Linguistics in science fiction

Mark Millman · 30 Oct 1998, 15:25 · from urth-v0021.mbox · original

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From: "Mark Millman" <Mark_Millman at hmco.com>
Subject: Re: (urth)Linguistics in science fiction
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 15:25:37
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On 30 October 1998 at 7:28 pm GMT,
prion (Sean Whalen) wrote:

> . . . I wondered if there are any stories
> where someone has noticed any
> emphasis on linguistics.

I haven't read any of her stuff myself, but Suzette
Hayden Elgin publishes a magazine devoted to
linguistics in sf, and I understand that it's an im-
portant theme in her work.  I believe that she holds
a doctorate in linguistics and has written non-
fiction on the subject as well.

One could say that "Alien Stones" refers to lin-
guistics, but I don't really see a lot of it in Wolfe.

As for Jaynesian sf, Harry Turtledove has
written a story explicitly based on his ideas (I
have, regrettably, forgotten the title, but I think
it's in one of his collections: _Departures_, I
think, or maybe _Kaleidoscope_).  Turtledove
has also said in an interview that his novel
_Between the Rivers_ "borrows some of its
ideas" from _Bicameral Mind_ (the interview
is at http://www.chicon.org/gohs/turtldov.htm).
It's set, for those who aren't familiar with it, at
the beginning of civilization, in Mesopotamia.

For anyone who hasn't read it and is interested,
_Bicameral Mind_ was republished in a revised
edition in 1990 (the original publication was in
the early or middle 70s), and should be avail-
able in most bigger libraries.  Amazon.com has
it, too.

And on 28 October 1998 (really?) at 9:38 am GMT,
Kieran Cleary wrote:

> If I'm allowed a wee tangent, what's the news
> on Crowley, anyone? Given that Love&Sleep
> wasn't even published in the UK, and that it's
> probably out of print already, I have this fear
> that the Aegypt sequence won't get completed.
> Anyone got any pointers to recent intervews
> or other hopeful news?

_Locus_, the U.S. sf trade magazine, announced
several months ago that Crowley had finished
_Daemonomania_, the third volume in the series,
and delivered it to his publisher.  But when I looked
in the Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase
(http://www.sfsite.com/isfdb/index.html) just now, I
saw that the book, which had been announced by
Bantam for September 98 (hmmm), has been pulled
from its list and is rumored to be back in Crowley's
typewriter (or otherwise unfinished).  Sorry the news
couldn't be better.

Mark Millman

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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