First, to Deranged Nasat: I'm glad you enjoyed the book. There are only a couple nods to previous episodes and only where mentioning those episodes is helpful (the same way someone might think "remember that time..."). I think just mentioning the Mind Scanner from Errand of Mercy and the Intrepid from Immunity Syndrome, if memory serves. While tight continuity is nice, lots of things happen in my life which have no direct connection to what happened last week or last month or last year and sometimes I think it's important to show that.
Now, Nerys Ghemor:
One of the things I found the most striking--and also told me just how much you really knew and understood--was the way you described Spock when he used the Isitri sign language. That he would
have to be more emotive in mannerism than he normally in order to comply with the language's grammatical requirements...that really rang true.
Thanks. It had better. I sign more than I speak in any given day and if that had not seemed authentic, I'd have been in trouble.
I also thought, speaking of additional components to the signed grammar besides the actual hand gestures and facial expressions, it was quite interesting that you also added control of breath into the mix. That was not something I think I would've thought of, but there WAS a certain logical sense in it: to agree with something is to take it into you after a fashion, to disagree is to reject it from yourself...so what you quite literally get is "in with the good, out with the bad."
Heh. I forget if Kirk figures that out or not (and so thinks about it) but that was, in fact, the idea. You reject the negative and push it out with breath, and accept the positive and pull it in.
Now, that raises a question--for those members of their society that are deaf, is this action recognized visually?
Yes, it would be exaggerated for them, probably--or signed. The same way I will exaggerate a sigh when I'm signing. (Though there is a SIGN for "sigh" which I've used if I want to make a special emphasis.) But the gasp/huff is just like our head nod/shake.
But remember--the sign language is NOT for deaf Isitri. It's for disabled Isitri who lack telepathy. (And rest assured, that's a sliding-scale, just as there are various levels of deafness and hard of hearing among us.) The vast majority of the Isitri deaf communicate just fine via telepathy and are not seen as disabled. If someone is both deaf AND non-telepathic, that would be seen as a very extreme disability--akin to someone both deaf and blind. I know some people like that--they are remarkable in their ability to cope.
Such a thing would probably occur occasionally among the isitri, but it would be as rare to them as it would to us.
Which leads into my next question. In our society, there often seems to be a cultural separation between hearing and deaf, and a lot of bad feelings on both sides. Is this less of an issue in Isitri society--perhaps even a non-issue altogether, given the ability to partake in others' frames of reference and perhaps have direct understanding of each other in a way that we can't?
The Isitri don't see deafness as a disability in the same sense we do, since the limitations it poses are minor. (Perhaps akin to someone who has lost/never had a sense of smell.) To them, Kirk and his crew (except for Spock) are disabled, as well as are the Odib, because they lack telepathy. They don't look down on this, but to them it's a limitation which they've found they must accommodate to make themselves understood.
But that brings me to the non-telepaths you mentioned. What about their role in Isitri society? How are they regarded? Obviously the widespread knowledge of the sign language suggests there is some sort of accommodation, but what are attitudes like?
Yes, there is less a cultural divide in Isitri culture (though a bit of one) because knowledge flows a bit more easily. It's how Spock was so quick to learn their sign. Heck, Kirk even began to understand a few words of it through the meld. (Sadly, he was inarticulate in using it.
)
As I said, it's the those the Isitri see as truly disabled (the non-telepathic) that there would be a bit more of a divide, but even then the people would be able to communicate... they'd just "feel" more distant.
One of the major reasons for a deaf/hearing divide in our culture has been an inability to communicate. Most deafies can't speak and most hearies can't sign. It is COMPUTER technology that is changing that. Thanks to instant messengers and email, that divide is shrinking somewhat.
Before I knew sign language well enough to communicate on other than a very very basic level, I was in a room with people who were skilled in sign and there were no interpreters or people voicing. My eyes couldn't find many signs to put into their English concepts--people were signing too fast for me and I was pretty much alone, seeing people "talking" but not understanding about what. When someone laughed, I didn't know if it was about me (I'm sure it wasn't, but if someone looks in your direction and says something--how do you know?). It makes for a bit of paranoia. I was very alone. THAT is the world many deaf have lived in. It breeds a certain level of distrust.
A LITTLE like Spock, I have felt the eyes of two cultures on me. When I am in public and signing with my brother or deaf friends, hearing people assume I'm deaf. (I don't voice when signing unless there's a reason--the language are different enough in syntax it slows me down in both languages.) People stare, and sometimes even comment. I remember one woman telling her children "leave the deaf people alone" because her kids were watching.
Of course, I remember watching some deaf people talk (I didn't know them--they happened to be out to dinner in the same place) and they said "look at that guy staring at us!" To which I quickly replied "sorry, didn't mean to stare" and they laughed and we went through the "deaf questions" of where are you from, are you deaf, if so what deaf school did you attend, etc.
People are often afraid of that which they don't understand. Hearies don't often understand the deaf world. Deafies don't often understand the hearing world. EARth and EYEth can be two very different places.
Also...could they possibly resist a troublesome mind?
Sure. The same way Kirk was able to, or the Odib. But, would they notice? The grip is gradual and covert and they wouldn't be aware their family and friends losing their wills. If everyone around you says "today we need to build a goobatron" do you really question it that much when you're generally pretty isolated from society as it is?
One last question--the one thing I had a little trouble with. Why is it that Isitri names are clearly based on spoken phonology? Where did that come from?
Heh. My brother asked me the same and I'll tell you what I told him: I didn't think about it at first and once I had, I didn't see a way around it. There are certain things that would just annoy a reader, and having names they can't relate to is one. Zero Home and Colony First was, I figure, the most I could get away with for generic names. (Face it--we call our star the sun. Even its Latin name means that, and we call our planet Earth. I assume that Isitri just means people, as does Odib.)
Just consider Berlis and Meshu and Chista the names the Universal Translator gave people based on the sounds the wrist devises made.
But I think we can assume that names come from some personal attribute. My name, if I am to believe the roots of it, means Beloved Seller or Dry Goods. (Galanter is apparently a Germanic twist on the French
galanterie.) Even signing names in ASL, if you have one, tend to be about attributes. My cat's name is Shadow. He's a white cat so his signing name is the sign for white, but with an S handshape. Berlis probably means "sweet one" and Meshu maybe means "chicken legs."
Actually, they might all be chicken legged.
Along these lines, by the way--what can and can't be articulated in a medium, if this had been a filmed TV episode, I'd have ditched the deaf angle, ditched the lack of voice box, and ditched the sign language. Sign language on TV, unless you have skilled signers, is really hard to pull off. I love seeing actors try, but unless they know what they're doing... Ug.
Camryn Manheim, who used to be on The Practice, used to be an interpreter so she's awesome, and she's done this on both Law and Order and The Practice. But Vincent D'Onofrio on Law and Order CI and William Peterson on CSI, both of whom are great actors, signed very stilted when they needed to. (That was fine--it fit the story okay.)
When TNG had Reva, the deaf man, and his alien sign language, the deaf actor signed ASL after he lost his team of interpreters. I'll never forget Data interpreting whatever Reva was saying just before Reva was finished saying it.
So even with a skilled signer, the whole thing is hard to pull off.
By the way, on Seinfeld, when Kramer says "I know sign language" he actually signs "I know monkey dance."
Nice to see they played to a deaf audience too.
