tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60394414843151942942024-03-13T16:33:56.343-07:00Welcome to Weird Worldm g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-829412779392113232019-01-08T18:10:00.001-08:002019-01-08T18:11:29.145-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">CRT<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;">: Toki Pona</span></span></div>
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<div align="right" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in; text-align: right;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;">Design
equals intention.—</span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;">Richard
Eckersley</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;">Surely
the most powerful of all humanity’s beastly urges is the deep-seated lust to
edit other people’s writing. You’ve certainly felt it, reading the faux pas in
the local paper (“the official spoke on condition of animosity”), or the purple
prose in a best seller (“You know your body loves this, Anastasia”), or the
typo on the chalkboard at the deli counter (“your welcome to a sample”). But in
my case, the urge is directed not in correcting words or even sentences, but in
correcting grammars. That is why I studied for so many years to become a CRT.
No, not a Cathode Ray Tube, not a Communist Republican Terrorist, not even a
Cerebrally Ruptured Trumpite. I am a CRT: a Conlang Repair Technician.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When you think of an ideal repair tech you
should think of Darren, the guy who repaired my air-conditioner. There was the
poor young man, slaving away on a sunny day in August with a heat index of 110.
He wasn’t being creative, wasn’t adding anything, wasn’t improving anything. I
didn’t want my central air improved: I wanted not to roast alive in my own
living room. And I didn’t, thanks to Darren. As global warming proceeds apace I
believe fixers of air-conditioners will come to be worshipped as gods. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A repair technician doesn’t making things
better—s/he’s makes things the same in a better way. They restore function to
what should be functional and isn’t. And plenty of conlangs could work more
efficiently than they do. By “more efficiently” I don’t mean the endless
quibbles about Esperanto’s “Standard European” vocabulary, or which conlang is
most speakable/ learnable/useful, or what an ideal conlang “should” be. I
mean: are the intentions of the conlang’s creator fully realized? And if they
aren’t, how can they be made to be so? Any mismatch between design and
intention is what a Conlang Repair Technician repairs.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are about 900 conlangs listed on
various websites, and more keep coming. Dothraki, a language of Westeros in
George R. R. Martin’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Song of Ice and
Fire </i>series is a recent addition to the corpus, as is Na’vi from the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Avatar. </i>But of all this cornucopia of
conlangs, surely the easiest to learn is the delightful “minilang” called Toki
Pona, the “Language of Good.” Hardly the kind of extremolang we’ve been
discussing in these pages, it is nonetheless a marvelous example of what you can
do once you realize the vast potential of language as a plaything. And like any
language, nat- or con-, Toki Pona is also a window into the human mind.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In doing my repair work I stick closely to
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu, </i>the “official” book about Toki
Pona written by its creator, Sonja Lang. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan
Sonja, </i>as she is known to her tribe, has written a marvel of scholarship,
creativity, and playfulness, inspired—uniquely, as far as I can tell—by the
teachings of Lào Zi, the (perhaps imaginary) author of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dào Dé Jīng.</i> Toki Pona is an “a posteriori” conlang, meaning that
its vocabulary and grammar come from other languages. About 30% of the lexicon
is borrowed directly or indirectly from English, and the derivations are quite
obvious. For example, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jaki </i>is translated
in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>dictionary as “disgusting,
obscene, sickly, toxic, unclean, unsanitary”: in a word, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yucky.</i> On the other hand, “you” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina </i>and “strong” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wawa, </i>both
of which are Finnish, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pana </i>is
“give,” from KiSwahili <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pa-ana, </i>“give-each.other.”
Facebook’s Toki Pona group hosts extensive discussions on the sources Lang used
for her vocabulary, and unlike Esperanto or Lojban, Toki Pona’s sources are
quite far-ranging.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like many conlangs, Toki Pona is intended
to have a positive effect on the minds of its speakers. The reader already
knows my take on Sapir-Whorfism. But really, the “point” of Toki Pona—if a
language needs to make a point—is not to conduct an experiment, or to prove a
theory, but to have fun. And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>certainly
sets a good example. In referring to her book as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>she makes a wonderful pun: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pu
</i>in Classical Chinese is the “uncarved block” of Taoism, the fundamental,
unspeakable ground-of-being. But to native English-speakers of a certain
temperament, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>also opens the
gateless gate of verbal mischief:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(1)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi wile musi kepeken Pu</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>I want play using Book</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> "</span>I like to play with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu.” </i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;">Which,
of course, is what I’m doing right here. But m</span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">ore practically, in this chapter I do four things with Toki Pona:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>1. interpret one principle</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>2. discover two morphemes</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>3. erect three rules, and</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>4. make four morphemes out of two.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">This is not to say that
Toki Pona <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">needs</i> fixing: it doesn’t.
It already has what it needs to attract a fairly sizable online fanbase: 3,700
members of the Facebook group and counting. But as I develop my arguments in
this chapter, I hope it will become clear that, while Toki Pona is a “language
of good,” in certain ways it can be better. And your Conlang Repair Technician
can make it better without changing a single one of its major features.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">One</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>mean by
its repeated references to “simplicity”? The “simplicity” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>intends is a simplification of thought: </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Training your mind to
think in Toki Pona can lead to deeper insights. If many of life’s problems are
created by our excess thoughts, then Toki Pona filters out the noise and points
to the center of things. (p. 12)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">How is this done? “The
wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials,” as the
20th-century Chinese philosopher Lin Yutang is quoted as saying on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu</i>’s page 80. Eliminate the “clutter”
from a language and what is left will help its speakers have “simpler” minds,
more calm, honest, and collected. But what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">part
</i>of language is to be simplified? In a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nimi:
</i>vocabulary. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are only 120 or so words in Toki Pona. With so small a
word-hoard each item must cover a lot of semantic territory. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Toki </i>can mean “communicate, speak, say,
talk, use language, think,” while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona </i>translates
“good, positive, useful, friendly, peaceful, simple.” The stretch from “good”
to “simple” is quite broad, and embodies a very particular view of “goodness,”
but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>isn’t out to construct
a “neutral” interspeech like Esperanto or a “logical” tongue like Lojban or
Ithkuil. Her intent is to boil down the word-soup of language until only the
bones remain, the essential concepts necessary for basic human communication.
In training the mind to think in these concepts the fundamental simplicity of
reality might then<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reveal itself
whenever you speak. You can’t say “credit default swap” in Toki Pona, but you
can say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan li suli mute, mani li suli
lili, </i>“people are of much importance, money is of little importance.” (p.
73) This does not seem to me to be a restriction of thought a là Newspeak but
an elegant statement of fact: even a Wall Street hustler could understand it, once
past capitalist duckspeak.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu</i> cannot get
past a basic fact of human speech: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any </i>vocabulary
of a human language, no matter how small, is bound to contain boatloads of
hidden complexity. Recall Chomsky’s remarks on the “richness” of the lexicon:</span></div>
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Internal conditions on meaning are rich, complex, and
unsuspected; in fact, barely known. The most elaborate dictionaries do not
dream of such subtleties; they provide no more than hints that enable the intended
concept to be identified by those who already have it.<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">As a demonstration of
this, take <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona </i>as it is used in the
common phrase <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona. </i>Picking out
the “friendly” definition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona, </i>this
word is used by the Toki Pona community to mean “friend.” But why <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this </i>meaning? It could just as easily
mean:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(a)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“simple person”—one
who is genuine, unaffected, honest; or</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(b)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“peaceful
person”—someone like Gandhi, MLK, Kabir, or the Dalai Lama; or </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(c)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“good person”—one who
is noble, decent, honorable; or</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(d)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“positive person”—an
optimist, one who looks on the bright side; or</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(e)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“useful
person”—someone who can be counted on, who is dependable.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Of course, you could
argue that a “friend” is any or all of these things. But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan </i>as used in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona</i>
appears to pick out one particular meaning from those listed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu</i>—the meaning “friendly”—and allows the
other meanings to hover in the background. Is this selection process “simple”?
And what rules or principles guide speakers in making it? And why translate
“friend” as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona </i>and not as, say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pi pilin mi, </i>“person of my heart,”
or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan (lon) poka (mi), </i>“person (at)
(my) side”?</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Or take a more serious issue: the grammaticalization of
nurture. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suli </i>is translated “big,
large, heavy, long, tall; important; adult.” Its compliment <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lili, </i>however, means “little, small,
short; few; a bit; young.” If a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan suli </i>is
an important person, is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan lili </i>unimportant?
The word for “parent” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mama, </i>but
the word for “child” is . . . <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan lili,</i>
a compound<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>Why this asymmetry? There
are a number of words for being in charge—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mama,
lawa, kute—</i>but no words for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a </i>charge,
for someone under the care of another. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kute
</i>means<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>“hear, listen, pay
attention to, obey.” All examples in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kute </i>as “obey” refer to children
obeying their parents. Do parents ever <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kute</i>
their children? What Inuktitut expresses with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-gi- </i>is apparently beyond Toki Pona’s power. Whether it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> be or not is beyond the power of
a mere CRT. I raise the issue of grammatical nurture to show that the
“simplicity” of Toki Pona’s lexicon masks complex presuppositions that are
nowhere made explicit. If Chomsky is to be believed, such complexity is as
natural as the Way of Heaven, and as inescapable.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Syntax, however, is another matter. The syntactic rules of Toki
Pona are refreshingly simple. Basic order is SVO; heads come before modifiers;
there are prepositions and a postposition, and a half-dozen form-classes. Simple
indeed—but could it be more so? In Chomsky’s current grammatical model, his
“Minimalist Program,” the only syntactic processes are <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">merge</span> and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">move</span>,
and all word-order phenomena are explained by just these two. At least to
Chomsky, what is “simple” about language is not what most of us would guess
after being exposed in school to the “spiders from Mars,” those stick-leggedy
parsing trees. It’s word order and relations between words that are the easy
part of language, and which should be the easy part of any conlang.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In keeping with the Chomskian view, my first move as Toki Pona
CRT is to nail down what “simplicity” means as a conlang design principle. It
means this: </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Principle of Lexical
Complexity</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Whenever possible, move complexity out of the
syntax and into the lexicon. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">I call this principle
“LexPlex” for short. It is the foundation of almost all the “repairs” I make to
Toki Pona.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Two</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Officially,” Toki Pona has only those morphemes listed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu, </i>plus the occasional newcomer
accepted by the online <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kulupu pi toki
pona </i>such as the recent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kipisi, </i>“cut”
(from Inuktitut <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kipi-, </i>plus
antipassive <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-si-</i>). However, language can
be sneakier than even its own inventor might imagine. For Toki Pona’s
vocabulary is haunted by—gasp!—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">invisible</i>
morphemes, ghostly presences rising from the darkness of the Uncarved Block.
“Looked for, they are not seen; listened for, they are not heard; reached for,
they cannot be grasped.” But Lào Zi did not know the master science. These
intangible morphemes are quite graspable.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Something from nothing</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the first iteration of Toki Pona published in 2001 there
were only three numbers: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ala </i>(zero),<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> wan </i>(one), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tu </i>(two). Later, three others were added: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">luka </i>(five), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mute </i>(twenty),
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ale </i>(one hundred). Numbers other
than these are built up by compounding, exactly as is done in Dyirbal,
Inuktitut, or Pawnee. However, numeral compounds are unique, made by a process
that is not found elsewhere in the language. Most compounds in Toki Pona are of
the head-modifier type: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">luka wawa, </i>“hand
strong,” i.e., a strong hand. But when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">luka
</i>is used as the number “five” it does <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">not</span>
serve as the head of a modifier: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">luka tu </i>does
not mean *“five <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">of</span> two” but “five <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> two.” The silence that links numbers
into bigger numbers is not the silence that links non-number words into
phrases. Where there is meaning there is morpheme: there is a meaningful
distinction between these two silences, therefore the silence between numbers
must represent a zero morpheme, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø. </i>(We’ll
get to the silent “of” later.)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø</i> in Toki Pona does
not function quite like the Boolean <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span>
used in logic. In the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord of the Rings, </i>when
Barliman Butterbur tells of a battle with robbers, he does not give the number
of casualties as “five” but “three and two”: three Men and two Hobbits. In
Bree, good fences make good neighbors, so lumping Men and Hobbits together
under a single number just isn’t done. If good master Barliman had spoken Old
Toki Pona he’d have counted Merry’s ponies as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tu tu wan, </i>but he’d have counted the robbers’ victims as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tu wan en tu. </i>That is, he’d have kept
the functions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø </i>and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> discrete.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unlike <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø </i>is non-commutating: it orders the numbers
flanking it in such a way that the larger number is always to its left, the
smaller to its right. Though <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wan tu </i>makes
as much sense as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tu wan </i>arithmetically,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tu wan</i> is the only term for “3” given
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu. </i>Similarly for all the other
numbers listed: the number to the left is always ≥ the number to the right:
“13” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">luka luka tu wan, </i>and so on.
Using one instance of each number, the biggest number you can make is “128,”
and it must be stated thus: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ale mute luka
tu wan.</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Speakers of Toki Pona do not consider coining new words to be
appropriate: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o weka e nimi namako, </i>“avoid
new words,” to quote a member of the Facebook group. But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø </i>is not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">namako: </i>it has
always been present, though by implication. There are still only 120+ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nimi </i>in Toki Pona, if by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nimi</i></span> is meant “(audible) word,”
as opposed to “morpheme.” <span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">I suspect <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>didn’t list <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø</i> in the dictionary simply because she
was used to grammars that don’t use zero-morphemes. (English grammars don’t
usually describe the singular suffix <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-ø </i>in
“girl-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø</i>.”) Instead of describing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø </i>she wrote a traditional chapter on the
rules for making numbers. All I’m doing with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø</i> is folding<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the rules in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu</i>’s lesson 12 into a single morpheme.
Thus I take complexity out of the grammar and put it into the lexicon, which is
where, under the LexPlex principle, complexity belongs.</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">The sentence initiator</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is one more silent morpheme I would like to recognize for
Toki Pona, and that is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i>, the
sentence initiator. This morpheme (technical name “sigma”) places a beginning
and an end to any sentence—and the end is just a new beginning. Its most
important job is to set boundaries around any sentence so that the words within
it can be more effectively interpreted. Despite its abstract nature it can be
pronounced: it is the longest of Toki Pona’s three pause phonemes, short (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i>), regular (#), and long (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i>).</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To see what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ </i>can do
for us, let’s look at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la.</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu</i> describes the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>as “very powerful. It allows you to
link two sentences, or link a fragment to a sentence.” (p. 51). It is also said
to “separate context from the main sentence.” The examples show that anything
preceeding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>is used either as an
adverbial phrase (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tenpo ni la, </i>“now”)
or a dependent clause such as the kind made in English with “if” or “when.” So
far, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ale li pona</i> (“all is good”).</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Trouble arises when we try to tell what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>is doing in running text. As pause phonemes of any length tend
to be elided in ordinary speech, there are several possible interpretations to
(2):</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(2)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sili li lape lili lon supa tenpo suno
pini la jan Sili li pona e tomo</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“Sili napped on the sofa. Yesterday Sili
tidied up the house” (p. 61) or</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“If Sili napped on the yesterday sofa, then
Sili tidied up the house” or</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“Sili, having finished napping on the day
sofa, Sili tidied up the house”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">The meaning of (2) hinges
crucially on the presence or absence of what in writing is a period and in
hearing is a long pause. In fact, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan
Sonja </i>places a period between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">supa </i>and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tenpo, </i>thus making the first
translation of (1) the only one that is plausible. But that period represents a
meaning, and where there is meaning there is morpheme. Therefore, the long
pause shown in writing with a “.” is in Toki Pona a morpheme, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ.</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La </i>is two-sided, or
two-faced, if you will: its use extends to the constituents on either side of
it. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ </i>puts boundaries on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la, </i>limiting its scope such that, for
example, the second and third translations of (2) are not allowed. In the
examples in lesson 14 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja</i> puts
a comma before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la, </i>which tells me
that in her mind <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>has this quality
of “binary scope,” and that the constituent to the left is a modifier, the
constituent to the right a head. And what is a “constituent,” as far as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>is concerned? Anything between itself
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sigma can do something else for the grammar, and that is
eliminate the rule that deletes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>after
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina. </i>The deletion rule can be rewritten as a formula within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>’s lexical entry, so:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(α)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li → </i></span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ </i>{<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi, sina</i>} ___</span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unlike ø, the
silence of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi </i>or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina</i>—symbolized “<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span>” for “empty” because the
morpheme’s sound has been “emptied” out of it—represents the process called
“dropping.” <span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span>
is not a separate morpheme but an “allomorph,” another version of a morpheme,
as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-s, -z, </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-ez </i>plurals in English are allomorphs of
a single morpheme. Dropping in Spanish allows <span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">te amo</i> for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yo te amo.</i> Many languages have this option because the verb agrees
with the pronoun, and these are called, logically enough, “<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">pro</span>-drop” languages. Empty and zero require
distinct symbols because they represent distinct functions: <span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span>
is a variation of a morpheme, or of several morphemes, whereas <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø</i> is a morpheme in itself.<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(α) is a formal way of saying what the dictionary says about
the use of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>: it stands “between any
subject except <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi </i>alone or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina </i>alone and its verb” (p. 128). The
appearance of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in (α) merely makes the description simpler.
