The bit on the use of modern terms is interesting, because Dragon Age: The Veilguard (my white whale of bad fantasy media) did this in a very similar way. 'Therapist' is basically the only modernism it doesn't use, which is strange given that so much of the dialogue given to the main character is 100% therapeutic language, which is used in a really obvious and cringey way.
What it does use ad nauseum is 'team' (disgustingly corporate language, and inappropriate in the context), and it also uses non-binary, a term most people probably hadn't heard of before the 2020s, which makes it sound very jarring in-game. They even threw out a perfectly serviceable in-universe term which conveyed the same idea.
But maybe Stormlight can get away with the odd modernism, if it actually discusses trauma in a meaningful way? Veilguard's problem is that it's so globally terrible that you basically can't overlook any individual facet.
I thought it was jarring because it was the only such term in an otherwise high fantasy world. In my (admittedly uneducated) opinion, everything else about mental health was written well, it's just that one term that grinds my gears. Still, it's just a nitpick and I really loved Stormlight as a whole.
The bit on the use of modern terms is interesting, because Dragon Age: The Veilguard (my white whale of bad fantasy media) did this in a very similar way. 'Therapist' is basically the only modernism it doesn't use, which is strange given that so much of the dialogue given to the main character is 100% therapeutic language, which is used in a really obvious and cringey way.
What it does use ad nauseum is 'team' (disgustingly corporate language, and inappropriate in the context), and it also uses non-binary, a term most people probably hadn't heard of before the 2020s, which makes it sound very jarring in-game. They even threw out a perfectly serviceable in-universe term which conveyed the same idea.
But maybe Stormlight can get away with the odd modernism, if it actually discusses trauma in a meaningful way? Veilguard's problem is that it's so globally terrible that you basically can't overlook any individual facet.
I thought it was jarring because it was the only such term in an otherwise high fantasy world. In my (admittedly uneducated) opinion, everything else about mental health was written well, it's just that one term that grinds my gears. Still, it's just a nitpick and I really loved Stormlight as a whole.
Interesting and well analysed. I hope to read these some day