Can terms like Parts, Volumes and Chapters be used interchangeable?

[DAgent]

Probably a bit more of a straightforward question then some of my previous ones but I've been wondering about how some books, comics and movies have somewhat subverted expectations when it comes to things like Chapters, parts, and so on. For example the "Guardian of the Galaxy" movies and labelled as "Volumes" whereas most movie series I've seen use the term "parts" in their titles or just being referred to as parts by critics and the public alike, with some exceptions like Star Wars using "Episodes".
Switch over to comics you have the likes of 2000AD counting it's issues as "Progs" obviously to stand out in the market where everyone else uses the term "Issues".
But is anyone aware of any novels where a different term is used rather then chapters? And what did they make of it? Did make any real difference to the story they were reading or how they looked at the story or was it just a nifty way of making the presentation stand out?

 

[Valtharius]

Part and volume can probably be interchangeable for books. They mean something big and usually self-contained.
A chapter is something different. It's much smaller and a piece of something larger. I would never call anything literary an "episode" unless you're deliberately evoking movies or television.

 

[tinkerdan]

Chapters to me are always the hard breaks in a short story, novella, or novel.

Parts are usually separations that might stand as separate novels or novella's[although they could be hard breaks within an entire novel with chapter hard breaks internal to each part].

Volumes are more like a set of books that are related in the sense that they are Volume 1 of XXXXX(your title here), Volume 2 of XXXXX(your title here), and so on. Not necessarily related in story yet possibly related by Genre or Author. Collections of short stories edited or presented by a specific person might be produced as volumes. My copies of the biography of Robert Heinlein are Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Amazon.com: Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907-1948) eBook : Patterson, William H. : Kindle Store

Amazon.com: Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907-1948) eBook : Patterson, William H. : Kindle Store

www.amazon.com

Episodes, I typically think of television series when I hear episode. That doesn't rule out possibly a series that is published in separate sections n a magazine or possibly as e-book offerings.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

IIRC, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol II" is actually riffing off the in-universe volume II of Starlord's mixtape. So that's a case of a non-standard term being used for a particular artistic effect. And I'm guessing 2000AD's "progs" are supposed to sound like British slang from the kind of grungy future they so often depicted. Lewis Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark" is "an Agony in Eight Fits," the "fits" being basically chapters. It's a surreal fantasy, so again it's an artistic choice. Someone recently mentioned a classic novel that used "First Bell," "Second Bell" etc as chapter headings, but I can't remember what the book was or why. Might have been "The Nine Taylors" by Dorothy Sayers, which features church bell-ringers? Point being, a non-standard term can be effective if you're trying to evoke something in particular with it. (Probably less so if it's just different for the sake of it!)

 

[The Judge]

Someone recently mentioned a classic novel that used "First Bell," "Second Bell" etc as chapter headings, but I can't remember what the book was or why. Might have been "The Nine Taylors" by Dorothy Sayers, which features church bell-ringers?

Not quite. The Nine Tailors uses terminology from change ringing, but it's a good bit more involved than that as it's divided into four unequal parts (I, II, III and IV) each named after a method, and within those sections are sub-divisions which act like chapters, also named according to the change ringing terms, but linked to the plot.

For example, the first section is headed

A Short Touch of Kent Treble Bob Major
(Two Courses)​

together with a note of how the change is rung, and the section is split into two starting with

The First Course
The Bells Are Rung Up
​

Then the second section is

A Full Peal of Grandsire Triples
(Holt's Ten-Part Peal)​

again together with a change ringer's notation for the method, and the section is divided into ten starting with

The First Part
Mr Gotobed Is Called With A Double
​

Then within the courses or parts there are scenes which are un-named but shown by means of asterisks across the page.

Since the novel entirely revolves around the ringing of the church bells and how it's done, with all the intricacies, these section/chapter titles really are very cleverly done, and undoubtedly they would pique the interest of anyone who understands change ringing (though I confess they went largely over my head).

 

[DAgent]

Not quite. The Nine Tailors uses terminology from change ringing, but it's a good bit more involved than that as it's divided into four unequal parts (I, II, III and IV) each named after a method, and within those sections are sub-divisions which act like chapters, also named according to the change ringing terms, but linked to the plot.

For example, the first section is headed

A Short Touch of Kent Treble Bob Major
(Two Courses)​

together with a note of how the change is rung, and the section is split into two starting with

The First Course
The Bells Are Rung Up
​

Then the second section is

A Full Peal of Grandsire Triples
(Holt's Ten-Part Peal)​

again together with a change ringer's notation for the method, and the section is divided into ten starting with

The First Part
Mr Gotobed Is Called With A Double
​

Then within the courses or parts there are scenes which are un-named but shown by means of asterisks across the page.

Since the novel entirely revolves around the ringing of the church bells and how it's done, with all the intricacies, these section/chapter titles really are very cleverly done, and undoubtedly they would pique the interest of anyone who understands change ringing (though I confess they went largely over my head).

They certainly went way over mine, by about a country mile