It accounts for the absence of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi toki </i>but its presence in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina en mi li toki</i> (“you and I talk”) or
in<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> tomo sina li namako </i>(“your house
is new”)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>It is not necessary to make
a syntactic rule for this, as all (α) describes is the behavior of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>in a particular context, and such
“behavior” is a part of its meaning. And all meaning belongs in the lexicon.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Three</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are only two kinds of words in Toki Pona, function and
content. All human languages, con- or nat-, have at least these two word-types;
the distinction goes back to the Classical Chinese grammarians, who divided
their vocabularies into “empty” words and “full” words. These two basic
word-types allow us to recognize three kinds of basic grammatical relations:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>between function and content: the phrase relation,</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>between two function words: the scope relation, and </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>between two content words: the modifier relation.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Once we’ve accounted for
these three relations we have written the grammar of Toki Pona.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The grammar described on Toki Pona’s Wikipedia page lists ten
rules of syntax. This sounds pretty simple: Esperanto has a whopping 16, and
the grammars of most natlangs have dozens if not hundreds. But your CRT can do
better, if by “better” you mean “fewer.” Here is my “repair” of the syntactic
rules of Toki Pona:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">1. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rule of Templatic Syntax: </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>All well-formed strings have the
underlying form (function word + content word)*</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def</i>. A f(unction-)word is an </span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">Î</span></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> {<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu, e, en, kepeken, la, li,
lon, o<sup>L</sup>, o<sup>R</sup>, pi, sama,
tan, taso, tawa, μ, σ, ø</i>}</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def. </i>* = may be repeated as desired,
indefinitely</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cor. </i>redundant words are deleted at the
surface</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">2. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rule
of Nested Hierarchy:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>F-words
group c(ontent)-words into phrases that nest in the Scope Hierarchy:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><u>σ
</u>< </span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">|<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la<sup>B</sup>,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>L</sup></i>|
< <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>en</u></i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">< </i>|<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>li</u>, <u>o<sup>R</sup></u></i>|
< <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e</i> < <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">{<i>kepeken, lon, sama, tan, tawa</i>} < </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu<sup>B</sup> < pi < μ</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def. </i>“_” = “must be included in all
sentences”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def</i>. “ < ” = “includes under its
scope” or “is interpreted after”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def. </i>“|…|” = “chose one and only one per
sentence from this set”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def. </i>“{…}” = “chose as many as needed
per sentence from this set”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Def. </i>all f-words have rightward scope
unless otherwise indicated</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>3.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rule
of Structural Conjunction:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Boolean
<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> is formed by the repetition of
any </span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">Î</span></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> {<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, en, li</i>}<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> within its own scope</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Corr.</i> function scope is binary in this
context</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like the ten rules listed on Wikipedia,
the Three Rules listed here provide instruction on how to make and interpret
grammatical utterances in Toki Pona. Unlike the Ten, the Three do so in a way
that is easier to memorize and is logically more powerful. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">The template</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">I have borrowed the notion of “template” here
from the North Afro-Asiatic languages, where it refers to morphology, not
syntax. A “templatic morphology” is one that makes words the way Arabic,
Berber, or Hebrew do, with a string of consonants that carry the meaning and
vowels inserted to distinguish, for example, the Hebrew <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">katav, </i>“he wrote” from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">katvah,
</i>“text,” or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kotev, </i>“writing.” My
“templatic syntax” of Toki Pona means that a small number of function words fit
into the “template” to form the backbone of the sentence, with content words
inserted between them to flesh it out. Now let’s try making a sentence: “I want
a drink of water.” We start with our template:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>f + c + f + c + f + c . . . . </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">and some vocabulary:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, </i>object
noun phrase (f)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en, </i>subject
noun phrase (f)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li, </i>verb
phrase (f)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi,
</i>I/me (c)</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>moku, </i>eat/drink (c)</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>telo, </i>water (c)<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>wile, </i>want (c)</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ, </i>head-modifier relator (f)</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ, </i>sentence initiator (f)</div>
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All those words marked “(f)” are members of the
function-word class, listed under the definitions of Rule 1. All words not in
the f-word set are content words by default, as function and content are the
only two options for defining the syntactic role of a word. Two f-words, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ, </i>we haven’t got around to explaining yet; we’ll define them more
precisely later. The Scope Hierarchy of Rule 2 orders the f-words so that they
must appear in a particular sequence. Also, function-words can only occupy the
f positions in the template, so there are gaps between them:</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ . . . en . . . li . . . e . . .</i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">E </i>has no equivalent
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki Inli </i>(“English”)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: </i>it is used whenever a c-word follows
another c-word that in turn follows <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>or
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o. </i>If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>is present the following c-word is the object of the sentence; if
it is not, the following c-word is an adverb modifying the preceeding verb:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(3)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ona li toki ala</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">she <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">predicate</span>
talk not</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“she did not talk” (but did something else)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(3’)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ona li toki e ala</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>she <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">predicate</span>
talk <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> not</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“she said nothing” (but remained silent)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">The distinction between
sentences like (3) and (3’) is central to Toki Pona’s grammar. It<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sometimes causes trouble for learners whose
native tongue has no marker of the direct object<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>Speakers of Biblical Hebrew (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘eth</i>)
or Hawai’ian (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">i</i>) would have no
trouble with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e.</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Having decided
that “I” is the subject of our sentence, “drink” and “want” are the verbs, and
“water” is the object, we plug these into the relevant c-positions in the
template. That is, we put “I” directly after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en, </i>the verbs directly after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li,
</i>and “water” after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e,</i> like this:</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(c) f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(f)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>c</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ . . . en mi li </i>(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wile, moku) e telo</i></div>
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We’re not done yet: there is still the gap between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en, </i>plus we have to find the missing f-word between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wile </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moku. </i>The mystery f-word must be under the scope of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>or by Rule 2 it won’t fit into the
ordering of the f-words we have already. Also, it must be consistent with the
meanings we have chosen—it must be on our list. The only morpheme that fits
both criteria is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ, </i>so we plug it in.
This morpheme lets us know that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wile </i>is
the head of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>phrase and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moku </i>is modifying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wile: </i>“want” is what we’re doing, and “consume”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>restricts the meaning of “want”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>to a particular type of wanting: a wanting to consume something. Now, after
inserting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ </i>and applying (α), we have</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ . . . en mi </i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> wile </i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i>]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
moku e telo,</i></div>
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with brackets around words that are present but silent (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>because it has been dropped, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ </i>because it is inherently silent). The
only remaining piece of the puzzle is what to do with the c-word missing
between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>There’s a hole in the
template that needs to be filled, but no meaning available to fill it. When
this happens in a natural language we postulate the existence of what is called
an “empty category.” In English, the sentence “he would like you to come” does
not contain an empty category because all the syntactic slots are filled. The
sentence “he would like to come” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i>
contain an empty category: the unpronounced subject of the verb “come.” In
other words, an empty category in English is a noun without a pronunciation,
but which you can guess is there because the sentence’s meaning and grammar
require it.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Toki Pona’s
empty category is a c-word with no pronunciation and no meaning. It is simply
a place-holder, as “0” is a place holder in numbers like “10” or “1001.” I’ll
list it here as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup></i>” to
distinguish it from “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>F</sup></i>,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the compound number-maker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we can write our sentence as:</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i>]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup></i>] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en mi </i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> wile </i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i>]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
moku e telo</i></div>
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We still have one more step to go. In all known examples
of Toki Pona text, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>never appears
at the beginning of a sentence. To account for this we write a formula similar
to (α):</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(β)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> → </span></i><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> / </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> ___.</span></div>
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This does two things at once: it explains the lack of
sentence-initial <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en, </i>and it restricts
what we can do with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup>. </i>(β)
implies that whenever a sentence does not contain an initial <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en, en </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C </sup></i>are both present but silent: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup></i> is inherently silent, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>has been dropped. (β) preserves the (f + c) template while
explaining why the sentence as pronounced/written appears to violate it. And
with these various steps and procedures followed we now have our surface
output, with silent morphemes left unwritten:</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(4)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi wile
moku e telo.</i></div>
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There! Wasn’t that simple? </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No? Then don’t
bother with any of the stuff I’ve just described. Seriously: if your native
language has features similar to Toki Pona’s—short words, few inflections, an
SVO core syntax, no ergativity, no evidentials, a language like English,
Mandarin, or /Xam—then you might be better off playing with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu. </i>If “simplicity” for you means “don’t
make me memorize a bunch of stuff” then you can learn and speak Toki Pona quite
nicely by fitting it to your preconceptions: that the subject comes before the
verb and the object after it, and so on. There will be a price, of course: by
going the easy route and not digging deeper into what makes Toki Pona tick,
you’ll miss out on methods of analysis you can apply to other languages,
including your own. You’ll <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">speak </i>the
language, you’ll <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">comprehend </i>the
language, but you won’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">understand </i>it.
In other words: you’ll miss out on a lot of cool stuff. Your loss, ya big
linguistic weeny!</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You know it’s
not enough for a chemist to mix baking soda and vinegar together and watch them
fizz—she’ll want to know why bases and acids neutralize each other. And that
means atoms and molarity and valence shells and what “pH” means. And as any
chemist will tell you, atoms are just plain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">weird.
</i>The same is true of linguists: it’s not enough to memorize rules or write
descriptions. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why </i>do subject and
object come before the verb in Tibetan, but after it in Hawai’ian? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why</i> does KiSwahili have prepositions but
Japanese has postpositions? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why </i>does
Mandarin have no adjectives and English no evidentials? There’s no way to
answer those questions without entering the Temple of Supreme Weirdness: the
mind. In the split second between thought and speech something amazing is
happening, something that happens nowhere else in the universe, and linguists
just love being amazed. All the technical jargon, parsing diagrams, and arcane
theorizing has one goal: to explore the most amazing thing in the known
universe. Your mind. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>designed
her language to do just this.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Complexity is
a relative term. What is “simple” to a speaker of English may be anything but
to a speaker of Salish. The reverse is also true: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>spends a lot of ink showing us how to make nouns into verbs,
verbs into adjectives, and so on. Chief Seattle would have needed no such
guidance.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Scope</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The key concept of Rule 2 is “scope.”All
function-words in Toki Pona (and for that matter, in all other languages, nat-
or con-) combine with content-words to form phrases. A “noun phrase” is one
that is initiated by a nominal f-word such as “a” or “the” in English, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ka </i>or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nā </i>in Hawai’ian, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon </i>in Toki Pona; similarly for verb
phrases. Because the affected content words follow them we say such f-words
have “rightward scope.” Other f-words establish a phrase by standing at the end
of a constituent rather than at its beginning: in Toki Pona, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o </i>makes a vocative phrase by following a
noun. These functions have “leftward scope.” A few f-words such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu </i>(“or”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>make phrases out of the words on either side
of them: they have “binary scope.”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is how f and c relate to form
phrases. But how do phrases relate? We saw how when building (4): the f-words
in phrases (and therefore, the phrases themselves) must follow one another in a
particular order. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>phrase must
follow the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>phrase because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>is lower in “rank” than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en,</i> as symbolized by the “<” in Rule
2. Another way to say this is that an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>phrase
includes a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>phrase within its own
meaning; similarly, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>phrase
contains an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>phrase within its
meaning. When one phrase is including within the meaning of another we say it
is “nested” within it. A sentence is like a Matryushka doll, constituents
inside of other constituents like dolls inside of dolls, and getting smaller
the deeper you go from sentence to clause to phrase to word.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Having the concept of “scope” under our
belts, the “power” of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>mentioned in
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu </i>(p. 51) can now be more precisely
defined: it is the second-highest-ranking function-word in the hierarchy<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>This means that it can cover a lot of
territory: it can include more than one phrase within its scope. The only
f-word of higher rank is the highest-ranking morpheme of all, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Three<sup>2</sup></span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And since we’re dealing with threes in this section, there are
three morphemes in Toki Pona that change their meanings by changing their
scope. These are:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e<sup>R</sup></i>,
the direct object preposition, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e<sup>B</sup></i>,
the object phrase <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en<sup>R</sup></i>,
the subject preposition, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en<sup>B</sup></i>,
the subject phrase <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>li<sup>R</sup></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">, the predicate marker, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li<sup>B</sup></i>, the verb phrase <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Besides marking the
direct object, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>is used to add
another object to an object phrase:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(5)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ona li seli e soweli e pan</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>s/he <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">predicate</span>
fire <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> animal <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> grain</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“she cooked the hares and some rice” (p. 61)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">The first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>in (5) serves to mark off the
object(s) of the sentence from the subject and the verb. Because it applies
only to the words following it, it has rightward scope. But the second <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>applies to the words on either side of
it: it has binary scope. But the second <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e
</i>has changed its meaning, from object-marker to conjunction, and changed its
place in the Scope Hierarchy, being under the scope of the first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e. </i>It seems that we must “split” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>into two morphemes here, as the two
uses—object-marker and conjunction—differ in meaning and in syntax. But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>is not the only morpheme that acts
this way.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">En </i>is an interesting
morpheme as it is part of a rather drastic asymmetry in Toki Pona’s lexicon. Of
the Boolean (“logical”) operations <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and,
not, </span>and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">or, </span>the disjunct
and negative operations are each expressed with a single word: <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">not </span>is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ala, </i>and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">or </span>is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu. </i>The conjunct operation, on the
other hand, is represented by three words:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e: </i>within direct object phrases, as we have just seen in (5)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en: </i>within a subject
phrase, the only function of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>mentioned
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu</i> (p. 56, 57)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li: </i>within verb +
verb constructions to indicate “and also,” or “and then” </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>En </span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">is only used in subject phrases, and is used in
exactly the same way as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>is used in
object phrases. That is, to express “you and I washed” you say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina en mi li telo, </i>but to say “washed
clothes and dishes” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li telo e ken <u>e</u>
ilo moku, </i>not *<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li telo e ken <u>en</u>
ilo moku. </i>To link verbs rather than nouns it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>that is repeated: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li telo
li seli, </i>“cleaned and cooked.” </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">E </i>is basically a
preposition forming direct object phrases. We can also look at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>as a “preposition” forming verb
phrases. It follows, then, that we can interpret <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>as the marker of the subject phrase: the subject preposition, as
it were. Interpreting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>as a subject
marker allows us to replace the syntactic notion “subject” with a lexical
notion “subject marker,” eliminating the need for a separate rule to define
what a “subject” is. In this way we are able to move another bit of complexity
into the lexicon. The location of an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en-</i>phrase<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>can be fixed in front of the predicate
(that is, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li-</i>phrase) by letting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>have scope over <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>, and this is what is done in the Scope Hierarchy described in
Rule 2.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Interpreting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, en, </i>and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>as phrase-markers <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> as conjunctions means there is no
overt <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> in Toki Pona: <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> is expressed structurally, by the
repetition of the appropriate f-word. This is not such an odd notion: Mandarin
has a structural <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">or</span>, formed by repeating
the verb with a different object. Although <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu
</i>does not explicitly license other forms of <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span>,
I would think we could use any right-handed f-word as a conjunction:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(6)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>?<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi tawa tomo esun tawa tomo lipu</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">I (go) to building business to building book</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“I went to the store and to the library”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(7)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>?<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mi lon telo suli lon poka telo</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>I at water big at side water</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“I am at the sea, (specifically) at the
shore”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(8)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>?<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina pali e ni kepeken ilo palisa kepeken ilo kiwen</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>you do <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span>
this use tool wood use tool stone</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“you made this using tools of wood and tools
of stone”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(9)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>?<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ona li tawa sama waso sama kala</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>s/he <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">predicate</span>
go like bird like fish</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“she went gliding like a bird, and also like
a fish”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(10)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>?<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o tawa o pali</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-variant: small-caps; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">command</span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> go <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">command</span>
do</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“go do it!”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">I do not feel that such
an extension is within my competance as a mere repair tech, so I must leave it
to the Toki Pona community to rule on this matter. If the community is pleased
to find that such sentences as (6) - (10) are grammatical, all we have to do is
change {<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, en, li</i>} in Rule 3<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to “any f <sup>R</sup>” and we’ve
covered all bases. If we wished, we could even eliminate Rule 3 entirely and
instead cover the conjunctive uses of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e,
en, </i>etc. by making lexical rewrite formulae, so:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e → </i><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e … ___ … </i>{preposition, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i>}.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">By erecting Rule 3 as I
do, I take some complexity out of the lexicon and put it into the grammar —but
I do this in the name of ease of memorization, and to point up the similarities
in the uses of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, en, </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li. </i>Rule 3 as stated also makes
extensions as those shown in (6) - (10) easier to accommodate, should the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kulupu pi toki pona </i>so desire.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Four</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is the custom in conlang repair to spend lots of time
futzing with function morphemes: critics of Esperanto, for example, tend to
dislike the accusative case-marker <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-n. </i>However,
I don’t want to eliminate anything from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu,
</i>nor do I wish to change any established meanings. What I want to do is
tease apart meanings that don’t belong together. There are two morphemes in
Toki Pona that can each be seen as performing two discrete roles, but which
differ in ways that cannot easily be captured within rules. I propose to split
each of these morphemes in two:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><sup><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></sup><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o</i> splits to becomes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup></i> (irreal mode) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>L</sup></i>
(vocative case)</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>pi </span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">splits to become <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi<sup>R</sup> </i>(genitive case) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ<sup>B</sup> </i>(modifier relation)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Once again: I am not
conjuring morphemes out of nowhere. I am finding morphemes that have always
been there, and writing descriptions of these morphemes that are consistant
with what is already known about the language.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">O<sup>L</sup> and o<sup>R</sup></span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>According to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu, </i>the
f-word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o </i>is used in three contexts:
“1. after a noun phrase to show who is being called or addressed; 2. before a
verb to express a command or request, and 3. after the subject (and replacing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>) to express a wish or desire” (p. 41)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The first use of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o</i> is
quite different from the other two. It is used to indicate a nominal case, the
“vocative.” This is a case used in Latin, Sanskrit, Hawai’ian, and other
languages to hail someone: “Hey!” or “o Such-and-so!” Unlike all other
case-markers in Toki Pona the scope of vocative <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o</i> extends leftward, over the words that preceed it. In this it
patterns with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la, </i>which is also
left-handed and also terminates its scope at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ. </i>From the examples I’ve seen, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>L</sup>
</i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>are in complementary
distribution, and so may be grouped together in the Scope Hierarchy: |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la, o</i>|<sup>L</sup>.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is a single technical term to cover uses 2 and 3 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o</i>, and that is “irreal.” This is the
verbal mode used to indicate that the event in question does not represent
something describable with the S-prime <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">know</span>.
