Place Name Capitalization?

[-K2-]

Yeah, yeah... about now my literacy is coming into question. Anywho, after performing a number of web searches I'm not entirely confident I have found the answer I need. So, since you folks seem to read more gooder than me, here we go again.

Within my story, the massive city having become the nation, is broken up into particular types of areas, of which there are many of each type. Those areas are named 'Homestead, Productive, Fertile and Pastoral' zones/wards/sections/etc..

From what I surmise, Washington, D.C. which has been renamed "Homestead Capital," I understand should be capitalized being a proper noun. Likewise, the "South Philadelphia Pastoral zone" I think should be capitalized as I have it (please correct me if I'm wrong). My question is focused upon casual narrative and dialogue. In other words, if the narrative reads 'Bob walked into the Pastoral zone,' should 'pastoral' be capitalized or not? I'm not stating a particular pastoral zone (as in a proper name), just a pastoral zone in general, which makes me think 'not.'

While we're at it, let me also ask about the rules pertaining to dialogue. IOW, if the line is "Bob, Homestead Capital is where all the numbskulls are," I'm assuming the rules for narrative speech apply also to dialogue, yet, I may as well be sure.

Thanks for your help with my basic English questions.

K2

 

[Danny McG]

"Bob, Homestead Capital is where all the numbskulls are

Nah, they're in the Beano
The Numskulls - Wikipedia

 

[TheDustyZebra]

From what I surmise, Washington, D.C. which has been renamed "Homestead Capital," I understand should be capitalized being a proper noun. Likewise, the "South Philadelphia Pastoral zone" I think should be capitalized as I have it (please correct me if I'm wrong). My question is focused upon casual narrative and dialogue. In other words, if the narrative reads 'Bob walked into the Pastoral zone,' should 'pastoral' be capitalized or not? I'm not stating a particular pastoral zone (as in a proper name), just a pastoral zone in general, which makes me think 'not.'

While we're at it, let me also ask about the rules pertaining to dialogue. IOW, if the line is "Bob, Homestead Capital is where all the numbskulls are," I'm assuming the rules for narrative speech apply also to dialogue, yet, I may as well be sure.

If Homestead Capital is the name of the city, it's capitalized. If South Philadelphia Pastoral Zone is the official name of the place, it would be capitalized, but it's likely the South Philadelphia pastoral zone, and definitely the pastoral zone of South Philadelphia. They will be the same in dialogue as in narrative. Since there are lots of pastoral zones, Bob walked into the pastoral zone.

 

[The Judge]

What TDZ said.

Dusty, how about you put together something about capitalisation of place names and ranks etc, so we can have a post on it for The Toolboxes. The more stuff we have on there, the less K2 will have to go wandering the interwebz and flirting with sites which aren't as good at English as what we are.

 

[-K2-]

Thanks @TheDustyZebra and @The Judge ; In addition, after I had a bit of rest last night it struck me... 'Duh! If I wrote "suburbs" it would not be capitalized.' So why would any of these except the proper names be?

Thanks for your help, I have no idea why it was confusing me.

K2

 

[tinkerdan]

My Gregg Reference Manual is pretty helpful with things like this.
It's worth the investment.

 

[Pyan]

Yes, but: if it was just an area that a lot of cities had, it would be ‘pastoral zone’. If it’s an official title, wouldn’t it be ‘Pastoral Zone’, like ‘Industrial Park’?

 

[The Judge]

I take your point, pyan. If there are many pastoral zones within the city, then they might have different designations, just we would have different names for parks, eg Victoria Park, Belgrave Park, and there might be big signs with the name on it. In which case they would be capitalised.

If we're going to a specific named place, it would be "I'm off to Victoria Park" capitalised. But just "I'm off to the park" lower case. So possibly, perhaps likely, "he entered South Street Pastoral Zone" with capitals, but to my mind "he entered the southern pastoral zone" or "he entered the pastoral zone" both lower case.

 

[-K2-]

Yes, but: if it was just an area that a lot of cities had, it would be ‘pastoral zone’. If it’s an official title, wouldn’t it be ‘Pastoral Zone’, like ‘Industrial Park’?

