If
there’s anything teenagers understand, it’s being misunderstood. Two of the stories in One Thousand Words for War, Nori Odoi’s “Alien Truce” and Lisa
Timpf’s “In Other Words” appear on their surfaces to be simple, well-crafted tales
of alien-human misunderstanding. Lurking
herein, though, is some very sophisticated thematic material, particularly as
pertains to the process by which ideas become words, and vice versa.
Historically, science fiction
narratives have taken for granted that many human characteristics would be true
of technologically advanced aliens as well.
They’ve been portrayed as bipedal, for one thing, because that makes it
easier for an actor in a rubber suit to portray them. More subtle is the assumption that alien
communication would function as it does for most terrestrial species—through the
use of ambient pressure changes in the atmosphere which are sensed by vibrating
membranes in the receptor organs of the recipient. Or, if you prefer: by making noises. There’s no logical reason this would need to
be the case; at least as much meaning could be conveyed by, for instance,
pulses of light, or exchanges of pheromones, or by means that human beings
wouldn’t even recognize as sensory. Innovative
sci-fi authors might throw telepathy at the reader, but it’s rarely
well-explored; there’s seldom a credible biological explanation aside from some
kind of question-begging concept of a “hive mind”, and generally the characters
and reader experience telepathic communication in the form of words spoken
directly into the brain--except in
italics—which is weird, given that the brain should have no need for the
spoken representation of the idea when the idea itself is directly accessible.
In portraying a difficult and
complex negotiation between humans and aliens, Odoi springs two surprises. Neither is without precedent in science
fiction, but each is innovative and unusual where modern YA is concerned. The first is her separation of consciousness
from the communicative act; she suggests a trance state that involves what amounts
to a dream shared by both discussants.
Odoi’s background in poetry proves important here as she conveys to a
reader an exchange of pure thought, ideas in their essence rather than reduced
to their signifiers. Secondly, Odoi
presents an organism that evolves in symbiosis with another species, a critter
which apparently exists solely to facilitate this form of communication. Odoi’s version is considerably cuddlier that
Douglas Adams’ famous “Babel Fish,” which bodes well for plush toy sales when
the movie version comes out.
While Odoi fiddles briefly with the
familiar trope of a “universal translator,” Timpf’s “In Other Words” places the
concept at the center of the story.
Unlike Odoi’s aliens, who are so different from humans that they are
initially unrecognizable as a sentient species, Timpf’s are similar enough to
humans that the two species are able to project their own flaws and foibles on
one another. This makes for a situation
ripe for misunderstanding—especially if some of the players involved don’t wish
for understanding to be achieved.
Where Odoi dwells in the mystical
aspects of sharing ideas, Timpf is more concerned with the mechanical details
by which meaning is constructed. A
veteran of writing of all sorts—fiction, non-fiction, and poetry—Timpf uses the
failure of a translating computer to illustrate sophisticated ideas about how
we seek to understand one another. In
doing so, she demonstrates that where the sharing of words may fail, the
sharing of experiences may still succeed.
Early reviews of the anthology have ranked Timpf’s story very high among
the stories herein, and it’s easy to see why—she has a rare ability to make
complex concepts comprehensible, and enjoyable, for young readers.
Both Nori Odoi and Lisa Timpf provide fun, imaginative reads that open the door to discussions of language, comprehension, and meaning. Their work may involve aliens, but it's anything but alienating.
Both Nori Odoi and Lisa Timpf provide fun, imaginative reads that open the door to discussions of language, comprehension, and meaning. Their work may involve aliens, but it's anything but alienating.
No comments:
Post a Comment