Instead, an irreal event is something represented by <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">feel, if, think, want</span>, or <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">not.want</span>.
Irreal events include the future tense (“will”), desideratives (“wish that,”
“intend to”), conditionals (“if/then,” “assuming that,” “might be”), subjunctives
(“would that it were,” “that X may”), jussives (“let’s”), and commands (“you
must,” “do it!”). My view of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup>
</i>as an irreal marker is reinforced by the use <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>makes of it in her translation of a Bahá’í prayer:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(11) <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>I bear
witness O my God, that You have created me to know You and to worship You.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sewi mi
o! mi toki wawa e ni: sina pali e mi tawa seme? mi o sona e sina. mi o olin</i></span><i> </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"></span>e
sina. </span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(p. 89)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>divine my <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">vocative</span>
I say strongly <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> this: you
make <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> me for what? <span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"></span>I <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">irreal</span>
know <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> you. I <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">irreal</span> love <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> you.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">It seems here that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o </i>has a subjunctive sense, and should be
translated “that I may.” That is, the speaker does not yet <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">know</span> God, but <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">feel</span>s and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">want</span>s
that she might, or should. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Li </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup> </i>are in complimentary distribution,
and in the Scope Hierarchy are grouped together into a set like this: |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li, o</i>|<sup>R</sup>. If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o </i>before a verb is the irreal marker,
then it follows that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>marks the
real mode, statements asserted as <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">know</span>n.
As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>may be dropped but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o </i>may not, we can say that real is the
default mode: all sentences in Toki Pona are assumed to describe the world as
it is <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">know</span>n unless we are given to
believe otherwise by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup>.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Pi and μ (and la)</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The most common binary-scope function word in Toki Pona is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi. </i>In any phrase word<sub>1</sub> + <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>+ word<sub>2</sub>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi</i> lets us know that word<sub>1</sub> is
the “head” of the phrase and that word<sub>2</sub> modifies word<sub>1</sub> in
much the same way that an adjective modifies a noun or an adverb modifies a
verb in a natlang like English. Between two nouns, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>translates the English word “of.” However, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>is not used in phrases with only two c-words: to say “a good
person” you do not say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">*jan pi pona, </i>“a
person of goodness.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pi </i>is only used
when three or more c-words occur in a phrase:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(12)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona toki pona: </i>“a friend good to
talk to”</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(13)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>jan pona pi toki pona: </i>“a
proponent of Toki Pona”</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Example (12) shows how the modifier relation operates in
strings of three or more words: “When another word is added to a noun phrase,
it describes the sum of all previous words” (p. 44). That is, in any sequence
of content words, the last is interpreted as a modifier of all the words that
preceed it; the second to the last modifies the words that preceed it but not
the word it preceeds, and so in. That is, the “scope” of a modifier is all the
content words to the left of it, and the modifier scopes “nest” like this:
(((head + modifier) + modifier) + … ). If the head is what we are used to
calling a “noun,” the modifiers are “adjectives”; if the head is a “verb” the
modifiers are “adverbs.” The underlying structure of (12) looks like this:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(12a) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(((jan
pona) toki) pona)</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">We go from left to right:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan </i>means “person” and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona </i>means “good,” so we have “a good
person,” i.e., a “friend.” Adding the next word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki </i>gives us a “friend speaking,” or “a friend who speaks.” The
final <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona </i>modifies all that comes
before it, so we have “a good speaking-friend,” a friend who is good to speak
to.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Adding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>to the mix
changes things. We start with (13) as we did with (12), interpreting the
head-modifier phrases first. This time, however, whereas <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona<sub>2</sub> </i>are
linked, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona<sub>1</sub> </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki </i>are not, and the bracketing looks
like this:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(13a) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">((jan
pona) pi (toki pona)).</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Pi </span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">not only separates <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona </i>from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki pona, </i>it treats each h-m phrase as a unit that may in turn be
bound together into another unit, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi-</i>phrase.
The constituent to the left of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>is
the head, and the constituent to its right is the modifier. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pi </i>thus creates a head-modifier phrase,
but at a higher (that is, more inclusive) level than the head-modifier phrases
with nothing between the words.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Or is this nothing a something? That is: do we need a rule that
says “an adjective follows the noun,” or “when another word is added to a noun
phrase, it describes the sum of all previous words”? There is another option,
the LexPlex option: split <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>into two
morphemes, one of which forms h-m relations on the deepest level of the syntax,
and another which does the same thing but on the next higher level. The
higher-level morpheme is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>itself;
the other is a morpheme that establishes the deepest-level head-modifier
relation, a silent morpheme which I call “mem” and symbolize as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ.”</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i> can be translated “of”: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki μ pona, </i>“language of good.” Where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ </i>differ most crucially is in their ability to nest: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ-</i>phrases can nest inside of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi-</i>phrases, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi-</i>phrases cannot nest inside of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ-</i>phrases: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ </i>is lower on
the Scope Hierarchy than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi</i>. Also, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ </i>can nest under itself: like <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> it is “recursive”:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(12b)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(((jan μ pona) μ toki) μ pona)</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We see that phrases differ according to the presence of absence
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi, </i>and that we can capture this
difference by interpreting the absence of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi
</i>as the presence of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ. </i>But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>F</sup></i> also differ: though both are silent, non-commutating,
and of binary scope, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ </i>binds any
adjacent c-words into a h-m relation, whereas <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>F</sup> </i>binds adjacent words into an <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">and</span> relation and appears only between words used as numbers.
We may also say that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>enacts the
h-m relation but on the level of the clause and in the opposite direction: any
string of words after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i> and before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la </i>is a dependent clause (i.e., a
modifier-clause), while anything after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la
</i>and before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ </i>is an independent
clause (i.e., a head-clause). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La, μ, </i>and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pi </i>all do essentially the same thing
but at different levels and in different directions.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mem has a pronounciation: it is a short pause between words,
shorter than the pause between f and c that occurs in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li sona </i>or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e jan. </i>Compound
words are formed by deleting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ: jan μ
pona, </i>“a good person,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona, </i>“friend.”
That is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona </i>as “friend” is
treated by the lexicon as a single word, not as a string of two c-words
(regardless of how it is written).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Details</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In addition to the four “repairs” I describe above, there are
other changes that can be made to how words in Toki Pona are described within
the lexicon. By “lexicon” here I mean not just a listing of words and meanings
(as found in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu, </i>pp. 125-134), but
labels accompanying words to help describe their syntactic behavior. For
example, a detailed lexicon of Toki Pona would specify which words are functions,
and the scope of each. We can do more than this, however.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Exclamations can be listed within a rule, but Lexplex would
suggest they be specified in the lexicon. Any word from the set {<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a, ala, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">ike</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">jaki</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">mu</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">o</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">pakala</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">pona</span>, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">toki</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">} may be used as
an exclamation. Most of these words change their meaning when so used: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ pakala, </i>“broken,” σ<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> pakala, </i>“sorry!” I propose including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seme, </i>the question-marker, in this set,
with the meaning “huh?” “what the?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The only form-classes in Toki Pona are
function-words and content-words. The labels “noun,” “(pre-)verb,” “adjective,”
“adverb,” and “preposition” are unnecessary, as any c-word may play any of
these roles depending on what f-word it stands under:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">toki =</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“hello!” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">σ</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> ___ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“</span>say”
/ |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li, o</i>| ___ </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“language” / <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">{<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, en, kepeken, lon, sama, tan,
tawa</i>} ___</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“linguistic” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">μ</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> ___ </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“speaking of” / ___ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sona </i>= </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“know (something)” /|<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li, o|</i> ___ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>“know how (to do something)” / |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li, o</i>| ___<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To make things more convenient we can use the traditional
labels to indicate sets of words of related function. The set {<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e, en, kepeken, lon, sama, tan, tawa</i>}
can be replaced with {preposition}, the set |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li, o|<sup>R</sup></i> with |mode|, and so on. We can also rearrange
items into different sets as needed the way I do in Rule 2, where I specify <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">e </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>separately from the other prepositions to allow subject phrases
to preceed the verb and objects to follow it. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You’ll recall my argument about the phrase
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan pona </i>and why it means “friend”
and not, say,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“buddha.” We can make use
of the power granted us by lexical rewrite formulas to narrow down the meaning
of any word according to its context:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona
=</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“friend” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan + ___</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">“simple” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki
+ ___</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">“good” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lape
+ ___</i> (“good night” = <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ lape pona σ</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">and so on.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some words in Toki Pona are
“underspecified” for class. That is, they are inherently neither f- nor
c-words, but take on their class assignment according to where they fit in the
template: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon </i>before a c-word is a
preposition (i.e., an f-word) meaning “at,” but before an f-word it is a c-word
meaning “exist,” among other things:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon
=</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">“at”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>/ ___ c-word</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“exist”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>/ |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li,
o</i>| ___ </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“true” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">μ</i> ___ </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“yes” / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ</i></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> ___ </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">It
sometimes happens that when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tawa </i>are used as verbs the underlying
noun-phrase that follows will begin with the same word used as a preposition.
That is, “to be at” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li lon lon </i>and
“go to” is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li tawa tawa. </i>You could
say that such expressions are “overspecified”—they contain more information
than necessary. Whenever this happens the redundant preposition is dropped:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(γ)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>{<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon, tawa</i>} → </span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> / {<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon,
tawa</i>} ___</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">A similar
rule drops <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>L</sup> </i>when it
appears before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup>. </i>Redundancy
is incompatible with simplicity so away it goes, into the great void of </span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Several
sections ago I claimed to discover two silent morphemes in Toki Pona, the
f-words <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>F</sup> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">σ.
