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Λ

EP 2 PAGE 2
Gamma World* had one odd element in its world design: A goofy quasi-English "future language". It followed no real pattern of etymology, of course, and was simply shorthand to represent changes in language since the collapse of civilization. (For instance, the submerged city of New York was referred to on one map as "New Ork City". Cute.) Since we had studied language shifts extensively in college, it was a subject we really couldn't avoid teasing.
 
When it came time to introduce Charlotte Burris and her loyal retainer Beucephalus (the brutorz– "brute + horse"– get it?) we decided to play with that a bit. As we said in our submission: "Note that despite the Li'l Abner dialect, Sharly is intelligent and well-educated. The dialect equates to the Queen's English of her realm. She knows what a biogenetic agent is, having been taught the principles of science, history and other subjects extensively..." Also, we liked the irony of balancing the way Snuffy Smith talked with a sober life-and-death situation.
 
The TSR staff voted down the hillbilliese– this in a time before the duplicitous term "politically correct" was unleashed upon an unsuspecting nation– but we easily agreed. It just distracted from the dramatic tension. It was a non-problem going forward, but we never had the chance to rewrite the dialogue by the time the project was canned for other considerations.
 
 
 
 
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