For Robout Gilliman and his legion of space marines, the key concepts are the terms “theory” and “practice”. With the last word, everything is simple: practice refers to the actions being performed. The word theory is more complicated.
In English, theories can mean:
– theory in the scientific sense – justified by a certain set of data explaining the work of the world or its part;
– theory in the everyday sense – an unreasonable assumption.
What do the Ultramarines and the compilers of fan theories have in common about Warhammer 40,000 Warhammer 40k, Black Library, Ultramarines, Translation difficulties, Long post
Assumptions exist in science, too, but they are called “hypotheses” and can be both true and false. Only from the result of the study will it become clear whether the hypothesis is true or not.
The most striking example of assumptions with a weak degree of justification are the so-called fan theories. The audience is studying an imaginary world that is interesting to her and is trying to somehow reconcile facts and phenomena with each other in order to understand how the plot will develop in the future. Such a way of thinking sometimes differs slightly from conspiracy theology, because it is based on speculation – building a narrative that is beneficial (for various reasons) for the narrator.
“Will the Emperor rise from the Golden Throne?” Can Sanguinius be resurrected? ”- such questions excite the minds of fans. And Games Workshop themselves throw various hints at future events to activate the core of the community.
If a fan has an understanding of the difference between a scientific theory (with hypotheses and data verification) from a fan theory (speculation of varying degrees of reliability), then this is good. If this understanding is not, then there is a confusion of the meanings of the word in the head. A vivid example of this is the work of David Annandale, “The Deadly Storm” and “Robout Gilliman. Lord of the Ultramar. ”
David uses “theory” and “practice” in the speeches of his heroes just like we use fresh Internet memes. The Iron Ruhrs have the saying “the flesh is weak,” the post-Prosperous Thousand Sons – “all dust.” On the part of theory and practice, they look exactly like memes. From the inside, such a division shows the thinking style of Gilliman and the Ultramarines, their desire to act on the basis of understanding how the world works.
Annandale turns the desire for an adequate interaction with reality inside out. He uses the words “theory” and “practice” very often. Word usage becomes anecdotal. Heroes turn into some cartoons constantly striving to streamline the world around them. And this only encourages fans to joke even more often that Gilliman is “the main bureaucrat of the Imperium”.
In books, constructions of the type “in theory <>, but in practice <>” and “theoretically <>, and practically <>” are regularly found. Theories and practice are translated into Russian directly, without using more appropriate synonyms. Hypotheses that require verification by practice are put on a par with assumptions based on pure intuition.
It is likely that it is necessary to observe the mem-canon, and therefore the “assumptions and actions” and “hypotheses and activities” will never appear in the Russian translation. It is also affected by the fact that these are simply difficult words to use, and therefore it is better to leave the transliteration and not bother with the understanding of what is written. We don’t know what the meaning of Annandale is in theories. Maybe for him, these words are valuable as memes that can be used to create a “yeah effect” for fans to recognize.