</i>However, I then proceeded to sneak in a third silent morpheme, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup></i>, to represent the empty
category. My perspicacious readers undoubtedly discovered this deception many
pages ago and have been chuckling in anticipation of seeing my comeuppance in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New York Times Book Review. </i>But your
author will get the last laugh! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>F</sup></i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup> </i>are in cold fact a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">single</i> zero, whose apparent duality
comes about because it is unspecified for the f/c distinction. Just as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">suno </i>means “sun,” “sunny,” or “shine”
depending on context, so <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø </i>takes on
one or the other role according to contexts specified in the lexicon:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø →
ø<sup>F</sup> / </i>larger number ___ smaller number (additive function)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø →
ø<sup>C</sup> / σ </i>___ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en </i>(empty
category)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">We don’t
have to specify <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø </i>as f or c until the
template demands it, and until it does, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø,
</i>like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lon, </i>is a single morpheme despite
the reader’s detective genius. You’ve got to get up early if you’re going to
get the drop on the Cunning Linguist! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A a
a!</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Mem
is not the only f-word that can appear inaudibly between two c-words. Consider
this sentence: </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(14)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">sina
toki ala toki e toki Inli?</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">you talk not talk <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span> talk English</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">According
to what we know of silent morphemes and of dropping we can deduce that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina toki </i>has the underlying form <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina li toki </i>and that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki Inli </i>has the underlying form <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki μ Inli. </i>But what of the three
c-word string <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki ala toki? </i>“Not
speaking talkatively” might be the translation if the underlying form was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki μ ala μ toki </i>and this were a saying
of Master Lào. However, the string verb + <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ala
</i>+ verb, where both verbs are identical, is actually the way Toki Pona asks
questions requiring a “yes” or “no” answer. (The format is borrowed from
Mandarin.) A more accurate translation might be something along the lines of
“Do you speak English, or do you not speak (it)?” In other words, there’s a
Boolean <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">or</span> hidden in this
construction. The logical place to put it is after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ala, </i>so that the full underlying sentence is:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(14a) f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>f<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en</i>] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina
</i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li</i>] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki μ ala </i>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu</i>] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toki e toki μ Inli?</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“do you speak English?”</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Anu </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">is dropped from the surface output by the
formula</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(δ)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu </i>→</span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">li </i>c<sub>1</sub> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ala ___ </i>c<sub>2</sub>, where c<sub>1 </sub>≡
c<sub>2</sub>.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">as
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ala </i>between the identical verbs
makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anu </i>redundant, and thus
droppable.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup>
</i>is not the only c-word that can appear inaudibly between two f-words. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sina, </i>for example,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is always deleted before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup>
</i>in commands:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(ε)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina </i>→ </span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> / ___ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup></i> when used
as imperative, </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">or,
to state it another way:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">o<sup>R</sup></i>
→ command / <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina </i>→ </span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">$</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"> ___</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Every language must navigate between the
Scylla and Charybdis of “say what you mean” and “don’t take too long saying
it.” (γ), (δ), and (ε) are three examples of how to shoot the rapids. More
rewrite formulas can be written for various other contexts, and more uses can
be made of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ø<sup>C</sup></i>, but I will
leave finding these for the amusement of the reader. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">O musi! </i>Enjoy!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">How
do you say “What did you do to her?” in Toki Pona? Most English-speakers might
come up with something like:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(16a) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina
puli e seme tawa ona?</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">you do <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">object</span>
what? to her</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">This
is the translation to be found in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu:</i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">(16b) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sina seme e ona? </i>(p. 32)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Although I don’t think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>speaks any Australian
languages, the use of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seme </i>as a verb
“do what?” is exactly parallel to the use of the verb <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wiyamal</i> in Dyirbal. (16b) is a neat example of what you can do with
a conlang once you’ve freed yourself from the habit-patterns of your native
tongue. And you can do this even if—gasp!—you don’t speak any Native Australian
at all.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">Sapir-Whorf . . . and beyond</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan
Sonja</i> intends her language to be an experiment involving our old buddy the
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. She set up Toki Pona to be a benign Newspeak, a way of
simplifying thought to bring about spiritual (or at least, psychological)
insight. Rather than come to love Big Brother, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>wants us to love the “simplicity” extolled in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dào Dé Jīng: </i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>More
words count less</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hold
fast to the center </span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;">(chapter 5)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is
most important</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
see simplicity</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
realize one’s true nature</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
cast off selfishness</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
to temper desire.</span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"> (chapter 19)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Have
little and gain</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Have
much and be confused</span></i><span style="mso-font-kerning: 1.0pt;"> (chapter
22)</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I believe I have shown throughout <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cunning Linguist </i>that Sapir-Whorfian notions of linguistic
determinism simply won’t wash. But I think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan
Sonja </i>has accomplished something much more interesting than yet another S-W
experiment: she has created a CSM—a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">conlang
</i>semantic metalanguage. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the chapter “Atoms For Peace” I discussed the S-prime, which
some linguists believe is the “atom of thought,” or at least, of language. The
best-known Natural Semantic Metalanguage is the one described by Wierzbicka and
Goddard, which makes use of about 65 primes. Toki Pona’s 120+ root-words
perform very much the same role as S-primes: “Toki Pona is a language that
breaks down advanced ideas to their most basic elements” (p. 9). The process of
translating from a natlang to Toki Pona is, in effect, a way of performing
semantic analysis by means of a metalanguage. There’s a bit of CSM on page 12
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pu: </i>“What is a ‘bad friend’? The
Toki Pona expression for friend is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan
pona, </i>or literally ‘good person.’ You quickly realize that a bad friend is
a contradiction in itself.” Which you do, that is, assuming you know that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ike </i>are antonyms (nowhere described as such in the dictionary, but
easily deduced), or that you know that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pona
</i>is how Toki Pona says <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">good</span> and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ike </i>is how it says <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">bad</span>. Knowing these things, the
contradiction in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">*jan pona ike </i>instantly
becomes obvious. Perhaps we might even state this as </span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rule 4: Non-Contradiction</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Two content-words that are antonyms to each
other may not modify the same head.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">We specify in the lexicon
which words are antonyms and thus in complimenmtary distribution: |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ike, pona</i>|, |<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pimeja, suno</i>|,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>and so on.
Contradictions such as Ayn Rand’s “rape by invitation” are tolerated in
English, but in Toki Pona it seems they are not only not tolerated, they are
not grammatical. In giving us a language in which words represent so directly
the “atoms of thought,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jan Sonja </i>may
have made her most wonderful contribution to the wonderful world of conlangs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: no-line-numbers; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And speaking of wonderful, let’s see what the Story of the Girl
looks like in the Language of Good:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: no-line-numbers; tab-stops: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">ni la mama meli mi li toki e mi:
meli lili li insa e luka ona lon ko seli, ona li pana e ko seli tawa sewi. ona
li toki e ko seli, “ko seli lon ma ni la ale pi ona o ante tawa nasin pi sewi
pimeja . . .”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: no-line-numbers; tab-stops: .25in;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">I use the compound: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ko seli, </i>“fire powder” to mean “ashes.”
And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nasin pi sewi pimeja, </i>“path of
the dark above,” is the Milky Way. Get on the ‘Net, buy Sonja Lang’s lovely
little book, and keep the story going.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: no-line-numbers; tab-stops: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: no-line-numbers; tab-stops: .25in; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-font-kerning: 8.0pt;">#</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: no-line-numbers; tab-stops: .25in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-84765810074137076792014-02-09T19:20:00.000-08:002014-02-09T19:20:18.974-08:00Four Men Who Will Save the World (Part 7)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">We’re
here to enjoy ourselves, which means we are practicing the most essentially
human of all undertakings, the search for joy. Not the pursuit of pleasure—any
hamster can do that—but the search for joy.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3in; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">—Ursula Le Guin</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Two of the most powerful
forces in existence in the 1960s—feminism and the Bomb—fail to explain the
profound change that came over the women who came of age during that fateful
decade, a change whose echoes resound to this good day. It echoes in ways the
mass media are ill-equipped to observe or analyze: for it reverberates in the
minds of those who were there, and in the secret messages that pass between the
generations. Most young women of the 60s probably did <i>not </i>change, or did not change much, but went on with their lives
pretty much as they would have. Yet enough <i>did
</i>change that a certain tipping-point was reached—the butterfly flapped its
wings, and a tornado was born. And it was those women’s openness to change
that may very well tip the balance between a future of horror and a future of
hope. No ideology drove them, no mass movement swept them along, no legislation
transformed those special young women. So what was it, then? What power could arise
in this world that is greater than ideology, greater than the Masters, greater
than revolution, greater even than fear?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>It’s time to do something we haven’t bothered with yet: ask
the women themselves. Let’s see their faces, hear their voices, look into their
eyes. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology we don’t have to speculate: we
can watch the world change. So let’s</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUAvmgSi4T4" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;"> watch this.</span></a></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The place is Shea Stadium, the time is August 15, 1965, and the cause of all this chaos is the four young men
who will save the world: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The Beatles.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>Or rather: it is, and it isn’t. Pay no attention to those
men up on the stage. Look instead at those frumpy, plain-jane, beautiful young
women. No TV special, no article in <i>Rolling
Stone, </i>no coffee-table book can convey as this clip does the magnitude of
what came to be called, rather flippantly, “Beatlemania.” Contrary to what
you may have heard (and will see here at a passing glance), Beatlemania wasn’t about a bunch of crazed girls charging
police barricades (and most of the “girls” were in fact women). It wasn’t
about young ladies in Dippity-Do curls shrieking their lungs out. It wasn’t
about media hype (Justin Bieber, anyone? Or Sarah Palin?), and it wasn’t about
mass hysteria, social contagion, or the madness of crowds. Women screamed at
Sinatra in the 40s, and nothing changed; they screamed at Elvis in the 50s and
nothing changed; in the 60s they screamed at Frankie Avalon, Tom Jones, and
Engelbert Humperdinck. </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlEB0nskBZRfRmAvAyZ3jtc3j-oQis76EFR1NNJZMu2u3FzcUDqfhQPNW8Ff0dRgyJY3XBJ8TFkiiKHuDSd_d7EFAAjwuWUIOj3HVzX0NDjiAeyquj98xOQekS2mkJ-69EBtisWX7HDx39/s1600/engelbert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlEB0nskBZRfRmAvAyZ3jtc3j-oQis76EFR1NNJZMu2u3FzcUDqfhQPNW8Ff0dRgyJY3XBJ8TFkiiKHuDSd_d7EFAAjwuWUIOj3HVzX0NDjiAeyquj98xOQekS2mkJ-69EBtisWX7HDx39/s1600/engelbert.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">(You remember Engelbert. Women used to throw their undies
on the stage while he crooned. Probably still big in Japan.) Those jokers were
deliberately sexual, purposefully provocative. The Beatles were deliberately
non-sexual, purposefully boyish: no silky, insinuating voices, no Elvis
pelvis. And no, Beatlemania wasn’t about the production genius of George Martin,
or the marketing genius of Brian Epstein, or even about appearing on the <i>Ed Sullivan Show.</i> For <i>this </i>revolution could not be televised.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The joy of the happy ending . . . this
joy, which is one of the things fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is
not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive” . . . it is a sudden and miraculous
grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of
sorrow and failure . . . it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will)
universal final defeat and in so far is <i>evangelium,</i>
giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant
as grief.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3in; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">—Tolkien, <i>On Fairy-Stories</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>Look again at those beautiful women. They’re not just
enthused, or fanatic, or “hysterical.” <i>They’re
in agony. </i>Each face is twisted into a rictus of pain; each body is racked
with sobs; tears pour out of thousands of eyes. I don’t think we’re at a Phish
concert, Toto! Or at a concert with Sinatra, or Elvis, or even Englebert
Humperdinck. Nor is there any drug in the world that could do what those four
young men are doing to these women. Meth addicts don’t look like this. Crack-snorters
don’t look like this. The gods could not look this beautiful.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>Journalists mockingly claim that at your typical Beatles
concert “there wasn’t a dry seat in the house,” and they may well be correct.
Yes, you’ll see something like this on the faces of women in the throes of
orgasm (or so I vaguely recall). But you’ll also see it at tent revivals, and
in delivery rooms, and even at political rallies—sporadically, in fits and
starts, not the hour-long five-alarm blaze of emotion you see here. If you wish
to demean this emotion by calling it “merely” sexual it’s your own beez—but
in so doing you’ll dismiss, and therefore miss, the most important emotional
sea-change of the past century. Perhaps of a lot of centuries.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>Stout talk? Not to the Masters it isn’t. And I don’t mean
the Masters of the 3 Cs. I mean the <i>real </i>Masters,
the ones who free slaves, not own them; the ones whose kingdom is not of this world;
the ones who’ve shown us a better one. You know who they are, and what they’ve
told us: Dante and his vision of the White Rose; Beethoven and the last
movement of the last symphony, the Buddha and what he found at dawn beneath
the Bo-tree, Li Bo listening to his little girl, Tolkien at the shattered gates
of Minas Tirith, welcoming the morning. Or the anonymous author of the
Chandogya Upanishad:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Praano
brahma, kam brahma, kham brahmeti.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Yad
vaava kam tad eva kham</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Yad
eva kham tad eva kam iti (IV.10.4-5)</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>God
is Truth, God is the Source, God indeed is Joy.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>Joy,
indeed, that is the same as the Source.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>The
Source, indeed, that is the same as Joy.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Until my lifetime appearances
of the True Masters were like meteors streaking across the night, their
messages landscapes lit by lightning. Yet I once heard a Tibetan Master say
that sometimes —maybe once in a thousand years—a profound realization can
come not just to the gifted few but to an entire generation. And this lama
believed that during the decade of the 1960s there came such a shock of
spiritual electricity.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>I think I know what that bolt out of the blue was, and
where it struck. For sometime in New York City, on a hot summer night,
thousands of young women felt that lightning in their bones. It was not a
vision of happiness, and certainly not of contentment. It wasn’t even orgasm.
That lightning was Joy: Joy beyond the walls of the world, Joy poignant as grief. And it is that Joy, I believe, that even now, in
subtle ways, is working to save the world. . . . TBC</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-82966883071949720632014-02-09T18:52:00.002-08:002014-02-09T18:52:49.397-08:00Four Men Who Will Save the World--Part 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3.5in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Gentlemen! You can’t
fight in here—this is the War Room! —President Mervin
Muffly, in <i>Doctor Strangelove</i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">For a
long time I thought the big influence unleashed during the 60s was the Bomb. I
grew up with the Cuban Missile Crisis, civil defense shelters in the grade
schools, duck and cover drills, and movies like <i>Doctor Strangelove. </i>People might scratch their heads nowadays over
the subtitle to that film —“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb”—but that was indeed what everyone had to do back then, like children in abusive
homes who must learn to love their abusers. The Bomb taught my generation the
meaning of what H. P. Lovecraft called “the oldest and strongest human emotion”—fear.
I used to have nightmares about someone dropping the Big One and waves of flame
pouring across the world.<span style="color: red;"></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span> </span>And it was a generational fear. I
remember talking to my mom about it as a teenager and realizing that she didn’t
fear the Bomb the way I and my peers did. And I remember wondering if her
generation had to die before the world could do anything about the nuclear
nightmare. My high school buddies didn’t expect to live past 30; we all figured
the Bomb would get us. Mom, despite her wisdom, never understood.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span> </span>And The Big One is still
possible. The under 30s seem to have learned to disregard this most fundamental
fact of 21st century existence, and many of their elders have too, but there’s
plenty of us who haven’t learned to Love the Bomb and never will. Why do you
think Obama got that Nobel Prize? It’s because the people on the Nobel Committee
are elders like me, ones who grew up with that fear . . . and then this
“funny-looking kid with a strange name and big ears” proposes to outlaw nuclear
weapons, <i>and the world takes him seriously</i>.
At last! I’ve lived my whole life waiting for that seriousness. Why not give a
Nobel Prize for hope? It’s been a long time since we had any.<span style="color: red;"></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span> </span>But now I think that it wasn’t
the Bomb that revolutionized the consciousness of those young women during the
60s. Fear seldom changes anyone or anything. Quite the reverse: fear freezes,
ossifies, holds back, strangles. People with a lot of fear don’t want to grow,
don’t want to change: they want cozy and comfortable, and they’ll worship anyone
or anything that promises to make the fear manageable—even if, in the end, the
object of their worship makes things worse. Why do people join the Tea Party,
or Al-Qaeda, or the NRA? Why would anyone in their right mind listen to Wayne
LePierre?</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span> </span>And isn’t it interesting that our
current Tea Partiers like to play dress-up in Betsy Ross bonnets and
three-corner hats when the real Tea Partiers dressed up as Native Americans?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">The leader of the Nine
[Nazgûl] is known as the Captain of Despair, . . . [but] he cannot induce it in
others unless he first feels it in himself. —Paul Kocher, <i>Master of Middle-earth</i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Fear is
another fact of human nature the Masters know well, or they would not spend so
much time and effort trying to induce it. Fear makes people into slaves, and
how can you be a Master if you have no slaves? And to keep slaves is to be one
yourself. The courageous have no need to frighten anyone. Yet a significant
number of young women in the 60s—all over the world—seemed <i>less</i> afraid of the future, not more. And their children are still
willing to gamble on the chance that the world could be better, or Obama would
never have gotten that Nobel. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span> </span>But it wasn’t just the Nobel
Committee that got him that prize. It wasn’t even the young people who put him
in office. It was those four mysterious men who will save the world . . . . TBC</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></b></div>
m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-75719058452718166432013-04-10T18:57:00.002-07:002013-04-10T18:57:56.722-07:00Four Men Who Will Save the World--Part Five<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 243.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In that line [“Was she
told when she was young that pain would lead to pleasure?”] I was trying to say
something about Christianity. The idea that you have to be tortured to attain
heaven—I didn’t believe that. –John Lennon, on the song</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"> “Girl”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">The most obvious
candidate for transforming the young women of the 60s is feminism. We’ve all
heard of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Feminine Mystique </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Second Sex, </i>and of the profound
impact these and similar works have had on modern society. Who hasn’t heard of
Gloria Steinem, or Betty Friedan, or Simone de Beauvoir? You can bet Hillary
Clinton and Michele Obama have. And neither Hillary Clinton nor Michele Obama
would be where they are today—nor would Chelsea Clinton or Malia and Sasha Obama
go where they’re going to go tomorrow—were it not for the feminist revolution.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But feminism has been around for a very long time. The
current “feminism” is the latest of a half-dozen or more “waves” that have
swept across North Atlantic society over the past two hundred years. Just think
Mary Wollstonecraft, or Seneca Falls, or Susan B. Anthony, or the suffragettes,
or Rosie the Riveter to see what I mean. And that’s just “modern” feminism. If
you’re a Muslim you’ll go back 1300 years, and think Hazrat A’isha. Or, if
you’re a Hindu, you’ll go back a thousand and think the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bhagavata Purana. </i>Or, if you’re a Buddhist, you’ll think Tara/Kannon/Guanyin.
