October 9, 1996

	October 9, 1996 Greetings, One and All; I'm a tad late. We arrived home from Archon to find the brakes in our car leaking, our little dog sick with "kennel croup" and bronchitis, our photocopier not working, our online server down for repairs, minor family crises rampant in all directions, and all our plants in the greenhouse standing in two inches of water because of some sort of glitch in the automatic watering system George had installed...... And there were ghastly wa-destroying messsages from editors and agents all over the place! It took us a while to crawl out from under the detritus, and I'm still in glitch-shock. A brief and desultory bulletin this time, therefore, and I'll try to supplement it later in the month with Something More Gripping.... 1. Archon (the sf convention in St. Louis this weekend) turned out to be a bit of a puzzle. It seemed to be aimed largely at gamers, who were there in profusion and were given a magnificent setup -- several big rooms of tables right across the hall from the consuite, with thirty-plus top of the line computers -- plus hordes of human beings -- running games twenty-four hours a day. I've never seen more contented hordes in all my days; if gaming is your thing, I can recommend this con for you wholeheartedly. (And while I'm here, did you know that computer-game-testing is now a top career choice for new college grads? I'll be reporting on this in more detail in the next newsletter, because it's an obvious choice for linguistics graduates, and their choices are few. Starting salaries and bonus arrangements in game-testing are better than their equivalents in almost any other field, and far better than what's available in the humanities.) Physical arrangements were difficult because the con was split between a huge hotel and a big conference center a block away, but the gamers -- who were cosy in the hotel -- never moved from their tables, so far as I could tell. The first night, there were wild parties across the hall from our room until three o'clock in the morning; the next night there were both parties and a fire. (Ably squashed by the Klingon security squad on duty.) Other than that, things were placid. My verbal self-defense workshop (scheduled for early Saturday morning, after the parties) had perhaps ten people in it, who have my grateful thanks; it went very well. Many Klingons in full regalia were there (at the con, that is, not in my workshop) and all seemed blissful. One more thing about this con... Ray Bradbury was guest of honor. If you're not a science fiction person, imagine that you went to an academic literary conference and Mark Twain was the guest of honor -- it's roughly equivalent. Youngsters were coming up to me literally shaking all over, with copies of Fahrenheit 451 and the like in hand, saying over and over that they just could not believe they were really going to get to speak to the great man in the flesh. And Bradbury was absolutely splendid. He signed autographs for two hours the first night, even though he'd just gotten off the plane and still had a speech for Opening Ceremonies ahead of him; when he finally had to leave to go to dinner he gave all the folks who were still in line little tickets that let them go to the head of the line when it formed again. He repeated that performance the following day, and again on Sunday, and he was unfailingly courteous and attentive to every single one of the people he signed for. I've never seen anything like it, and I was greatly impressed -- that's what I call a gentleman. 2. Next major trek on our agenda is the Mid-America Linguistics Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, the first two days in November; I'm doing a paper titled "MDeityspeak and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis." This will be the first academic paper I've presented in fifteen years, and the first academic conference I've gone to other than as an invited keynote speaker for fifteen years. I will be doing my very best to make the case that the language of medicine proves the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, no matter what you call it. George and I both will do our very best to convince the linguists attending that they should join the Linguistics & Science Fiction Network, and we'll see what sort of response we get. (I do not expect to run into any shaking youngsters with books by Distinguished Linguistnesses in hand coming up to me and saying that they can't believe they're really going to see those eminences in the flesh -- but you never know. Maybe they'll surprise me.) I am very nervous indeed about this event, since the linguistics "community" is as unlike the science fiction community as two things referred to by a single word could possibly be. I was never much good at the academic court etiquette, and now my already limited expertise is fifteen years out of date. I may be hissed, booed, and graffitied. Wish me luck. 3. We will be on the road a great deal for the next couple of months. If you write me -- snailmail or email -- and get no response, that will be the explanation. You can always reach me by leaving a message on my answering machine, however -- I pick up those message nightly, and will get back to you as quickly as possible. 4. Later, same day.... We've now made an appointment to have the car cured, using the pickup to do that; we've had the dog to the vet and she is on the mend; George has wrestled the photocopier to the ground and convinced it that he is still its master; we've gone back to primitive watering methods instead of electronic ones (in the greenhouse) and the very damp plants are still upright; the Internet server is docile for the moment; the family crises, including getting my mother registered to vote, have been dealt with at least in part; and I have sent whole platoons of messages saying (as my Hopi consultant said when asked what "-q" at the end of a clause meant): "Please wait; there is more to come." The bittersweet (bushels of it) had to be harvested today, of course; one thing that makes yard and garden work different from most other work except childbirth is that you have to do it when it's ready to be done and you can't postpone it. We had a beautiful crop, and I got about three- fourths of it off the vine and into wreaths and swags and bouquets this afternoon. There was a book revision that had to be done at the same time, and I got through much of that.... tomorrow will, thank goodness, be another day! Back to you later... In unseemly haste and great disarray, with my thanks for your patient and for all the wonderful materials you've been sending, Suzette
	All text formatting errors are the responsibility of Steve Marsh and not the fault of Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. All copyrights remain in Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. [return to Lingua]

October 9, 1996

  Greetings, One and All; I'm a tad late. We arrived home from Archon to
find the brakes in our car leaking, our little dog sick with "kennel croup"
and bronchitis, our photocopier not working, our online server down for
repairs, minor family crises rampant in all directions, and all our plants
in the greenhouse standing in two inches of water because of some sort of
glitch in the automatic watering system George had installed......  *And*
there were ghastly wa-destroying messsages from editors and agents all over
the place! It took us a while to crawl out from under the detritus, and I'm
still in glitch-shock. A brief and desultory bulletin this time, therefore,
and I'll try to supplement it later in the month with Something More
Gripping....

