Things that make me go huh?

[gwyn]

Why do people always lowercase the h in human, but uppercase the C in Cylon? I would like to start a campaign to stamp out the indiscriminate title-casing of selective species. When I realized this discrepancy, I started lowercasing the c, but people like to gently "correct" me in posts. Cylon is neither a product/brand name nor an organization (Firefly-class ship, Nexus 6 replicant, the Alliance, the Mounties, Browncoats), nor a nationality/continental/planetary identity (Canadian, African, Bajoran, Betelgeusian, Vulcan), nor a religious identification (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) though admittedly, it could become that eventually. It's a classification no different than human in the series, yet across fandom, people treat it as more significant by uppercasing the c.

Comments

[voleuse.livejournal.com]

I've capitalized the word, but now that you bring it up, I have no idea why. Huh. Maybe something in the official show descriptions?

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

I don't know if they have ever made it clear where the name came from. Cylons were originally manufactured so it could be the original brand name but, then again, they could just be the product. Are they Kleenex or tissue?

And what's the default? If you aren't sure and there isn't an authority to refer to which do you choose? I would imagine it would not be a proper name until you can prove it's a proper name.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

I kind of think of it as a brand of robot™. Which evolved into a race.

[melinafandom.livejournal.com]

Dunno why, but capitalizing Cylon just seems right to me. Is "human" really a race? Isn't it a species? I don't know what that makes Cylon, if it is. Erf. Okay, officially too deep for me.

I'm think I'm just more likely to be bugged by people getting their apostrophes wrong :)

[jidabug.livejournal.com]

So the same thing would apply to Trek fandom: vulcans and romulans and klingons (oh my). It seems to me that I usually see those capitalized.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, until you raised this issue I unthinkingly capitalized "Cylon" as well. But now that I'm thinking about it, I guess there is no good reason!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jems_/]

See, I was also thinking it was a brand name, but you're right that it'd probably have evolved away from that.

Add to that the general schizophrenic thing I've got going between Swedish and English were nations are capitalized, but not nationalities and you've got the makings of one very confused fangirl.

[escritoireazul.livejournal.com]

Wow. I do not even follow that fandom (or watch the source material) but your thoughts, and all the comments, were really, really interesting. Yes.

[meko00.livejournal.com]

Fascinating discussion. Also, I think it has something to do with the lack of descriptors being in use for the overall majority. Now, I'm left-handed, and identify as such (writing, kitchen appliances etc), but 75-90% of all humans (heh) don't go around and identify as right-handers, do they? It is always the odd ones out who get labelled, isn't it? I could get on about the Other, but I can't be bothered at the moment. Plus, I haven't read enough on the subject.

Up the revolution!

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

I just want you to know that, while I'm not in the fandom & will most likely never have occasion to write about cylons (except for right here, right now), in my heart it will always be lower-case.

Yours in solidarity,


Mer

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

I'm rethinking this. Many of the humans in the BSG universe do not really think of the cylons as a race. they think of them as malfunctioning machines. If your story is from the point of view of Admiral Cain, you may want to capitalize just to make the distinction that she still thinks of it as a trademark - not a race.

It's kind of the inverse of that discussion elynross had some time ago about whether or not to capitalize God.