Or if you’re Native, you’ll think Pretty Shield, Sarah Winnemucca, Wilma
Mankiller, or your own clan mothers. If you’re a Black African you’ll be
thinking of the Fanti, the all-women bodyguard of the Asantehene, and the most
feared warriors of the Ashanti Empire. And all human beings of whatever
background should be thinking (often) of the Bushmen, probably history’s most
gender-equal society, and who had no history of rape. Feminism has been around
for millenia, and in a myriad of forms, and in many different cultures. I suspect
women have been saying “no” to patriarchy since patriarchy was invented, even if
the only ears hearing them were their own.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But in 1965, the feminist wave that would give rise to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe v Wade, </i>the National Organization
for Women, no-fault divorce, rape crisis centers, and the end of chattel laws
was just getting started. Susan Brownmiller’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Against Ourselves: Men, Women, and Rape </i>was published in 1975;
until then, rape was considered a crime of “passion” committed by men who
“couldn’t help themselves” instead of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
heinous act of violence it is held now by everyone not a GOP congressman or a
gangsta rapper. My own mother did not have her name on a bank account until
about 1980; until then she was listed under her husband’s name with a “Mrs.” in
front of it. (To her bank’s credit, they did change it after she complained to its
president.) Women didn’t start pouring into the work force until I was well
out of high-school; almost all the kids I went to school with had stay-at-home
moms. In 1984 Geraldine Ferraro ran for vice-president and Hillary Clinton was
unknown outside of Arkansas. Much of the gender equality we now take for
granted was beyond the horizon in 1965.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And, for some, it’s still beyond it. For it seems that
every time someone tries to valorize women’s contributions to the world’s
history, someone else—inevitably a man, and in America, inevitably a Republican—can’t
handle it. Remember Susan B. Anthony dollars, or those beautiful gold-plated
coins depicting Sakakawea (“Sakajawea”) and her baby, Baptiste? Where are those
coins now? Why don’t you ever see them in the cashier’s drawer at the
supermarket, or get them from the teller at the credit union? In each case the
coin was introduced during a Democratic presidency (Carter and Clinton,
respectively) and discontinued by the following GOP regime (Reagan and GW). As
far as I know (numismatics experts will have to help me out on this one), the
US was the first country in the world to have a baby on its coinage. In real
life that little baby helped keep his mom safe from hostilities on Lewis and
Clarke’s journey across the Great America Desert. But alas, Baptiste couldn’t
keep his mother’s image safe from the spitefulness of the Republican Party, and
now Sakajawea coins, and Anthonys as well, are mostly memories.<span style="color: red;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The history of feminism is long, fascinating, and
extremely complex, and I’m certainly not competent to sum it up in the space of
a blog devoted to (among other things) man-eating lions and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord of the Rings. </i>Here I’ll simply
suggest that, as far as the young women we are analyzing were concerned, feminism
was not a cause but an effect. Feminism did not make them as much as they made it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Feminism is an ideology, and like the 3 Cs it is based
not only on intellectual analysis but on gut reaction. Most people are dissatisfied
with their lives on a deep, emotional level but can’t quite put their fingers
on how or why. The power of the Masters lies in their ability to provide a language
in which the dissatisfaction can be expressed and a program offered for how to
get rid of it. The program might be illusory to the point of madness, but the
need it claims to satisfy is very real. The Masters can’t get their grip on anyone
without that dissatisfaction. A soul to be seized must be weakened by weeping.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like the Masters, feminist scholars have found a language
in which women can both get in touch with and express some of their deepest
feelings. Feminists have also offered a (partial) program for dealing with
those feelings on a personal and social level. Unlike the Masters, feminists
have no intention of anesthetizing that dissatisfaction—if anything, they’re
trying to magnify it. Whether this is a truly useful thing to do or not is a question
I must leave to others better qualified.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve yet to meet a feminist who isn’t personally,
passionately angry at patriarchy. Would they be feminists if they weren’t? But
I know of no one who first sat down, calmly contemplated the many and horrible patriarchal
evils and then concluded that they should be angry at it. Emotion drives ideology,
not the reverse. I’m simplifying quite a bit here, but it seems to me that the
young women of the 60s would not have turned to feminism unless they were
already frustrated by those elements of society that feminism eventually taught
them to label “patriarchy.” Feminism is the most revolutionary movement to
march across the world since the invention of agriculture, but like agriculture
it did not spring out of nowhere—its seed had to fall on fertile ground. That
fertile ground was the young women of the 1960s.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But how did they know to be frustrated in the first
place? Who taught them they’d been living in a cage? What force knocked them
out of their well-trained complacency? What woke them up? Could it have been
the four mere males who will save the world?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">TBC </span></div>
</div>
m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-31172786705652615472013-03-11T20:36:00.001-07:002013-03-11T20:36:40.901-07:00The NRA, the Gods, and My Left Armpit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The Pit</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In light of the Newtown Massacre and
the response it has provoked, I would like to invite any member of the National
Rifle Association to insert his nose into my left armpit.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No, this isn’t the way to offer
insult among the Dwarf-lords of Khazad-dûm. I have a logical reason for
extending this invitation to all those who feel the scourge of gun violence
deserves no better response than to train several million overworked, underpaid
public servants to kill. Those who dare the adventure of my left armpit will discover
something that could make America a better place to live. For deep within they
will find a small ring of scar tissue. It is neither a bullet hole nor the
aftermath of acne. I got it at the age of three, when I was vaccinated against
smallpox.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Pox</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Once upon a time, there were
trillions of soulless little terrorists in the world. They could hide in thin
air, no security screen could catch them, bullets wouldn’t stop them. A smallpox
epidemic was like the zombie apocalypse, only worse: cutting off people’s heads
wouldn’t even slow it down. The situation was so hopeless people prayed to
smallpox gods for succor. Sometimes they got it; often, they didn’t. Authorities
estimate that throughout history smallpox killed up to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">half a billion </i>people—and that was just in Europe. Compare this to
the 200 million <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">world-wide </i>killed by
World War II. Even atheists prayed to the smallpox gods. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“When your only tool is a hammer,
every problem is a nail.” And when your only tool is a gun? What would have
happened if the NRA had been in charge of dealing with smallpox and not the World
Health Organ-ization? For that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>the
role the NRA wants to take on with their guns-in-the-schools proposals: to spearhead
the battle against gun violence (herein, “GV”), as WHO took the lead role in
the battle against smallpox. So let’s apply their own logic to see if they could
have done as least as good a job as WHO.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The only way to stop a bad guy with
a gun is a good guy with a gun”—Wayne LaPierre, millionaire lobbyist for the
NRA, will go down in history for these words. His next words, however, are more
revealing of how the NRA views the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cause </i>of
gun violence: “The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number
of genuine monsters. People that are so deranged, so evil, so possessed by
voices and driven by demons that no sane person can ever possibly comprehend
them.” Which is to say: GV is caused by orcs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From LaPierre’s words we can guess
how the NRA would proceed against smallpox. For starters, they’d ignore <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">virus</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">variola</i>. They would have treated the cause of the disease as a
recent article in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>treated
the madness of Adam Lanza: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Nothing we could have
learned from Columbine would have allowed us to prevent Newtown. We have to
acknowledge that the human brain is capable of producing horror, and that
knowing everything about the perpetrator, his family, his social experience and
the world he inhabits does not answer the question “why” in any way that will
resolve the problem</i> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NYT</i>, 23 Dec
2012).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According
to Wayne LaPierre, and to Andrew Solomon, author of best-seller <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Far From the Tree </i>and the above quote,
the mind of a mass murderer is an eternal mystery, a bizarre phenomenon beyond
the laws of cause and effect, something no one should even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">try </i>to understand. “At best, these events help generate good
policy,” Solomon remarks. Perhaps he has a similar view of the ineffability of
global warming. I’m sure the families of the Sandy Hook victims find such know-nothing
sentiments a great comfort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Having abandoned causal analysis the
NRA would then spring into action. Since their only tool is guns, the problem
would look like targets, and the solution would be . . . to gun down
anyone with smallpox. Such persons are a clear threat to the community. Kill
them, kill the disease. Self-defense, right? Of course, in the early stages of
infection the victim is contagious but shows no obvious signs of illness, and
those with such signs would stay home. So a bloodbath would be unlikly—but so
would any reduction in cases. People would just keep dying.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As it became plain that the disease could
not be stopped by staking out schools, theaters, or shopping malls, the NRA
would demand the right to conduct house-to-house searches for infected
individuals to kill. As the kin of these unfortunates would likely object (and
shoot back), firefights would be common, as would people fleeing to escape
“justice.” And in stomping about the bedrooms of smallpox victims, many NRA members
would pick up the disease themselves. The NRA leadership would have a lot of
explaining to do to an increasingly sceptical public.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There would, of course, be those who
would suggest that smallpox could be stopped by stopping its cause. But such
voices would quickly be shouted down. The media get a fair chunk of advertising
revenue from Walmart—the world’s largest gun retailer —and governments have
long been accustomed to finding money for more guns by slashing budgets for
schools, roads, health care, and so on. So reports of mass deaths would become
a staple of the evening news, and the public would be left with nothing else to
do but . . . pray. To the Gun Gods. And to their priests: the men of the NRA.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Perp</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now let’s turn the tables and see
how WHO might attack the plague of gun violence. As they did with smallpox,
they’d first identify the cause. And they’d quickly learn that the cause of gun
violence isn’t guns—OR the people carrying them. That is, they’d quickly reject
LaPierre’s “bad guy” language for a view of GV perpetrators of people who are
sick and in need of treatment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The media have made out Adam Lanza
to be “crazy,” a “genuine monster.” The implication is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no one </i>could have anticipated his
rampage. But as Gavin De Becker, one of America’s leading experts on violence,
points out in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gift of Fear,</i>
the “crazies” who perpetrate heinous crimes can be understood—and their
behavior can be predicted. And this is because people, no matter how insane, don’t
just “snap”—they always give advance warning of what they’re about to do. Like
smallpox, psychopathic hate has its own logic, and follows a particular
pattern. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In other words: Adam Lanza could
have been stopped. And not by a bullet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I conduct regular safety training
sessions for employees at my place of business. In these sessions I point out
that:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>a) the 2nd-leading cause of
workplace fatality in America is homicide, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b) such homicides are almost always
perpetrated by employees, and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c) the actions of the
perpetrators can be predicted and disaster averted by following a few fairly
simple procedures. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Potential murderers show specific
signs of their intent to kill. Correctly reading those signs allows others to
stop them. I know—I’ve done it. Using the principles De Becker describes I’ve
helped head off two potentially violent threats to the security of my
workplace in the past three years. All it takes is preparation, observation,
and appropriate action. But above all, it takes knowledge—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and a willingness to use it.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Someone
</i>knew that things were seriously the matter with Adam Lanza—because the
evidence assembled by De Becker from similar mas-sacres reveals that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">someone always does. </i>And if someone
knew, someone could have done something that might have saved the lives of
twenty small children. Who could have stopped him? I think we can guess —with a
little help from news organizations outside the US, and by reading between
the lines of our Walmart-dependent newspapers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The British Broadcasting Corporation
reports that Nancy Lanza took her son out of his senior year in high school
because she was “dissatisfied at the school’s educational plan for him.” Individual
educational programs (IEPs) are commonly written for kids with special needs: kids
with dyslexia, autism, Down Syndrome, and so on. The BBC also reports that one
of Lanza’s instructors had to watch him whenever he was soldering something in
technology club because if he burned himself he wouldn’t feel it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A relative described Lanza’s mom to
the BBC as “rather high-strung—understandable under the [unspecified] circumstances.”
Mom divorced dad sometime during Adam’s middle-school years; she kept their
house in a “secluded” neighborhood and received sizable alimony/child support/trust
fund money, so she didn’t work. One gets the impression she was a “socialite,”
a person whose "profession" was throwing cocktail parties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Even the US media have hinted that
something about Lanza’s re-lationship with his mother was . . . odd. According
to an AP article of 19 Dec 2012 she had almost absolute control over her son: on his monthly visits to the
barber he wouldn’t talk to anyone, and would get up or down out of the barber’s
chair only when she instructed him to do so. She was also called frequently to
his school to “deal with him” when he did some (unspecified) something that
only she could handle.</span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With increasing public understanding of the relationship
between criminality and the experiences of early childhood, it is no longer a
secret known only to the experts that every crime contains a concealed story,
which can then be deciphered from the way the misdeed is enacted.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>—Alice
Miller,</span></i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">For Your Own Good</span></span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></i><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Puzzle</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All in all, not much to go on. But
enough to ask lots of questions: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If Lanza had an IEP, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">someone </i>must have diagnosed him. Who was
this person and what was the diagnosis? Would it have served as a red flag? What
did this (hypothetical) IEP tell Nancy Lanza about her son?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What of the rumors Lanza was
schizophrenic or autistic? As persons with such disorders are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">less </i>likely to commit acts of violence
than “normal” people, these labels are probably red herrings. What was his real
problem? If it was obvious enough to disturb his barber and his teachers, who
else did it disturb? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Why did Nancy Lanza so control her
son? Did he need such a high degree of guidance or did Ms. Lanza have a
craving for dominance? Taking a kid out of his senior year in high school—an
extremely important time in a teen’s life—is a pretty drastic step. Did she really
need to take it? What “circumstances” made her so “high-strung”?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What incidents required mom to
intervene at her son’s school? Are his teachers going to tell us? Lanza’s mother
is dead and his father was non- custodial, so permission to release confidential
records shouldn’t be a problem. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What were the arrangements Nancy made
with her ex for the care of their children, and what impact did these have on
Adam? We are told that the boys were “upset” by their parents’ divorce—are we
to believe this “upset” drove Adam to kill? And why did Lanza’s elder brother
have no contact with him for two years? Why did his father leave town to start
a new life? Were he and his elder son running away from something?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And if his mother knew there was
“something the matter” with Adam Lanza, then why—oh gods, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>—did she: (a) train him in the use of a Bushmaster machine gun,
and (b) keep one around the house?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And
why was she her son’s first victim?</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Adam Lanza isn’t the only young
murderer whose actions raise questions about how he was raised. In New Mexico
recently a 15-year-old killed his mother and then his siblings with a hunting rifle.
