Science fiction writers show words changing their meanings in the future. In Poul Anderson's There Will Be Time, Jack Havig, time traveling to his future, meets a young woman who, when asked what she does with her time, replies that she jokes a lot. An amateur comedienne? However, when she and he share a picnic with no one else present, she announces that she had figured they could joke after eating but why not before and after?
(Addendum, 15 Mar: Also highly relevant is Anderson's "A Tragedy of Errors." See comments.)
In Neil Gaiman's sequel to Alan Moore's Miracleman, "London" means an event as "Hiroshima" does for us and "Kidding" has become a swear word because of what the Kid did in London. (Alan Moore had asked, "What would someone with Superman's strength and speed but not his scruples do?" He then answered this question with extremely detailed instructions to a comic strip artist.)
In SM Stirling's "Shikari in Galveston," a Bengali trader surprises us by telling Eric King that the local savages "'...are a clean people...'" (p. 80) Clean? King has just complained of sweat, squalor, smoke, sewage and stink. However, the trader's use of the word "clean" does not refer to hygiene. He spells it out:
"'From the time of the Fall.'" (ibid.)
King understands:
"King nodded...that was one of the fundamental distinctions in the modern world, between those whose ancestors had eaten men in the terrible years after the hammer from the skies struck, and those who hadn't. The only more fundamental one was between those who still did, and the rest of humanity." (ibid.)
And I am certain that the use of the word "clean" would be extended in precisely this way in those circumstances.
Tomorrow there will be a family outing for Mothers' Day (we have two mothers in the household) so maybe not much time for posting. Before turning in this evening, I have had to stop reading Stieg Larsson in order to post and must now stop posting in order to watch Smallville. Retirement, as expected, is an endless choice between enjoyable activities.
3 comments:
Hi, Paul!
And we both know, from reading Poul Anderson's "A Tragedy of Errors," how a whole story was written around the idea that Anglic changed after the Empire fell. Dangerous and potentially catasrophic misunderstandings occurred from people using the same Anglic words, but with them now having different meanings on different worlds. I think a philologist like JRR Tolkien would have enjoyed reading "Tragedy"!
And I'm glad retirement is turning out so well for you! And that you have an adequate income for it.
Sean
Sean,
I should have mentioned "A Tragedy of Errors."
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
And I mentioned JRR Tolkien because the first half of Poul Anderson's writing career co-existed with the last 26 years of Tolkien's life, giving him plenty of time to become aware of Anderson's works. I can say this both because we know from THE LETTERS OF JRR TOLKIEN that he enjoyed reading SF and because a collection of science fiction stories (including one by Anderson) was owned by Tolkien, due to the book being signed by him. And Anderson contributed an essay to MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE EARTH called "Awakening the Elves," relating how Tolkien's works had affected him.
Sean
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