren't italicized and thinking, "That's odd." It's definitely always happened more often than not.

Anyone know where this one originates? It's not like phone conversations do this in "normal" books!

 

[Sci]

I have books from the late 80s and early 90s were comm conversations were italicized. As far as I can tell, it's been Trek novels' general convention to do that for at least twenty years.

 

[Smiley]

Maybe reading the Dune and Harry Potter series before coming back to Trek books has made the practice stand out more. It's never jumped out at me this much in previous Trek books.

Is there a different font being used in the TNG post-Nemesis books perhaps?

 

[Dayton Ward]

Steve Mollmann said:
Anyone know where this one originates? It's not like phone conversations do this in "normal" books!

Personally, I blame The Prometheus Design because...well...just cuz.

 

[Sci]

Steve Mollmann said:
Anyone know where this one originates? It's not like phone conversations do this in "normal" books!

I would tend to consider it to be the written equivalent of whatever process the effects people do to make the person's voice sound vaguely electronic when it comes out of a comm screen.

 

[Christopher]

Also it just helps give a clearer sense of who's where in a scene, so the reader doesn't lose track of the fact that a certain character is on a com channel rather than in the room.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Smiley said:
Is there a different font being used in the TNG post-Nemesis books perhaps?

Yes. More like Palatino than Times New Roman. Palatino italics look vastly different than Times italics.

(I'm not saying those are the fonts used and typically used. But they're close analogues to what Pocket uses.)

 

[Smiley]

Thanks for all the feedback. I plan on looking at a few of the older and newer releases on my bookshelf later today to see how they look. In any case, the issue hasn't bothered me so much as to prevent me from loving the first half of Before Dishonor.

 

[Stevil2001]

Allyn Gibson said:

Smiley said:
Is there a different font being used in the TNG post-Nemesis books perhaps?

Yes. More like Palatino than Times New Roman. Palatino italics look vastly different than Times italics.

(I'm not saying those are the fonts used and typically used. But they're close analogues to what Pocket uses.)

I'd agree with that assessment. I like the new TNG font; it's close to my favorite serif font, Book Antiqua.

 

[TGTheodore]

I did the traditional italicizing in all my short Trek stuff.

Never occurred to me not to.

To me that convention makes a scene read much faster as it's understood more cleanly as to who's talking from where and under what circumstances.

--Ted

 

[Mike Farley]

Are there actually any Star Trek books that DIDN'T italicize comm-talk? I remember it at least as far back as THE WOUNDED SKY, which is somewhere in the first 20 Pocket Books. Around 25 years back.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I recall using it in my first attempt at fanfic in 1980, so I'm fairly sure that early Pocket, and even Bantam and Ballantine, ST novels and novelizations were using it for comm conversations.

 

[Smiley]

Interestingly enough, Double, Double, which was published in 1989, does not italicize comm conversations.

 

[Mike Farley]

Smiley said:
Interestingly enough, Double, Double, which was published in 1989, does not italicize comm conversations.

Ummm...by my completely arbitrary rules nothing published in 1989 counts.

 

[Scott Pearson]

When I wrote "Among the Clouds" I modified the style, using italics only when someone wasn't physically in the scene. Otherwise, because the characters are usually in environmental suits, nearly all dialog other than Geordi's (the POV character) would have to be italicized, which just seemed like too much.

But Marco, while acknowledging the story would have more italics than generally wanted, wisely pointed out that the rest of the stories in the anthology would be following the house style, and having just one story off style was the greater of two evils. Which was, of course, the right call.

So, "Among the Clouds" has lots of italics, and all of The Sky's the Limit is in the same style. Such are the esoteric decisions editors make behind the scenes to appease the gods of style geekitude. Which I say as an editor who has made many similar decisions.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Smiley said:
Interestingly enough, Double, Double, which was published in 1989, does not italicize comm conversations.

"Double, Double" got caught up in a last minute (incomplete) "global change" during the editing process, IIRC, due to the ST Office's comments on the manuscript. In the final text, the other starship involved is the USS Hood in most mentions, but suddenly turns into a different starship for several chapters! So in the haste to meet deadlines, it may have also lost its comm italics.