Then, he waited for his father—a former gang-banger who became a pastor—to come
home before pumping him full of bullets with an AK-47. Both weapons came from
the family broom closet. What kind of pastor keeps machine guns in the broom
closet in a house with four children, the youngest of whom was a two-year-old?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The NRA agrees with the rest of us
that guns should be kept out of the hands of the mentally ill. But Nancy Lanza
put that Bushmaster into the hands of her son, and in the eyes of society she
was perfectly sane. And Greg Griego was a “man of God,” yet his piety appears
to have had no influence on his son—though some other aspect of his personality
obviously did.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Adam Lanza and Nehemiah Griego are
typical of many mass murderers. Both seem to have suffered from what psychologists
call a “disrupted attachment bond” with their parents. Many factors can
contribute to such disruption, but parenting style appears to be the major
influence. A parent who is authoritarian (e.g., likes to give orders), selfish
(e.g., lives off a trust fund), lacks empathy (e.g., takes her son out of his
senior year in high school), and is obsessed with violence (e.g., keeps
machine guns around the house) is unlikely to form the warm, nurturing bond
every child needs to develop properly. In extreme cases, this lack of bonding
can cut the child off from the human race, leaving him isolated and enraged. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some historians still wonder why
Adolf Hitler did what he did. Yet as Alice Miller shows in her masterpiece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Your Own Good</i>, Hitler’s hates had
clear origins. Why did he send thousands of people with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">scoliosis</i> to the death camps? Why in an alcohol-drenched culture
did he never touch the stuff? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why did he
define a Jew as anyone with a Jewish <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">grandparent?</i>
Why did he have his father’s hometown destroyed? Miller’s work shows that it’s
no puzzle: we need look no further than his upbringing. I suspect Adam Lanza’s
upbringing will be similarly enlightening—if those who knew him allow us to
know anything about it. And if we can get past our culture’s tendency to make
excuses for the parents, like those Solomon makes in his article quoted from
above.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Within the last five centuries the
human race has learned to make sciences out of many things—the motions of the
planets, the origins of disease—that were once left to myth. Within the past
century, we have learned to do this with evil: with the kind of psychopathic
hate that results in Auschwitz or Columbine or Sandy Hook. There is no need to
mystify it, as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>does,
or to demonize it, as does the NRA, or to despair of dealing with it, as
America has long done and seems on the verge of doing yet again. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We know where </i>this<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> evil comes from. </i>And this knowing is the key to defeating it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Power</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The fundamental issue America needs
to decide in the aftermath of Sandy Hook isn’t about the Second Amendment, or
about guns, or about gun owners. It’s about this: do we accept pretend
solutions to GV like those offered us by the NRA? What kind of “solution” is it
to call mentally ill people “genuine monsters”? Was Adam Lanza a cave troll,
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold a pair of Balrogs, the guy who killed Christina
Taylor-Green a Nazgûl? What kind of “solution” is it to turn school-teachers
into mercenaries? How do we know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they </i>won’t
run amok? Is America so much like Mordor we must all become orcs to survive? Must
we become what we hate?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Have the gentlemen of the NRA never
heard of the One Ring?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I won’t speculate here as to what
drives the 4 million members of the NRA to push their nightmare on a population
the vast majority of whom have long wanted stronger gun control laws. Nor will
I speculate as to why that population has allowed gun-junkie bullying to go on
as long as it has. I’ll simply invite the reader to examine the wisdom of my
left armpit. For in that little ring of scar tissue—and not in any Ring of
Power—is proof that miracles don’t need magic to happen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the year of my birth smallpox
killed 2 million people. Now, it kills no one. Smallpox is dead. It was killed
by an army bearing a weapon more powerful than any gun: knowledge. Smallpox
died because people knew what caused it, knew how to recognize those effected
by it, and knew how to mobilize the resources needed to help its victims and
to keep it from spreading. The eradication of smallpox is the best proof I
know that knowledge really is power, and that despair is not<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>the answer to any question.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As Gandalf said: “Despair is for
those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.” And Gandalf knew a thing or
two about weapons that morally corrupt their users.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Plan</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fortunately, we don’t need answers
to our questions about Adam Lanza to begin tackling the problem of GV. What we
need is a plan. Here’s mine. It is simple, uses <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>existing resources, and can start working for
us today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>1. Ban any firearm that isn’t
specifically designed for hunting. There is no legitimate reason for any
citizen not a member of a “well-regulated militia” to own an AR-15 full of
Teflon-coated dum-dums. And if you think you need such armament to protect
yourself from a tyrannical Big Gummint remember the Black Panthers. If anyone
in this country has a “right” to fight back against tyranny with guns it would
be African Americans, and under Nixon a bunch of them did. And it didn’t work.
The Black Panthers didn’t get revenge for racism—nor did they put a Black man
in the White House. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>2. Have every child entering school
undergo the Ainsworth Strange Situation. This is a simple test that analyzes
the relationship a child has with his or her primary caregiver. On the basis
of the test children can be assigned to one of four categories according to
their “attachment style”: secure, ambivalent, avoidant, or disorganized. A
distinct style shows up in the personality by eighteen months, and tends to be
fixed by age five. And attachment style at age five is predictive of future
life outcome, with avoidant and disorganized children more likely than others
to engage in criminal behavior.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>3. Attachment style can change, but
only through intervention. So let’s assemble the resources to provide
avoidant and disorganized children what they need to form secure attachments
with adults. Rather than blaming people like Adam Lanza’s parents for “bad”
parenting, let’s stop identifying with aggressors (as Andrew Solomon does),
start asking the hard questions (as our media don’t), and find out what could
have been done differently. There are plenty of high-needs children out there,
and plenty of parents who struggle to cope with them: let’s give them the resources
they need to cope more effectively. These resources must certainly include
paid parental leave, universal health care, and most importantly, destigmatizing
mental illness as we’ve already destigmatized Down Syndrome.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And for children past grade school,
or for adults? The older a person gets the more fixed their attachment style
becomes, yet even so there are therapies that can mitigate the effects of avoidant
or disorganized attachment. The therapies are expensive and take a long time to
work (when they do) yet the alternative is to abandon such individuals
to a fate that could be fatal for others. We’ll never know about our successes,
for successfully treated individuals won’t be making the papers. But our
failures will be horribly obvious. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>By requiring immunizations for
attendance, schools are already the front line defense against measles,
whooping cough, and other childhood physical diseases. So let’s make schools
the front-line defense against childhood mental disease. More money for programs,
more pay for teachers, more training for councilors—let the Pentagon hold bake
sales to buy bombers. And let’s put the Strange Situation in every school, so
that entering kindergarteners can be tested the same way they’re tested for
eyesight, hearing, and so on. Let’s honor the memory of those 20 little
children at Sandy Hook Elementary in a way they themselves would understand and
appreciate: let’s give our children the attention and nurture they need. It’s
too late for them, or for their killer—but not too late for the kids down the
block, or next door, or in our own living rooms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Prediction</span></b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The NRA tells us the only way to
stop a person with a disease . . . is another person with a disease. What do we
call people who actively fantasize about committing mass murder, who stockpile
the means to do it, who show no sympathy for the potential victims, and who
see nothing wrong in what they’re doing? We call them Jared Lee Loughner, or
Adam Lanza . . . or Wayne LaPierre. Maybe he thinks it takes one to know one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The “good guys vs. bad guys” model
of GV doesn’t allow us to predict where, when, and by whom GV will occur. The Ainsworth
Strange Situation might. It won’t tell us specifically, “watch this kid—he’s
going to shoot up his school someday.” It <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i>
tell us, “watch this kid—he needs extra attention. And if he doesn’t get it,
there could be trouble.” That extra atten-tion could serve exactly the same
function as a vaccination, super-enabling the child’s emotional immune system
to throw off the loneliness, confusion, and rage that drives the mind into the
arms of madness. What Alice Miller calls the “sympathetic witness” may be all a
troubled kid needs to fend off the despair that leads the child to a disastrous
life and shapes a culture that can eradicate smallpox but can’t say “no” to
guns. We can fight the orcs—by keeping them from becoming orcs in the first
place. We can train adults in the art of sympathetic witness. <i>We can immunize against
hate.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And maybe after we’re healed enough
of the children, we’ll have the leisure to turn our attention to their elders,
and heal the bitter, frightened, mean old men of the NRA. They can shake off
their priestly vestments, throw that Ring into the Cracks of Doom, and breath
free at last. And the Gun Gods can join the smallpox gods in the ash-heap of
history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Proofs</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some easily-accessible resources on the
Internet</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
attachment theory and the Strange Situation:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/loveandattraction/ss/attachmentstyle_2.htm">http://psychology.about.com/od/loveandattraction/ss/attachmentstyle_2.htm</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"></span></div>
<a href="http://www.parentingscience.com/strange-situation.html">http://www.parentingscience.com/strange-situation.html</a>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the
relationships between insecure attachment and criminality:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory#Significance_of_attachment_patterns">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory#Significance_of_attachment_patterns</a></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://udini.proquest.com/preview/attachment-style-in-sex-offenders-a-goid:215281788/">http://udini.proquest.com/preview/attachment-style-in-sex-offenders-a-goid:215281788/</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Criminal_Triad_Theory:_Internal_Deterrence_System">http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Criminal_Triad_Theory:_Internal_Deterrence_System</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt;">May all sentient beings benefit </span></div>
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m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-7480684653735050582012-03-06T15:23:00.000-08:002014-06-15T16:47:21.710-07:00Barack Obama---Son of Bigfoot!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Truth will out! After years of painstaking research, I, m g meile, have uncovered America's most AWFUL SECRET! Let facts be presented to a candid world: Barack Husein Obama is NOT the legally elected President of these glorious United States of America. For that living fiend, that monster of iniquity, that Barack <i>Husein </i>Obama, is not only a Muslim---and we all know how <i>they</i> are!---but that dreadful montebank, that crafty trickster, that traitorous Barack Husein <i>Obama</i>---no it's NOT an Irish name!---was NOT---oh, the humanity!---was NOT born in America. But he wasn't born in Kenya, either.<br />
He was born in . . . Tasmania.<br />
<br />
For millions of years a strange being roamed the lost continent of Sundaland. Slinking and solitary, it was never very numerous, or very noticeable. Shaped like a dog yet stalking its prey like a cat, a meat-eater yet not a carnivore, striped like a tiger yet the size of a dog, pouched like a kangaroo but with its pouch facing tailwards, this bizarre creature was still there when Sundaland sank beneath the waves, leaving behind what is now known as Australia. It was there when the human race first arrived 40,000 years ago, and became extinct in the 1800s. It survived into living memory in Tasmania, where, isolated from the world, it lurked in the island's forests until the coming of the White Fire.<br />
The Fire made short work of Tasmania's 30,000 or so humans: within 80 years of European contact the last full-blooded Aborigine was dead. It took longer to kill of the hunter, yet it happened quickly enough that there was no time for the Whites to find out what the Natives called it. To this day the creature that lived so long and so lightly has no common English name. Because it ate meat the Whites sometimes call it the "marsupial wolf"; because of its stripes some call it the "Tasmanian tiger." Here we will use its scientific title: <i>Thylacinus cynocephalus, </i>or in short, "thylacine."<br />
The last thylacine died of neglect in the Hobart Zoo on the seventh day of September in 1936. The grainy black-and-white photos show a rather uncomely beast, with a mouth like a viper's and a tail like a rat's; no one seems to know the animal's gender, or how in later years it came to be nick-named "Benjamin." With the passing of Benjamin the thylacine joined the dodo and the dinosaur, never to walk the earth again.<br />
Or did it?<br />
For to this day farmers on isolated farmsteads, ranchers watching over their sheep, travelers through Tasmania's still-thick jungles, and even dwellers on the edges of Tasmania's cities report seeing thylacines. And believing isn't just seeing: they've taken casts of paw-prints and gathered up suspected droppings, all in an effort to prove the creature they affectionately call "the tiger" yet lives. One website logs <a href="http://www.tasmanian-tiger.com/sightings.htm">over 350 sightings </a> since Benjamin's death; others detail efforts to <a href="http://www.wherelightmeetsdark.com/index.php?PAGE_id=71&PAGE_user_op=view_page&module=pagemaster">clone the beast. </a> And along with maps and logs and calculations there are---as always with such things---rants against public indifference and fiendish government conspiracies. Reading through these one is reminded of tweedy eccentrics dunking cameras in Loch Ness, or "cryptozoologists" trying to sound scientific in the pages of <i>Yeti Researcher. </i>But this blog is not the place to get into any of that.<br />
My interest here is the mind.<br />
For there is, I believe, a single mental process that underlies most if not all the sightings of thylacines reported over the past 75 years---as well as sightings of Bigfoot, Nessie, ivory-billed woodpeckers, Mothman, and the skunk-ape, not to mention UFOs and their LGMs. I think this same process motivates most of America's conservatives, especially those in the Tea Party and its wholly-owned subsidiary the GOP. And it is reason #1 for the existence of the birther movement. In fact, the similarities between cryptozoologists, birthers, and media hack(er)s like the late, lamentable Andrew Breitbart are so striking that many people might be tempted to find in them evidence of---dare I say it?---a vast, global . . . <i>conspiracy!</i><br />
<i> </i>But I'm not one of them.<i> </i><br />
I'd rather not devote a lifetime to debunking moon landings or building over-unity engines, or to hunting things that the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence says aren't there. I'd rather devote my life to meditation. And when you go to that school of hard knocks we call Buddha Bootcamp, the first thing you learn is to meditate on is your motivations.<br />
Motivations---not intentions. Everyone's intentions are honorable, and we all know what the road to hell is paved with. Intentions are what lie ahead of deeds; motives are what lie behind them. Finding your intentions is easy, finding your motivations less so: most of us are pushed through life far more powerfully, and more unconsciously, than we are pulled. In Buddha Bootcamp we're taught that motive is the mainspring of human behavior, the lynchpin of karma, the truth behind the appearances of our behavior. And so, instead of Howard Baker's famous questions---"What did the president know, and when did he know it?"---meditators ask: "what did the president <i>want,</i> and <i>why </i>did he want it?" Had voters asked <i>those</i> questions early enough, America might have been spared Watergate. Or Kent State.<br />
So what do the thylacine hunters want, and why do the want it? The "what" is easy: they want to see a real, live tiger, of course. Who wouldn't? What an amazing experience that would be! And how wonderfully hopeful! For where one, there might be more. . . and there might be Bigfoots, too, and plesiosaurs breeding away at the bottom of Loch Ness, and other highly intelligent hominins lurking about in some Mirkwood somewhere ("Elves, Mr. Frodo!"), and this hot, grey, overcrowded world might be just a bit more bearable. . . .<br />
