Friday pint

29 August 2008

Every Friday I transfer posts here from the Virtual Pint archives.

The usual servings today, and something special — another novel excerpt. Enjoy

  • When story goes wrong (October 2002) — Steel Breeze in Solitaire, or why sometimes people just fuck story up.

  • Early thoughts about translations (November 2002) — Beginning to understand that language is worldview, and worldview changes how we experience story. It’s the early seeds of this discussion.

  • Accidental (November 2002) — More on Steel Breeze and the role of accident in life. This post refers in a sideways manner to Hollow, the other novel I was working on at the time, and that I talked about recently. It seems unbearably coy to dance around it, so here you go.

Cheers.

Posted by Kelley | Filed Under blog, virtual pint archives 

Comments

3 Responses to “Friday pint”

  1. Barbara Sanchez on August 30th, 2008 9:36 am

    Just a quick thought: Shakespeare uses the word “translated” to mean transported, changed or sumarrily picked up out of one world and whisked down into another like in A midsummer Night’s Dream. I really believe that language is culture. You can’t truly learn a culture without learning the language. The harmonies and dissonances that happen while you are learning is the real translation.

  2. Kelley on August 31st, 2008 7:40 am

    Barbara, yes, absolutely yes. Transported, taken to another place. That was very much my experience learning ASL. I ran smack into the harmonies and dissonances of a culture that had been completely invisible to me until I came to the language, right in my own back yard.

    I spent a few days on my own in Paris in the 90’s, getting around with my rudimentary French, and I didn’t really feel the dissonances because I didn’t speak well enough, I was only trying to a) survive and b) be polite while doing it. That experience was just about me in the moment, my trip to Paris — could I order food, could I get on the right bus, yadda yadda.

    But I made a three-year commitment to ASL and Deaf culture. As part of my program requirement, I volunteered at deaf agencies. I served as a support person to deaf-blind people at various social events. I went to Deaf public social events. I made a few friends. And wow, the harmonies and dissonances. Although I’m not an interpreter, and I’m not even fluent the way I would like, that learning really changed my understanding of the world in some fundamental ways.

  3. Barbara Sanchez on September 2nd, 2008 9:55 pm

    I worked with deaf-blind children for about six years. I learned sign language, but at a pretty rudimentary level. My favorite experience was with a six year old boy. I took him into this little room wth 2 chairs and a full length mirror. I signed “sit” and pushed him gently into the chair. I signed “stand” and gently pulled him up. We did this 10 times and he did not seem to respond. The next day we returned to the room. I signed “sit”. He sat . Then, he signed “stand”, stood, and walked out of the room! I was blown away.

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