In a nutshell, homestead areas are for the wealthy and politically powerful. Productive areas is where all manufacturing and service originates from (though is the next step down from homestead, so you might liken them to suburbs). Fertile areas essentially are where the lower 94% of the population that have children live, (so akin to lower middle class or buffer zone housing). Pastoral areas are essentially slums, sans children.

With that said and disregarding sentence capitalization, I suspect it should all be written like this.

Homestead Capital, the Circus, Homestead CASE = Washington, D.C.
homestead zone/area/unit/etc. = any of a number of homestead areas in general and nonspecific
South Philadelphia Pastoral zone/area/unit/etc., SPPZ-1, Spaz-1 = South Philadelphia
productive, fertile, pastoral zone/area/unit/etc. = any of a number of those areas in general and nonspecific
New Venice Pastoral zone = Manhattan
etc..

Ultimately for the protagonist (though not yet) and currently for most people, except for Homestead Capital, nowhere has a name any longer, even a reference to a previous name. Everywhere is simply designated by a sub-section/unit/sector/ward/grid number which is lessened further by relevance, or a derogatory slang name.

As an example: Though the S. Philly gate is at 6-V-8-D-7, most would refer to it as 8-D-7 (having no connection to elsewhere) or D-ward or D-7.

K2

 

[The Judge]

Just to say, if you're capitalising the Pastoral, to my mind you need the capital for Zone, too; in the same way it's "Victoria Park" not "Victoria park" -- the whole of it is the title.

 

[-K2-]

Thanks @The Judge , I'll do that. And thanks all others for your input!

K2

 

[Pyan]

Pastoral areas are essentially slums, sans children.

Mmm - unless this is being used in a doublethink manner, 'pastoral' to me conjures up images of sun-kissed meadows, leafy woods and fields full of gambolling lambs and calves, not slums...

 

[-K2-]

Mmm - unless this is being used in a doublethink manner, 'pastoral' to me conjures up images of sun-kissed meadows, leafy woods and fields full of gambolling lambs and calves, not slums...

Exactly

It is even darker than that however. All of it falls under the new 'Agricultural System' of population management... although, all of the plant and animal life is (presumed) dead. So it does beg the question of what lives on pasture lands.

Just as some side notes (in that it helps me to talk about it):
* The 'United States' is now known as 'Consolidated America Sanctuary East,' or CASE City.
* The government is now called the Restored Constitution Federal Government, and everyone lives within the Agricultural System of population management.
* The population (and more) that was spread out over 3,797,000 mi², is now compressed into an area 22,304 mi².
* Where 45 million people were once crammed into, now 417 million now live.
* Everything has had an 'agricultural farming' name applied to it. Although, those meanings are lost on most now.
* Population/land distribution is as follows:
CASE-Population Total: Population 417,000,000. CASE-Area: 22,304sq.km..
Homestead Regions: Pop. 834,000 - 3,792sq.km. - 220p/sq.km. density.
Productive Fields/Rings: Pop. 24,186,000 - 4,684sq.km. - 5,143p/sq.km. density.
Fertile Fields/Rings: Pop. 129,270,000 - 8,699sq.km. - 14,860p/sq.km. density.
Pastoral Fields/Rings: Pop. 262,710,000 - 5,130sq.km. - 51,211p/sq.km. density.

Although, in pastoral areas that is deceptive. In South Philadelphia (which is entirely a pastoral zone), where once 175,000 lived, now over 1,000,000 are crammed into there. Worse still, wherein there was 14.2 mi² of space, due to sea rise it has shrunk to 1.2 mi², making a population density of 833,333/mi².

The RCFG workers in pastoral areas are named: Planters, Gleaners, Reapers and Salvage (in that salvage workers didn't like being called 'Pickers,' hehe).

There are no plants, animals, bugs or even Twinkies left, the last one eaten roughly ten years ago.

K2

 

[-K2-]

@pyan P.S.; S. Philly:

K2