But finding more marvel into the world is an intention<i>, </i>not a motive. What <i>motivates </i>the hunters to keep seeing thylacines, Nessie, or Sasquatch when it is virtually certain that none are there? I can't bring myself to believe, as professional "skeptics" might, that thousands of decent, well-intentioned people all over the planet are all either temporary schizophrenics, or victims of an evolutionary glitch in brain-wiring, or just plain liars. They can't be seeing anything, and yet they are. So what <i>are </i>they seeing? It's a mystery. Or is it?<br />
No, it's not. They're all seeing something perfectly ordinary. Something anyone can find, anywhere, anytime: emotion.<br />
<br />
How can you <i>see </i>an emotion? Here's how: take a walk down a busy street. While you do so, keep in the back of your mind how pleasant it would be to meet someone who is sexually attractive. Whoa, that was quick: there's a hottie already! Whoo-whoo!<br />
Now look at this lovely person again. This time in the face.<br />
Oh. Not quite as exciting at second glance, eh? They almost always aren't, are they? You certainly already knew this (if you've gone through puberty), yet still you fooled yourself into thinking that something was there when it wasn't. Were you hallucinating? Was your brain malfunctioning? Or are you just a compulsive liar?<br />
I think we can be kinder to ourselves and our species by coming up with a different explanation: your initial, barely-conscious glance allowed your unconscious to <i>project </i>your emotions onto the sensory object, so that the object seemed, for a brief moment, to embody the emotion floating about in the back of your mind---in this case, sexual desire. A second glance, however, requires a more focused, conscious decision, and it's not your conscious mind that projects. A second glance is more likely to reveal what's really there---and what's really there is more likely to be someone less desirable than s/he first seemed. The screen is seldom as interesting as the movie projected upon it.<br />
All adult human beings have had the experience of sexual projection; it's nothing to be ashamed of. But in Buddha Bootcamp we're taught to take control of our projections, and to make second-glancing a habit.<br />
<i> </i>Cryptozooan sightings are almost always unexpected and fleeting, like that first glance on the street. Planned expeditions inevitably come up a cropper: a rancher minding a fence-line is more likely to see something than a guy with a Thermine field processor and a $200 pair of binoculars. Yet isolation, poor lighting, or extreme weather are no more necessary to sighting Mothman or Mokele-Mbembe than such conditions are necessary to "see" sexual attractiveness where none exists. All that is needed is unconscious emotion, an object to project it onto, and a cultural tradition that allows the viewer to gave a label to the thing sighted. Despite similar environments, no one sights thylacines in British Columbia, and no one sights Bigfoot in Tasmania.<br />
But thylacine-spotters and loch-watchers probably aren't hankering to pitch woo at the objects of their search. So what does motivate them? What emotion lurks in the backs of their minds? Who is the tiger? Who, for that matter, is Barack Obama? A screen, yes---but for what movie? What unconscious emotion do Obama, and Nessie, and Bigfoot, and the yeti, and the thylacine all unwittingly reflect?<br />
Guilt. <br />
<br />
The destruction of the Tasmanian Aborigines is the most complete example of genocide known to history: a culture 35,000 years old, wiped off the earth almost without a trace. What ice ages, marsupial lions, and lizards twice the size of Komodo dragons could not accomplish British settlers did with guns, disease, whiskey, and social darwinism. Tasmania's modern Whites are well aware of the suffering on which their civilization is built, and like (some) White Americans, they are no longer willing to make excuses for that suffering. Even so, I suspect a certain measure of guilt remains. It's not as if the current masters of Tasmania can un-kindle the Fire, anymore than White Americans can take back those smallpox blankets. Having never known a Tasmanian I'm speculating here, but judging from the people I know best it seems logical to me that a wee bit of guilt would be as much a part of modern Tasmanian culture as it is of modern American culture. And I suspect that White Tasmanians have as many ways of dealing with that guilt as White Americans have.<br />
Any strong emotion challenges the ego and its defenses. Emotion can be so overpowering that it can leave the mind awash in pain. Remember that unrequited love from high school? Even now it hurts a little. And the worst thing about it was the ping-ponging back and forth among (a) pretending it was only puppy love; (b) insisting it was true love; (c) trying to divert your attention into your studies, or sports, or finding God, or anything else that would let you get away from that horrible, obsessive passion. Anything, that is, but simply acknowledging it and letting it subside by itself---which, with time, it always does. Most of us are no longer in love with our high-school sweethearts--sometimes, even if we married them.<br />
And if you've ever tried to make a habit of Watching the Mind until those thoughts self-liberate you'll know why we call it Buddha Bootcamp. I know guys who grew up in Tibetan monasteries who struggle with emotion. I know journalists, lawyers, doctors, professors who struggle with it. I know I sure as hell do. But I don't think the Tea Partiers do. They seem remarkably comfortable with emotion. As long as the emotion is hate. Guilt, on the other hand. . . .<br />
Watching the antics of America's conservatives we can observe the whole range of shell-games that people play to avoid owning up to guilt. And conservatives in modern America have plenty to feel guilty about: racism (of which Obama is a daily reminder), sexism, classism, anti-environmentalism. . . .<br />
And then there's Lord Georgeamort, the guy who approved of torture, the president who really DID cheat his way into the Oval Office. (Hanging chads---remember?) And if Republicans <i>don't </i>feel guilty about W, why do they never mention his name?<br />
In fact, you can read almost all conservative attacks on Obama as disguised admissions of guilt. Just about everything they accuse Obama of doing or wanting is something they themselves have done or wanted. Turn the accusations back on the accusers and the process of projection becomes obvious:<br />
"Obama hates White people" = conservatives hate non-Whites.<br />
"Obama is a socialist" = conservatives want socialism, but only for the rich. <br />
"Obama wants to take our guns" = conservatives need their guns to start a civil war.<br />
"Obama is running up the federal deficit" = conservatives would rather protect their rich buddies than raise taxes to pay for their own useless wars.<br />
"Obama is for big gummint" = it's the GOP one-party gummint that approved the Patriot Act, created the Homeland Security bureaucracy, and approved of extraordinary rendition . . . and, oh yes, torture.<br />
"Obama is anti-family" = the divorce rate in Red states is 26%; in Blue states it is 22%.<br />
"Obama is a pro-abortion baby-killer" = under W the US infant mortality rate rose for the first time in 40 years.<br />
"Obama is the next Adolf Hitler" = I rest my case.<br />
<br />
The big issue in modern politics isn't about policy, or the deficit, or who "wins" a primary. The big issue is motivation: specifically, what motivates conservatives to advocate policies that are impractical, unworkable, and just plain cruel. I've concentrated on conservative attacks on Obama here because hatred for America's 44th president is the unifying principle of the conservative movement---they hate him even worse than they hate women. Son of Bigfoot? Try "Son of Perdition," "Son of Satan," or even "Son of Malcolm X"---he's been called all these and then some. Take away that hate and like Roger Chillingsworth in <i>The Scarlet Letter </i>conservatives and their movement would wither like uprooted weeds. Such reckless hate cries out for explanation.<br />
The explanation I'm offering here is that Obama really is, on the unconscious level, the Son of Bigfoot: not Bigfoot as we'd all like to see him/her, but the more important "Bigfoot" lurking within our minds. The Native people I know all insist that Sasquatch is a "spiritual" being who should not be molested, and whose existence will never be scientifically proven. I think what they call "spiritual" is what White folk would call "unconscious"; whatever we call it, I think the Natives are on to something. Spirits cannot be captured or explained, but they often come to us with messages for our good. <br />
And one of the people they're bringing that message to is me. For it's not Rush Limbaugh's heart I'm trying to find here but my own. It's so easy to be bitterly angry at the conservative louts who are destroying my planet, raping my democracy, and injuring my children. It's especially easy to be angry when you live in a culture that sees anger as nothing to be ashamed of. So when I hear yet another backwoods boob babbling birther baloney, or some clean-shaven tub-thumper pretending to quote Leviticus though ignorant of Hebrew, I remind myself of something I heard a Tibetan lama say: <i>If there is one problem your hate will solve, then hate is a good thing. </i>Despite years of search I have yet to find that problem. The Tea Partiers haven't found it either. All any of us have found is tinder for the next Fire.<br />
And so the motivation behind this blog: to argue myself out of hating the haters. Unlike them I've had the wonderful good fortune of a stint in Buddha Bootcamp, where I've been taught that hate is NOT "normal," or an "instinct," or hormones, or evolution, or something regrettable but inevitable, I've been taught that it is a Fire burning down the house of life---and that when your house is on fire, you don't need to know the name of the arsonist or the temperature of the flames. You need to know how to get out. Yes, conservatives are deluded. But so anyone can be, when hate is the master. And so I watch the hate within myself, lest I too start seeing things that aren't there.<br />
And I don't mean thylacines.<br />
<br /></div>
m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-84743629611988138982011-05-28T22:04:00.000-07:002011-05-28T22:04:31.727-07:00Telecommuter Talk: You've GOT to Read This: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees<a href="http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2009/06/youve-got-to-read-this-lud-in-midst-by.html">Telecommuter Talk: You've GOT to Read This: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees</a>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-89221474344744659892011-05-01T17:48:00.000-07:002011-05-01T17:48:15.235-07:00Four Men Who Will Save the World, Part 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><i>"Cowgirl" is an attitude, really. A pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head-on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands; they speak up. They defend things they hold dear. --Dale Evans</i></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;">Perfection. The workers' paradise. Full prosperity. The New Jerusalem. Total well-being. Perfect health. Infinite wealth. Perpetual youth. Joy. In return for obedience, all these were promised--and still are--by the Masters of the 3Cs. Tomorrow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It was never today, of course. The perfection promised by the Masters of communism, capitalism, and Christianity was always what Thomas Merton called the "proximate utopia," the earthly paradise just over the next hill, just around the next bend. A lovely place, this brand of utopia, where, as Merton puts it, "the last sins are currently being eliminated and when, tomorrow, there will be no more sins because all the sinners will have been wiped out." Once the authorities had managed to get a few hooligans and malcontents out of the way, once those sodomites had been sent to hell, once those lazy, stupid poor people dragging the rest of us down were kicked off welfare and forced to get jobs at Burger King, we, the Sons of Light, would get our just reward. It was all carefully calculated, prophesied, predestined, dialectically synthesized, Ayn Rand approved. It was inevitable. It was only a matter of time. And the time was always Tomorrow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDBop92a09X0ezHn2UDMkOrDHgI8pxOjxy7T1wbL8A25U2p3d_FTFP2Nj_5DlrZuzSGbt64_xRdIl7Sl_y_GerPakdIuPY2w0diYTbenccF-mUCeaHHoigYKjP7932g4EiwDWyPAoVVCJ/s1600/deti-v-sadu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDBop92a09X0ezHn2UDMkOrDHgI8pxOjxy7T1wbL8A25U2p3d_FTFP2Nj_5DlrZuzSGbt64_xRdIl7Sl_y_GerPakdIuPY2w0diYTbenccF-mUCeaHHoigYKjP7932g4EiwDWyPAoVVCJ/s640/deti-v-sadu.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final page of <i>Kartinniy Slovar' Russkovo Jazyka</i>,<i> </i>a children's primer, Moscow, 1950</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Tomorrow. Soon. Someday. Never today. Today was for diligence, and obedience, and everyone wearing the same hair style, the same height of skirt, the same col- lar on the same shirt, going to the same church, the same job, the same role, thinking the same thoughts. It was the world I and my fellow elders grew up in, raised children in. And it wasn't <i>exactly </i>the nightmare you read about in <i>1984 </i>or <i>A Wrinkle in Time. </i>Think Ward and June Cleaver, Dagwood and Blondie, the kids in <i>Peanuts </i>all fed, clothed, and sheltered by grown-ups who were never seen. . . . </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">No, it wasn't <i>that </i>bad. Not for most people.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">But it was what life was like in, say, 1965, and yes it was boring, and uncreative, and limiting, and people died in pointless wars, and people were thrown in jail or killed for their beliefs, and people who didn't conform because they couldn't were blamed for their "failure" anyway and thrown into various dark corners. And not just the poor, or the malcontents, or people with too much melanin. The average life-expectancy for a person with Down Syndrome in 1965 was 2 years. They could have lived much longer (as they do today), but they were shuffled off to those dark corners . . . and those corners were very dark indeed. But the vast majority of their fellow citizens never knew. They were the lucky ones. They were normal.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuCX6yfF2_XCruzzmGjeptDqs-z6KVxghJRz9bcj7pPgrDleC01AcoYIBpON0iDGHs49DKTBwoSwdHjjyPLwX2hvVvnUIMb1sKVTuYrSKQdGGaDEa6KdQWGWIwOxVUPYls2aNk2xM7uhke/s1600/livingroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuCX6yfF2_XCruzzmGjeptDqs-z6KVxghJRz9bcj7pPgrDleC01AcoYIBpON0iDGHs49DKTBwoSwdHjjyPLwX2hvVvnUIMb1sKVTuYrSKQdGGaDEa6KdQWGWIwOxVUPYls2aNk2xM7uhke/s400/livingroom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9vgMoE7H8JO-2rx_aKh0IvNA8a0_Qm9lGu2qadB5YpfnQ-odviDY1pEW9gDHBVXdqnNP-7pQu-E3CHZ0Xhhaooie7EeNovftmzNo3T774Lfx2CmVz8xrWjgHLaTz7nRZJiqvoL5ueJss/s1600/dale-evans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9vgMoE7H8JO-2rx_aKh0IvNA8a0_Qm9lGu2qadB5YpfnQ-odviDY1pEW9gDHBVXdqnNP-7pQu-E3CHZ0Xhhaooie7EeNovftmzNo3T774Lfx2CmVz8xrWjgHLaTz7nRZJiqvoL5ueJss/s200/dale-evans.jpg" width="157" /></a>Normalcy. The ultimate drug, and everyone wanted it. Don't you? Think cozy living rooms and sunny Sunday mornings and watching parades go by. Think of <i>Father Knows Best</i> and <i>I Love Lucy</i> and Bob Hope and Dutch Reagan and his good buddies Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Then don't think about <i>Angel Unaware,</i> the book Dale Evans wrote about her child with Down Syndrome, a child that she and Roy arranged to live in a corner that didn't seem dark until you looked closely. Robin Elizabeth Rodgers died just before her second birthday, and Dale never told us why.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPi3OIypSQTHN65rDiRw2FvTEJlThLYZfVTKyEf50FgKf3XCG-lRIM-CxO8LIB78bKKgn9ms2vx2sfIdPxyKDKeilvtID9qAqxR37p7_dE7Es7V3cVM9MUCI1eLo3Csrr_iz6NRpkVIA7L/s1600/rainbow+brite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPi3OIypSQTHN65rDiRw2FvTEJlThLYZfVTKyEf50FgKf3XCG-lRIM-CxO8LIB78bKKgn9ms2vx2sfIdPxyKDKeilvtID9qAqxR37p7_dE7Es7V3cVM9MUCI1eLo3Csrr_iz6NRpkVIA7L/s200/rainbow+brite.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">You won't find a copy of <i>Angel Unaware </i>in my home town. Not in the libraries, anyway. Mom didn't have the option Dale Evans had, of being wealthy and well-connected enough to hire a nanny to care for her Down Syndrome baby. Nor did she have the option of building a separate dwelling for the child to keep her away from her other children as Dale did, supposedly under doctors' orders. (The other children might have been "disturbed" by contact with such an odd duck, you see, so Dale didn't let them have any.) </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyNLWE16CwD275UQhO7In-TM16PdHvy-44uQ_KALwyhyIKFIo2HznzRVTn5UUnHbMF-UzftQTT7PuFgSg8vS8xpdrBzbg8GfHAkZI8590imMMtZiUjtjz_IUgaN89OxTlEonA_waa01JT/s1600/vlad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyNLWE16CwD275UQhO7In-TM16PdHvy-44uQ_KALwyhyIKFIo2HznzRVTn5UUnHbMF-UzftQTT7PuFgSg8vS8xpdrBzbg8GfHAkZI8590imMMtZiUjtjz_IUgaN89OxTlEonA_waa01JT/s200/vlad.jpg" width="135" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">And Mom certainly lacked the arrogant gall to write a book about her daughter <i>from the child's point of view,</i> and in a sickeningly sweet, pseudo-inspirational baby-voice that in comparison makes Rainbow Brite sound like Vlad the Impaler. No, you won't find a copy of <i>Angel Unaware </i>in my hometown. Mom tracked them all down and burned them. Blame it on her German ancestry, if you will. Or maybe Mom was just being a good cowgirl.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">We're told Dale's baby "died of complications from Down Syndrome." My sister also tried to die when she was two. She tried to die when she was twenty. In fact, she tried to die just a couple of weeks ago. But she didn't. And not because of luck, or because of angels, or because "The Bible Tells Me So." (One of Dale's most popular songs--I used to sing it in Sunday-school.) Dale's gone to her grave now, and her husband Roy, and their good buddy Ronald Reagan, along with plenty of other famous rich people. But I wonder about Robin Elizabeth Rodgers, and where her grave is, and if anyone ever visits it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The young women who grew up in the world of the Masters should have turned out as self-satisfied, narrow-minded and mindless as Dale Evans. That a signifi- cant portion of them did not must mean that something happened to them during that time of life when the mind is most open to influences outside the family: adolescence. The mothers who raised the current crop of under-30s reached this time of life during the 1960s, the decade so often called "tumultuous" by those who either weren't there or have something to sell. To hear pop-sociologists tell the tale, something about the time period itself got into the youth of those days like a virus or an evil spirit or a drug, something coming out of the radio or the TV or the movies or the <i>akasha,</i> something their parents couldn't control and that had even the Masters scrambling, something their dialectics and market analyses and ancient prophesies had failed to account for. What mysterious essence came oozing out of the ether and turned the docile young ladies of the 60s into the mothers of the Obama Generation? And what does this have to do with the four men who will save the world?