When the natives approach, Valland says:
"'I was just speakin' of the devil, and what came by? A bigger pair of horns than Othello thought he had!'" (p. 48)
Argens comments:
"I didn't follow his mythological references, but his meaning was plain." (ibid.)
Not only the devil but also a Shakespeare play has become mythological? Was Valland speaking of the devil? What does he mean by horns coming by? His meaning is not plain to me.
The two spacemen are "...relieved to find no obviously alien semantics..." (p. 49) among the Azkashi, led by ya-Kela, who:
have individual names;
use the same kinds of gestures as human beings for sign language;
yelp and dance with delight at presents like a steel knife for their leader;
bring presents of local handicrafts and a big game animal.
Would communication really be so easy?
11 comments:
Paul:
Othello was tricked into thinking Desdemona had been unfaithful to him. One of the slang expressions for adultery is to say that an unfaithful wife and her lover have "put horns on" her husband. Wikipedia says (this part I didn't know until now) that "This is an allusion to the mating habits of stags, who forfeit their mates when they are defeated by another male."
As far as I know, there isn't a comparable expression for when the husband is unfaithful to the wife. Perhaps traditional thinking simply considered male infidelity the natural order of things.
David,
Thanks. I do understand what you said but I am having difficulty in understanding what Valland means by using this phrase in his context.
Paul.
Paul:
I'd guess that something about the Yonderfolk's arrival was very much appropriate to a remark he'd actually made just shortly before they showed up. If, for example, they came en masse quite soon after he said something like, "We'll have to try to make first contact sooner or later"....
David,
He was interrupted starting to refer to the natives...
OK. There is a saying, "Speak of the Devil and he appears." Maybe that's it. But his reference to horns and Othello is still a very obscure way to put it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I too have my doubts that it would be so easy for the stranded humans to communicate with the Pack. It would have been more realistic if PA had shown the humans and Yonderfolk having to grope and fumble a while before they started to understand each other.
Sean
Paul:
I have in my time used turns of phrase at least as elliptical as Hugh Valland's Othello reference, so it didn't faze me. Not too many months ago, I turned down a second (or maybe third) helping of food with a remark about how I'd need to stay away from Lakehurst, New Jersey, adding, "Oh the humanity!" (The Hindenburg disaster; I was saying I'd be swollen into a blimp.) My sister, who'd made the offer, understood at once because she's accustomed to the way I think.
David,
OK. I will ask you to interpret obscure phrases in future!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I remember how you were once puzzled by Poul Anderson's use of "trianon" in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. I explained it referred to the smaller palaces of the Larger and Smaller Trianon built by Louis XIV and Louis XV of France near Versailles. Hence to smaller palaces built near the Coral Palace.
Sean
Sean,
And that remains a word that I have only encountered in Anderson.
Paul.
The humans have much greater problems dealing with the others than with the Pack because the Pack are, fortuitously, products of a similar evolution. Like humans, they're social predators who have two sexes and are otherwise generalized non-specialists. Their natures are much more similar to those of humans, who evolved in a similar context, and that accordingly produces a more similar language.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: the use of "trianon" in this context by Poul Anderson was interesting! The 18th century kings of France: Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, used the Trianon palaces for times when they wanted some relief from the stiff etiquette and rules they had to live by in the main palace of Versailles (along with an almost complete lack of privacy).
I assume the island on which the Coral Palace was built was also large enough to contain in addition smaller, detached palaces. And these trianons were used for purposes similar to those of the French originals, to give the Emperors a chance for some privacy and real relaxation from their worries and cares.
Mr. Stirling: I can see how similar evolution means the Pack could have a language structurally similar to that of humans. But SIMILAR should not mean it was easy to understand or learn.
Sean
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