"Potato rager."
Found in a book review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I thought the term intriguing but was fuzzy on what it could mean. Describing the moment an Atkins diet devotee falls off the no-carbohydrate wagon? A science fiction term about vegetables come to life and bent on revenge following millennia of human consumption?
Thanks to a post in the comment thread I can pass on the real meaning (though, to be truthful, I would ove to read the potato avenger story if it is ever published).
The phrase refers to potential reader reaction when coming across something that could not have happened at that time in that place in a story with historical setting. It pops the world-buidling bubble the author has created up to that point, and "throws" the reader out of the story if he or she cares about the accuracy of that kind of thing.
The example used is the potato, a proud and noble foodstuff, but more importantly, native to the so-called New World (i.e. the Americas). This means it could only have been exported to the Old World (i.e. Europe) after Columbus' voyages. So when a reader is innocently reading, say, a medieval mystery, and finds the protagonist munching on potatoes at the royal banquet, a potato rager might be born.
I am now, of course, thinking of all the other types. Pineapple rager? Brussell sprout rager? What a range of literary possibilities this opens up!
Found in a book review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I thought the term intriguing but was fuzzy on what it could mean. Describing the moment an Atkins diet devotee falls off the no-carbohydrate wagon? A science fiction term about vegetables come to life and bent on revenge following millennia of human consumption?
Thanks to a post in the comment thread I can pass on the real meaning (though, to be truthful, I would ove to read the potato avenger story if it is ever published).
The phrase refers to potential reader reaction when coming across something that could not have happened at that time in that place in a story with historical setting. It pops the world-buidling bubble the author has created up to that point, and "throws" the reader out of the story if he or she cares about the accuracy of that kind of thing.
The example used is the potato, a proud and noble foodstuff, but more importantly, native to the so-called New World (i.e. the Americas). This means it could only have been exported to the Old World (i.e. Europe) after Columbus' voyages. So when a reader is innocently reading, say, a medieval mystery, and finds the protagonist munching on potatoes at the royal banquet, a potato rager might be born.
I am now, of course, thinking of all the other types. Pineapple rager? Brussell sprout rager? What a range of literary possibilities this opens up!
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