Every Friday I transfer posts here from the Virtual Pint archives.
The usual servings today, and something special — another novel excerpt. Enjoy
- When story goes wrong (October 2002) — Steel Breeze in Solitaire, or why sometimes people just fuck story up.
- Early thoughts about translations (November 2002) — Beginning to understand that language is worldview, and worldview changes how we experience story. It’s the early seeds of this discussion.
- Accidental (November 2002) — More on Steel Breeze and the role of accident in life. This post refers in a sideways manner to Hollow, the other novel I was working on at the time, and that I talked about recently. It seems unbearably coy to dance around it, so here you go.
Cheers.
Just a quick thought: Shakespeare uses the word “translated” to mean transported, changed or sumarrily picked up out of one world and whisked down into another like in A midsummer Night’s Dream. I really believe that language is culture. You can’t truly learn a culture without learning the language. The harmonies and dissonances that happen while you are learning is the real translation.
Barbara, yes, absolutely yes. Transported, taken to another place. That was very much my experience learning ASL. I ran smack into the harmonies and dissonances of a culture that had been completely invisible to me until I came to the language, right in my own back yard.
I spent a few days on my own in Paris in the 90’s, getting around with my rudimentary French, and I didn’t really feel the dissonances because I didn’t speak well enough, I was only trying to a) survive and b) be polite while doing it. That experience was just about me in the moment, my trip to Paris — could I order food, could I get on the right bus, yadda yadda.
But I made a three-year commitment to ASL and Deaf culture. As part of my program requirement, I volunteered at deaf agencies. I served as a support person to deaf-blind people at various social events. I went to Deaf public social events. I made a few friends. And wow, the harmonies and dissonances. Although I’m not an interpreter, and I’m not even fluent the way I would like, that learning really changed my understanding of the world in some fundamental ways.
I worked with deaf-blind children for about six years. I learned sign language, but at a pretty rudimentary level. My favorite experience was with a six year old boy. I took him into this little room wth 2 chairs and a full length mirror. I signed “sit” and pushed him gently into the chair. I signed “stand” and gently pulled him up. We did this 10 times and he did not seem to respond. The next day we returned to the room. I signed “sit”. He sat . Then, he signed “stand”, stood, and walked out of the room! I was blown away.