Saturday Mix – April 8, 2017

Hello all!

The internet and I have been having not been getting along over the past couple of weeks and I keep losing my connection, of course one of the problems may be simply a communication problem … my OS is still Windows XP and it seems no one supports my OS anymore.  Sigh.

But speaking of communication, I recently saw a fantastic science-fiction film based on a 2002 short story written by Ted Chiang (The Story of Your Life) entitled “Arrival”.  As a polyglot, I’m fascinated with the idea that language can create a new structure in one’s mind to accommodate how we use different languages.  A banal example; in English, speaking of age,  we say we are 25 years old but in Italian we have 25 years.  Often you must change the way you think in order to make any sense of the different language you’re going to use – it may be a subtle change, but I believe it’s there.

In “Arrival”,  not only does language structure take on a whole different form, but eventually even the concept of time itself is completely restructured.  Ted Chiang brings this alive switching tenses in his story to try to create a non-linear sense of time (masterfully recreated in the film with the use of flash-backs).  Here’s a brief excerpt from his story:

Story of Your Life

Your father is about to ask me the question. This is the most important moment in our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail. Your dad and I have just come back from an evening out, dinner and a show; it’s after midnight. We came out onto the patio to look at the full moon; then I told your dad I wanted to dance, so he humors me and now we’re slow-dancing, a pair of thirty-somethings swaying back and forth in the moonlight like kids. I don’t feel the night chill at all. And then your dad says, “Do you want to make a baby?”

Right now your dad and I have been married for about two years, living on Ellis Avenue; when we move out you’ll still be too young to remember the house, but we’ll show you pictures of it, tell you stories about it. I’d love to tell you the story of this evening, the night you’re conceived, but the right time to do that would be when you’re ready to have children of your own, and we’ll never get that chance.

A fascinating beginning … believe me as you read on it becomes more and more fascinating.

What I’d like you to do this week is to dabble in sci-fi.  I’d like you to think carefully of one of your pet theories if you have one (like my pet theory that mind structure changes using different languages) to write a brief story (100 words please) or perhaps an epic poem!

Here’s an interesting image that might inspire you:

Digital landscapes by Yuri Shwedoff

Once you’ve completed your piece whether poem or prose, link up in our comments area and tag your work: Mindlovesmisery’s Menagerie and Saturday Mix.  Then add your info to the Mr. Linky app to guarantee others can easily read and connect to your work.

Have a great week!  Ciao, Bastet.

 

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About Bastet

I love to read...I like to write...I've travelled the world and seen the sites. I'm past my prime and feel so young, especially when near the young. I'm writing this blog, to remember, to think and to share...with the hopes that someone else will make a comment that will stimulate new thoughts and pathways. Actually, I'm a gabber, so the logical extension of gabbing is blogging! ;-)

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