Date: 97-10-07 16:12:06 EDT
From: ocls@ipa.net (George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgi)
To: ocls@ipa.net
L&SF ONLINE BULLETIN -- October 1997
1. Update to "Mildly A Mayday" (my request to you for help with the launch of my new book): Things are going well. The publisher hasn't been willing to restore the marketing budget, but has offered a lot of other help -- a good compromise.
I have a number of bookstore signings scheduled. I'm doing a free "pilot" seminar on the book in Tulsa on November 8th (with the truly-awesome-and-far-beyond-the-call-of-duty help of Tulsa L&SF members, to whom I am eternally grateful); the sponsor is Lovingkindness, our religious language organization here at OCLS.
If it goes reasonably well, and if people can help me get the bugs out of it, more of those free seminars will be scheduled, in other cities. I'll let you know, and I'll post the schedule. And I have a one-hour booking for the Dick Staub Show (large Christian radio station syndicated in real time to 30 others) on October 20th, the book's official publication date.
I'm holding off on writing the seminar "script" until after I've had a chance to hear the questions I get on that show; in the meantime, your suggestions will be very welcome. I know you haven't read the book, and that not all of you are Christians; don't let that hold you back, please.
The title Thomas Nelson Publishing chose ("How to Turn the Other Cheek and Still Survive in Today's World"), plus the title that I myself had chosen ("How to Get the War Out of Warrior") are self-explanatory, and the dilemma is not confined to Christians.
My thesis in the book is that the problem is an illusory one caused by misunderstandings of the religious language and religious metaphors involved in such concepts as the Golden Rule, returning good for evil, turning the other cheek, etc., whatever the spiritual path involved. Anything you have to say will be helpful to me, including polemics and diatribes; your diatribe may save me a *public* diatribe!
2. I did the keynote speech for the Missouri chapter of N.O.W., in September, calling it "Beyond the Brass-Bound Bra." It involved saying a lot of the things I'd said in the last newsletter about my conviction that it's not a good thing for science fiction to glorify women who make war/do violence with skill and relish.
Nobody threw eggs or tomatoes, although many people thought I was very wrong and did not hesitate to say so -- which I approve of. However, my remarks in the newsletter brought a hail of *virtual* eggs and tomatoes from members who strongly objected to my "Xena-bashing."
I've sent personal letters to those who were most infuriated; what I want to do here is tell you that I have never seen the "Xena" show and have no opinion about it whatsoever. My bashing was directed at (a) the women writing about the show, who appeared to me to be praising the violence and gore they allege it contains, and (b) MS Magazine, for featuring that sort of praise without comment or an opposing voice. (I'll mention this again in the next print issue, along with additional recent input from members and others.)
While we're here: I also did a Verbal Self-Defense For Women seminar for the Missouri N.O.W.; it went well, but had only about one-third the attendance the group had expected -- because women who could only afford one conference seminar (priced pretty high, in my opinion) decided to skip mine for one being offered the following day by a Promise Keeper wife. I was sorry about that because of its effect on the group's budget; what it means, precisely (other than that I'm not as big a draw as a Promise Keeper wife) I do not know.
3. I have at long last found someone -- a professional translator and writer with native fluency in both French and English -- to work with me on getting the set of verbal attack patterns of French that is analogous to the English set. (e.g., what a French native speaker would say when an English native speaker would say, "If you REALLY cared about your health, YOU wouldn't live on JUNK food!")
I don't know why I didn't think of asking a professional translator sooner. I've been asking French/English bilingual linguists all these years and getting back -- even when I offered to pay for their time -- responses of "Hey, that's a lot of WORK, Suzette! I'm not ABOUT to help you with that!) (This is called "being part of the academic community," as I understand it.) I'm excited about finding this person; I'm convinced that if I can get some of the grammar of verbal violence for just one foreign language worked up, it will break the logjam and others will follow. I'll keep you posted.
4. I got some grumbles from members because I had not identified, in the last issue, the two things I have seen in my lifetime for which -- despite being able to perceive them clearly in my mind -- I have no words to express that perception. I think the complaints are unfair, Gentle Readers; the point of mentioning them was as a forum for discussing the very interesting problem of how it can be possible for a human being to perceive something and be unable to find language to describe what is perceived.
This was a big controversy -- that is, whether it's possible or not was a big controversy -- when I was a University of Chicago student in the 1950s; it was a big controversy in the Middle Ages; it's still a big controversy. Orthodox linguist that I am, if I hadn't experienced this my own self I would have said it was absolutely impossible (and Benedetto Croce would be on my side.) It seems to me that it is important to science fiction writing, since it may mean that even excellent sf writers are able to imagine wonderful or terrible things vividly without being able to write about them clearly. (No, I don't know how this would extend to sf artists; wish I did!)
In the interests of being pleasant, I will give you a generic "identifier" for the two things from my own experience, and will put that in the next newsletter as well. But I warn you in the strongest terms that I have no way of knowing whether my identification has any relevance, much less validity. One of the things I perceived was an angel -- I think; the other was a person who had died -- I think. But I could be quite wrong.
Maybe it was a demon and a dinosaur, or a fairy and a dragon, or an Alien and a Whatever. Faced with something uninterpretable, the human brain interprets as best it can, within the context of the culture's expectations. It may be that both things were hallucinations. That's beside the point. The point is that despite being able to bring each of them to my "mind's eye" with ease, still, I am helpless to use language to describe either one. This, in my opinion, is a fascinating linguistic conundrum, no matter who it happens to and no matter what causes it.
5. Quick cyberquestion: How, when a Web search produces 3000 hits and I (obviously) can't go through them all in one session, do I return to the search the next time and start looking where I left off instead of starting over at the beginning? (This is the Neuroscience Web Search engine and it has no address of any kind for asking for help; my software is Netscape.) Ignorant question, no doubt; your help welcome.
6. Quick cybernote: Check out the new amazon.com store. They've done wondrous things.
Announcement
I am sorry to have to tell you that Judith Merill, one of the leading lights of science fiction for many years, and arguably the best sf anthologist ever, died on September 12th. She will be greatly missed. Her family has asked that people wanting to do something in her memory make donations to the James Tiptree Award Fund.
Suzette
