teratoid symbols

James Crossley · 27 Jul 2006, 16:04 · from 2006-July.txt.gz

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From: ishmael at drizzle.com (James Crossley)
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 09:04:03 -0700
Subject: (urth) teratoid symbols
In-Reply-To: <20060727155156.9997.qmail at web51111.mail.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <C0EE3203.3D37%ishmael at drizzle.com>

Sort of off the point, but isn't "Kim Lee Soong" a transliteration of a
Korean name, not a Chinese one?

James

On 7/27/06 8:51 AM, "Macronaut" <macronaut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> B wrote:
> 
>> Regarding radiation hazard warning signs, I have
>> seen mention of them in the
>> past but I didn't know it was accepted dogma as
>> explanation for the teratoid
>> symbols which seem to mark Father Inire's areas.
>> Worth addressing.
>> 
>> I think the interpretation is a mistake, though
>> understandable.  Radiation
>> sources are often referred to as "teratogenic" but
>> radiation is only one of
>> a number of teratogens. The terato prefix means
>> malformed.  And its roots
>> are from Greek for monster (or portent).
> 
> I had a different interpretation -- that the teratoid
> symbol, which as I recall appears on the mirror
> cabinet of the presence chamber, was a chinese
> character.  Some of the more complex, squiggly Chinese
> characters can look monstrous, and this interpretation
> fits with the other indications that mankind spoke
> Chinese during its space/time faring heyday (Kim Lee
> Soong, Jonas speaking in a "garbling sing song" etc.).
> Stretching a bit, it also fits with the connotation
> of teratoid as portentious and malformed: portentious
> because the mirrors seem to reach across time as well
> as space, and malformed because they evoke a past
> where mankind's domination corrupted him.  I think the
> teratoid as chinese character has been suggested
> before.
> 
> A radiation warning seems to me to make little sense,
> given we know that Inire and Domnina stand in the
> chamber while it's active, and that Jonas, who is
> reasonably frail despite his cyborg body, used the
> chamber to travel without any special protections
> against radiation.
> 
> Macronaut
> 
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