research woes

[estepheia]

I really hate it when my English lets me down. Within certain areas I can draw on a pretty impressive vocabulary (I'm sure my ex-teachers and ex-lecturers would be stunned by the sheer number of smut-related words that I can use without batting an eyelid *cough*), but every now and then I come across word fields where I have no clue.

Mostly these word fields pertain the physical world. I find it hard to describe objects and places accurately. Fun fairs, machines, architecture, etc.

This is particularly irksome with regard to my fic Four Fear. How am I supposed to describe a headlong flight past the popcorn stall(?) and the sweets shop (?) and describe the open mouths of the livery-wearing circus salespersons (??), when I don't really know what the correct words are. And what are the chains of colored light-bulbs called that mark the path from the entrance to the big top? Fairy lights? That's a Christmas term, right? Especially in action scenes it's important that descriptions are spot on as well as short, otherwise the section reads as cumbersome and does not reflect the urgency of the content. *bangs head on desk*

A few weeks ago, when the circus was in town, I asked the press person (?) of the circus if they have any material on how a circus is run. I told them I wanted background material for a story I am writing as well as material for a creative writing course I'm offering this fall. Alas, they said they don't hand out material to private people, only to the press. Bah.

Lawrence Block said in his book Writing the Novel - From Plot to Print:

"It's worth remembering, I think, that fakery is the very heart and soul of fiction. Unless your writing is pure autobiography in the guise of a novel, you will continually find yourself practicing the dark arts of the illusionist and the trade of the counterfeiter. All our stories are nothing but a pack of lies. Research is one of the tools to veil this deception from our readers, but this is not to say that the purpose of research is to make our stories real. It's to make them look real, and there's a big difference." (p.107)

I have googled the term 'circus' several times and searched the results for useful sites on circus organisation (and terminolgy) but without success. I want the circus in my story to appear authentic, but boy, does ignorance weigh heavily on my shoulders.

Comments

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

They're "Christmas lights" only when they're actually being used as holiday decorations.

Not in the South. I've never heard them referred to as anything but "Christmas lights", even when they're being put up for other holidays.

A sweet shop would be a candy stall (or a specific kind of candy -- a toffee apple stall, a fudge stall, etc.)

You know, I haven't seen a food stall at a fair since I was a kid. All of them seem to use food service trucks, now. And less with the candy apples and more with the deep-fried Snickers bars (a favorite at our state fair.)

When I was a kid, the county fair still featured a freak show and a hootchie-cootchie tent, but I can't recall seeing the latter at the fairs hereabout since I got married.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Deep-fried snickers bars? You're kidding, right?

What's a hootchie-cootchie tent?

I can see, our German fairs are boring compared to yours'. Bah. ;-)

Thanks for the help.
*rushes back to circus story*

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

Deep-fried snickers bars? You're kidding, right?

Ha! No, I'm not kidding. They also served deep-fried Twinkies and deep-fried Oreos. They ran out of candy on several occasions during the fair's run. (Plus, funnel cakes are always a bit hit, and corn dogs & cotton candy are still favorites, as are Sno-Cones.)

What's a hootchie-cootchie tent?

Well...I never went inside, so part of this is just passing on stories. The barker on the platform would have two or three scantily-clad women, gyrating to 'exotic' music. Inside, I'm assuming there was "exotic" dance and/or strip-tease. There were stories I heard about the dancers being prostitutes, but I can't speak to the accuracy, since it was snide gossip among my Mom's friends. I can remember my mother hurrying me past the tent and refusing to answer my questions about it.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

What's a hootchie-cootchie tent?
Didn't you watch any of Carnivale? It's fabulous. And yet another series that was axed before it's story was finished.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

I watched the first two epis of Carnivale and found it too creepy. I'd probably watch it if I had access to the DVDs, but I couldn't be bothered to go through the hassle of downloading it... I'm downloading too many shows already. I didn't know that the show got axed. Damn!

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, the county fair still featured a freak show and a hootchie-cootchie tent, but I can't recall seeing the latter at the fairs hereabout since I got married.

You know, a person with an evil mind could put an unintended spin on that last part.

This midwesterner would say "stand" instead of "stall," and in the context of a fair I might do so even if it was a truck. But being used to roving ice cream trucks, I would probably say ice cream truck.

One of the great books on carnival life, by the way, is Dan Mannix's Step Right Up. Mannix traveled with a sideshow in his youth and came out with a lot of great stories. (Can't remember if he ate fire or swallowed swords, but it was something like that.)

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

You know, a person with an evil mind could put an unintended spin on that last part.

Heh.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't seen a food stall at a fair since I was a kid. All of them seem to use food service trucks, now. And less with the candy apples and more with the deep-fried Snickers bars (a favorite at our state fair.)

I haven't been to a real circus in years and years. But it seems to me that the last time I went to the county fair, at least some of the food was sold from stalls rather than trucks. I have to admit I didn't really notice, though, which suggests that it might not be that important for your story. But I'd guess that vendors who travel with the circus or fair would use food service trucks, while vendors who live in the area and just set up when the fair comes to town would use stalls.

Here in northern California, every little city has its own weekend Art and Wine festival sometime during the summer, and the food there is definitely sold from stalls rather than from trucks. Which makes sense, because those are mostly local vendors or nonprofit organizations doing fundraisers.

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

Yeah, true, even at our county fairs when I was a kid, they were mostly food service trucks. We still referred to them as stalls or stands, though.

On Christmas lights, yeah, you're right, we'd (I'm from Indiana) call them Christmas lights no matter what holiday they were up for, if they were decoating a house, patio, etc. I'm just thinking that the strings of lights you'd see at a carnival/circus, we'd just call strings of lights. I'm not even sure if they use actual Christmas lights, vs. a larger, stronger bulb.

I never actually visited our state fair until after college (because I lived about 300 miles away from it) but our county fair didn't have hootchie-cootchie/burlesque/freakshow tents when I was growing up, as far as I know. I knew what they were, from movies and books, but the closest we had to individual tents that you had to pay to get into was things like "World's smallest horse" and "World's biggest pig" etc. And possibly a fortuneteller.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

I find these cultural differences fascinating.

Say, you wouldn't know if a cotton candy machine makes a characteristic noise, would you?

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

Oooh, oooh! Pick me! Pick me!

When it's turned on, a cotton candy makes sort of a low, humming/buzzing noise, and if you're up close, you can also hear the air blowing around in the thingy that turns the sugar into cotton candy. It's not terribly loud, though. It's a little like the noise of a jet plane taking off, but much, much softer.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Wow, the things people on my flist know...
Thank you. :-)

[querida-bonbon.livejournal.com]

I know you've probably got enough advice on this, but I just wanted to throw in that most sounds at the fairs I've gone to tend to be drowned out by the rumble of generators that run all the rides and food stands :)

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

Usually I wouldn't be able to hear the machine because it would be behind glass in the stand/truck. (Also, they frequently have a lot of cotton candy made up beforehand and hanging in bags, so the machine itself isn't always running when you walk up). I imagine it sounds a bit like a washing machine on spin cycle, though, since that's the same thing that's happening -- it's just one piece of metal in the center spinning around really fast and spitting out heated sugar through tiny holes, which almost immediately crystalizes into threads as it cools.