1. Archon (the sf convention in St. Louis this weekend) turned out to be a
bit of a puzzle. It seemed to be aimed largely at gamers, who were there in
profusion and were given a magnificent setup -- several big rooms of tables
right across the hall from the consuite, with thirty-plus top of the line
computers -- plus hordes of human beings -- running games twenty-four hours
a day. I've never seen more contented hordes in all my days; if gaming is
your thing, I can recommend this con for you wholeheartedly.  (And while
I'm here, did you know that computer-game-testing is now a top career
choice for new college grads? I'll be reporting on this in more detail in
the next newsletter, because it's an obvious choice for linguistics
graduates, and their choices are few. Starting salaries and bonus
arrangements in game-testing are better than their equivalents in almost
any other field, and far better than what's available in the humanities.)

         Physical arrangements were difficult because the con was split
between a huge hotel and a big conference center a block away, but the
gamers -- who were cosy in the hotel -- never moved from their tables, so
far as I could tell. The first night, there were wild  parties across the
hall from our room until three o'clock in the morning; the next night there
were both parties and a fire. (Ably squashed by the Klingon security squad
on duty.) Other than that, things were placid. My verbal self-defense
workshop (scheduled for early Saturday morning, after the parties) had
perhaps ten people in it, who have my grateful thanks; it went very well.
Many Klingons in full regalia were there (at the con, that is, not in my
workshop) and all seemed blissful.

        One more thing about this con... Ray Bradbury was guest of honor.
If you're not a science fiction person, imagine that you went to an
academic literary conference and Mark Twain was the guest of honor -- it's
roughly equivalent. Youngsters were coming up to me literally shaking all
over, with copies of *Fahrenheit 451* and the like in hand, saying over and
over that they just could not believe they were really going to get to
speak to the great man in the flesh. And Bradbury was absolutely splendid.
He signed autographs for two hours the first night, even though he'd just
gotten off the plane and still had a speech for Opening Ceremonies ahead of
him; when he finally had to leave to go to dinner he gave all the folks who
were still in line little tickets that let them go to the head of the line
when it formed again. He repeated that performance the following day, and
again on Sunday, and he was unfailingly courteous and attentive to every
single one of the people he signed for. I've never seen anything like it,
and I was greatly impressed -- that's what I call a gentleman.

2. Next major trek on our agenda is the Mid-America Linguistics Conference
in Lawrence, Kansas, the first two days in November; I'm doing a paper
titled "MDeityspeak and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis." This will be the first
academic paper I've presented in fifteen years, and the first academic
conference I've gone to other than as an invited keynote speaker for
fifteen years. I will be doing my very best to make the case that the
language of medicine proves the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, no matter what you
call it. George and I *both* will do our very best to convince the
linguists attending that they should join the Linguistics & Science Fiction
Network, and we'll see what sort of response we get. (I do not expect to
run into any shaking youngsters with books by Distinguished Linguistnesses
in hand coming up to me and saying that they can't believe they're really
going to see those eminences in the flesh -- but you never know. Maybe
they'll surprise me.) I am very nervous indeed about this event, since the
linguistics "community" is as unlike the science fiction community as two
things referred to by a single word could possibly be. I was never much
good at the academic court etiquette, and now my already limited expertise
is fifteen years out of date. I may be hissed, booed, and graffitied. Wish
me luck.

3. We will be on the road a great deal for the next couple of months. If
you write me -- snailmail or email -- and get no response, that will be the
explanation. You can always reach me by leaving a message on my answering
machine, however -- I pick up those message nightly, and will get back to
you as quickly as possible.

4. Later, same day.... We've now made an appointment to have the car cured,
using the pickup to do that; we've had the dog to the vet and she is on the
mend; George has wrestled the photocopier to the ground and convinced it
that he is still its master; we've gone back to primitive watering methods
instead of electronic ones (in the greenhouse) and the very damp plants are
still upright;  the Internet server is docile for the moment; the family
crises, including getting my mother registered to vote, have been dealt
with at least in part; and I have sent whole platoons of messages saying
(as my Hopi consultant said when asked what "-q" at the end of a clause
meant): "Please wait; there is more to come." The bittersweet (bushels of
it) had to be harvested today, of course; one thing that makes yard and
garden work different from most other work except childbirth is that you
have to do it when it's ready to be done and you can't postpone it. We had
a beautiful crop, and I got about three- fourths of it off the vine and
into wreaths and swags and bouquets this afternoon. There was a book
revision that had to be done at the same time, and I got through much of
that....
tomorrow will, thank goodness, be another day! Back to you later...

        In unseemly haste and great disarray, with my thanks for your
patient and for all the wonderful materials you've been sending,

        Suzette

All text formatting errors are the responsibility of Steve Marsh and not the fault of Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. All copyrights remain in Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. [return to Lingua]