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div></div></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-18263981388306174612011-04-24T18:21:00.000-07:002011-05-01T16:14:33.274-07:00Four Men Who Will Save the World, Part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcz2gQt-ibgoZ01JcjuYfmvoG_1WM6MoKJa_zmO16KI_P86lx84MlsNMZertFbocKYBnmjthM0lC6C-wN-MnHv04kClItTlke2ijLj8QmvRQS5hTt5NwcWUJLp01B_GXB3s9CyY7fWWb5K/s1600/3C-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcz2gQt-ibgoZ01JcjuYfmvoG_1WM6MoKJa_zmO16KI_P86lx84MlsNMZertFbocKYBnmjthM0lC6C-wN-MnHv04kClItTlke2ijLj8QmvRQS5hTt5NwcWUJLp01B_GXB3s9CyY7fWWb5K/s320/3C-2.jpg" width="221" /></a>The 1950s have a reputation for being a decade of conformity, but it may be difficult for people in the 21st century to realize just how stultifying 50s America (and, I suspect, 50s Earth in general) could be. It was an era in which the entire planet was ruled by what we may call the <i>3Cs</i>--capitalism, communism, and Christi- anity. Yes, there were other ideologies in existence: a few hundred million Hindus, a few hundred million Moslems, the growing Black Liberation movements in Africa and the US, the tiny but influential Beats. But the hegemony of those who had authority within each of the Cs--let us call them "the Masters"--was overwhelming to the point of being nearly absolute.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIao76zuep0-MAJ_6vB65LIAa_KRU32GU8foo7kzJv4a4nM38Nh9SUSys3APpYvvfHbB-zOWzhZtY4V3fiy8114pcrGub99HmY6P49-2vEZ4BYlIw_M2pcfvGPC7j-0JBinRNHOH8QCBiY/s1600/3C-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIao76zuep0-MAJ_6vB65LIAa_KRU32GU8foo7kzJv4a4nM38Nh9SUSys3APpYvvfHbB-zOWzhZtY4V3fiy8114pcrGub99HmY6P49-2vEZ4BYlIw_M2pcfvGPC7j-0JBinRNHOH8QCBiY/s320/3C-4.jpg" width="320" /></a>Communist authoritarian- ism is well-known and justly despised, but the authoritarianism of the other 2 Cs was every bit as oppressive. Perhaps more so, as their Masters had had more practice. To give a minor example from personal experience: when my father was an undergrad in the early 50s he was forbidden to take a copy of <i>Das Kapital</i> out of the university library--despite being a sociology major. He was also required to swear to the infamous Truman loyalty oath, but the professor who was supposed to administer it refused to do so and dad--who found the oath repugnant and didn't want to swear to it--ended up never taking it.(Many who refused were branded communists and had their careers ruined.) Dad was no martyr for the cause of liberty and didn't see himself as such, but if you multiply these insults be a hundred million or so you get a society no much freer (though much more prosperous) than your typical police state. And that's what Eisenhauer's America was, as the overthrow of Mossadegh, the rise of Nixon, the terror of McCarthy, and the murder of Lumumba should make clear.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ewxXhx4YjOdlLt3a6jZHTnzmi7z8U_enW3ShtbYEPffkivo89FGF7vaSjebHaLnli7qL8Fw5GtjwqkXoQbEX9DIf2NZldIiuEDiUfX3txC3RGLuBJ2nUWc-K-pMYV-WVehocgmvZTYp8/s1600/3C-1x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ewxXhx4YjOdlLt3a6jZHTnzmi7z8U_enW3ShtbYEPffkivo89FGF7vaSjebHaLnli7qL8Fw5GtjwqkXoQbEX9DIf2NZldIiuEDiUfX3txC3RGLuBJ2nUWc-K-pMYV-WVehocgmvZTYp8/s320/3C-1x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>On a less personal level, anyone familiar with the history of American cin- ema knows the role played by the Hayes Office and the Legion of Decency, and the stranglehold they had on American popular culture. And then there's the role that both capital- ism and the Southern Baptist Convention played in promoting racism . . . and still play, if the move- ment to honor Nathan Bedford Forrest (co- founder of the KKK) is any indication. I could go on at length here (though <i>Lies My Teacher Told Me </i>goes on longer, and better), but regardless, there's plenty of documentation available to show that by 1965 the Masters of the 3Cs had most of the planet firmly in their grip, with a chilling effect (to put it mildly) on global culture. And that the Masters were no more inclined to loosen that grip than are the current regimes in China, Singapore, Missisippi, the Vatican, or Wall Street.<br />
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That said, it's important to realize that the vast majority of those laboring for the Masters were perfectly happy to do so. They didn't consciously think of them- selves as oppressed, and I'm guessing most of them still don't. I don't think this bland acceptance can be chalked up entirely to propaganda, brain-washing, or any of the usual ways many of us explain the hold an ideology other than our own may have on its believers. I don't think people are quite as naive, gullible, or stu- pid as they sometimes seem, any more than I believe bigots are simply irrational and have no descernable reasons for their delusions--or that all humans are Fundamentally Bad. I do think, however, that many people are easily bought--especially if they don't realize they're being bought.<br />
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<br />
So how do the Masters retain their hold over their followers? It is their ability to appeal to certain emotional needs that all humans have, through another 3Cs--a program we may call "contentment through conformity and continence." Each ideology bought off its believers and stifled potential dissent by promising those under its control lives of mild, moderate happiness, of simple pleasures and more- or-less fulfilled expectations (assuming the expectation weren't too high). A dacha on the Black Sea and a Lenin medal on your chest . . . a vacation in the Bahamas and a house in the burbs . . . coffee and donuts in a cozy church basement and a promise of reuniting with loved ones in the afterlife . . . these pleasant satisfac- tions could come to anyone willing to conform to the dictates of authority and contain their passions within certain acceptable bounds. (Acceptable to the Masters, that is.) And why not? You've gotta pay the piper, true? Don't we all have to <i>earn</i> our pleasures? It's not as if the universe handed them out on a silver platter. <i>Arbeit mach frei</i>--jah?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhea8Ozbco3IC5fQ_SrMyoRLdHN7KOG0x4MzkSQgNyBp0-TnSX5kf3q3JAJDtJsETpcml0wowbAkbbg929Um61qSN0FvljVWo8xY-bItKywCCdXJNt6viId9LIshvbCVPEKqKuxbyEwWQm2/s1600/baptist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhea8Ozbco3IC5fQ_SrMyoRLdHN7KOG0x4MzkSQgNyBp0-TnSX5kf3q3JAJDtJsETpcml0wowbAkbbg929Um61qSN0FvljVWo8xY-bItKywCCdXJNt6viId9LIshvbCVPEKqKuxbyEwWQm2/s320/baptist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
And if the dacha was a bit shabby? The vacation a wee bit boring? The love of Jesus something less than all-consuming? At least it was better than what THEY got. You know: the sinners. The counter-revolutionaries. The lazy, the stupid, the poor. <i>The</i> <i>losers</i>.<br />
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And anything is better than being a loser. Anything is better than being left out. Anything is better than being alone.<br />
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Needless to say (in the 21st century), the Masters paid for their power, and their servants for their servitude. And the price was, and is, survivor guilt.<br />
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Yet as Stewart Smalley might say, "But that's . . . <i>OK.</i>" For to sweeten the pot, and to make that guilt a bit more palatable, the Masters promised their servants some- thing else. Something more. Something that, for a brief moment, actually was delivered. . . .<br />
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But not by the Masters. Not by Marx, nor by Jesus, nor by Adam Smith. It was delivered instead by the four men who will save the world. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-10925085114755442362011-04-16T19:29:00.000-07:002011-04-16T19:29:51.833-07:00Four Men Who Will Save the World, Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Let's examine the assertion of American conservatives that hetero pair-bonding is the "foundation of society." Plenty of philosophers have searched for the rela- tion(s) that society is "based on"--K'ung Tzu (aka Confucius) comes immediately to mind--but from a scientific standpoint, the idea that all human relations are dependent on marriage is patently ridiculous.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wUaYFwjUu4Zu7gfA3vOtSirhLI5zXOqS0RfNnaiZ0J7TjN3Kv-j8mbZIC89o-qCelDxXfZe3EvTcAMXlaYtU8bZorwgWIZFCqVCDbNK_rplUW2hL7c_hL-68EriJA9dNlJOTzzd10x01/s1600/virgin%2526child.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wUaYFwjUu4Zu7gfA3vOtSirhLI5zXOqS0RfNnaiZ0J7TjN3Kv-j8mbZIC89o-qCelDxXfZe3EvTcAMXlaYtU8bZorwgWIZFCqVCDbNK_rplUW2hL7c_hL-68EriJA9dNlJOTzzd10x01/s320/virgin%2526child.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swedish Semites by Luca della Robbia, Florence, c. 1455</td></tr>
</tbody></table>As a quick illustration, con- template for a moment the history of European visual art. For every one depiction of Mary and Joseph there's probably a hundred of Mary and Jesus--as an infant. Virgin and Child is (I'm guessing) the most all-time popular motif in European art, and not just because Europe has been solidly Christian for the past thousand years. It would seem the ancients knew what some who claim to follow them today have chosen to for- get: the most important relationship in human existence is the physical and emotional bond between a child and his or her primary caregiver. It is this relationship, especially as it plays out during the first 3 to 5 years of the child's life, that lays the emotional foundation for everything that the child will do and think and feel for the rest of her days. It's not the emotions themselves that come into being at this time--the brain takes care of that by itself--but the way the child will <i>process</i> emotions--the<i> emotional coping style</i>--that is established within this crucial time period.<br />
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An emotional coping style is made up of a person's habitual responses to anything that triggers emotion: novel stimuli, relationships with others, and especially stress. If a young child experiences love, trust, security, and empathy within the caregiver bond, she will carry those feelings into every subsequent relationship; she will respond adaptively to novelty; and she will tolerate a fair amount of phys- ical and emotional stress. If, on the other hand, the child experiences anger, randomness, fear, and cold-heartedness within her primary bond, these experi- ences will damage her ability to relate to others in every area of life from the boardroom to the bedroom--and the nursery. She will be mistrustful of novel stimuli (since the changes she's already experienced are likely to have been painful), and will be easily knocked off her equilibrium by stress. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfy6LmzSt-3PHIsZOVDSLPesBh1HksfkkqOb-l5TijXrrC5MHh5OxVsoitfOWo-A0OdUetEsOENubQ318Mc5npcxokOSm0fkhDaDf6rdumu3hW7hMB7keUJigo20xQrePN6uaRBDKgpqm8/s1600/sal%2523gai%2526%253Dtoma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfy6LmzSt-3PHIsZOVDSLPesBh1HksfkkqOb-l5TijXrrC5MHh5OxVsoitfOWo-A0OdUetEsOENubQ318Mc5npcxokOSm0fkhDaDf6rdumu3hW7hMB7keUJigo20xQrePN6uaRBDKgpqm8/s320/sal%2523gai%2526%253Dtoma.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sai//gai and son =Toma, c. 1965</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The emotional coping style is not a series of conscious choices. Infants and young children do not chose to throw tantrums, suck their thumbs, play with their own feces out of boredom, or shriek whenever they're put to bed. Nor do they chose to become the kind of people who, later in their lives, will take drugs, have too many babies, drive Hummers, or commit mass murder. There is a robust correlation between the emotional coping style that a child develops in the first 5 years of life and how that child will behave as an adult. That is: there are direct causal connec- tions between how we rear our children, the kinds of people they become, and the type of society they create. If you want a stable, humane, and honorable society, your first order of business is to raise happy children. The Bushmn did it for 100,000 years. It's time the rest of us to get on board. <br />
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So why haven't we? Because we as a society are still used to the notion that "some people are just born bad," or even "all people are born bad." You might call it the doctrine of Fundamental Badness (FB). Its the deep-seated belief that to be born human is to be born, somehow, BAD--<i>and that this badness is so deeply ingrained that it can never be rooted out or overcome. </i>To put it simply, current global culture is in despair over the future of the human race, because it sees <i>H. sapiens </i>as being unworthy to <i>have </i>a future. You've heard the public laments: "WE are ruining the planet" or "WE are disrupting the climate," or even "Nature would be better off without us." Politics has little to do with it. Liberals believe "we" are "naturally exploitive"' and (eagerly) await the breakdown of civilization; nothing will happen to <i>them--</i>they'll just grow their own granola. Conservatives think "God is angry with us sinners" and (eagerly) await Apocalypse; nothing will happen to <i>them</i>--they're morally superior. They hate queers, don't they?<br />
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But in the words of the old joke, "Who you mean WE, paleface?" There's not a shred of scientific evidence that humans are born with a propensity to wage war, commit rape, over-exploit resources, or murder our children. All of these evils are learned behaviors, no more innate than is a knowledge of trigonometry; they are far less innate than is a taste for mango-habanero sauce or a preference for the color green. There's not much I can do about global warming or legalizing same- sex marriage, but there's plenty the Koch brothers can do--and don't. People who voted for George W knew he didn't give a damn about the climate and voted for him anyway--I voted for Gore. And I'm not taking a bum rap just because I happen to belong to the same species as Adolf Hitler--I also belong to the species that gave the universe Aung San Suu Kyi, Harriet Tubman, and the Dalai Lama. <br />
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No matter that all the evidence indicates that it is a corrupted childhood--not a corrupted "soul," whatever that is--that is the source of "evil," broadly conceived. No matter that for 99% of our history as a species we lived almost exactly like the Bushmn, who have no history of war, rape, environmental degradation, or child maltreatment. Not matter that <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=kNQA8r5zcVcC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=dante+cicchetti&source=bl&ots=KN0-eWC4Qy&sig=b7QftIFcZySoDWM4WgyA-yn3-EM&hl=en&ei=dEaqTcrpFOuD0QHZxLD5CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CEoQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q&f=false">we now know enough about the developing brain</a> to observe the effects of different child-rearing strategies. No matter that the international scientific community has spoken out on the origins of war--certainly the ultimate "evil"-- and has concluded that <a href="http://www.unesco.org/cpp/uk/declarations/seville.pdf">war begins in nurture, not nature.</a> No matter: the "doctrine" of Fundamental Badness is so deeply ingrained in western culture that it's hard to find someone who <i>doesn't </i>believe in it. (Although actually it isn't: the Dalai Lama is one who doesn't. But he's not a Man of the West.) <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ZT08DCV07S2-lC9MpvYwrdZRTMx970i-VSZX87MAuo4xD5Y4ZlueZG-9sHnYh5ZgedfrVblAYst6eMh8VedsOdgAkV88QUSmX8rI865TczVJd56TWXoACySBa19NdI0ppD_s4qInmyxe/s1600/flies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ZT08DCV07S2-lC9MpvYwrdZRTMx970i-VSZX87MAuo4xD5Y4ZlueZG-9sHnYh5ZgedfrVblAYst6eMh8VedsOdgAkV88QUSmX8rI865TczVJd56TWXoACySBa19NdI0ppD_s4qInmyxe/s320/flies.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The one we read in high school.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The idea that we humans are somehow "bad" in our essence, souls, genome, or what have you, is the most irrational, pernicious, and inhumane notion anyone can hold. And yet people can be quite shocked when you contradict it. I remember reading <i>Lord of the Flies </i>in high-school and vigorously arguing with my teacher that the novel was flawed because of its central premise:<br />
<blockquote><i>Fancy thinking the Beast was some- thing you could hunt or kill! You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? I'm the reason why it's no go? My poor, mis- guided child, do you think you know any better than I do?</i></blockquote>And Simon the visionary looks on "with the infinite cynicism of adult life." Infinite? William Golding got a Nobel Prize for this well-written piece of trash, so beloved of English teachers and the pseudo-learned. Even the <i>Funny Times </i>quotes Golding in their "Curmudgeon" column: "Man produces evil as bees produce honey." Though to give them credit they also quote A. A. Milne: "No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature." I think it's time to stop making excuses for despair.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><br />
The difference in attitudes toward same-sex marriage that we observe in the mem- bers of the over-50 and under-30 generations are best explained by differences in the way the generations were raised. The old folk (like me) were raised with a certain level of fear, mistrust, and anger, so that when confronted by anything "abnormal" they respond with these emotions. The youth, on the other hand, do not respond to the "abnormal" in this way because they were raised without the same level of fear, mistrust, or anger. If we can identify just how the under-30s were raised, and what made their childhoods different from those that came before them, we may be able to create future generations of people who don't reflexively buy into the malarky of Fundamental Badness the way the over-50s do. And once people have gotten FB out of their way, they will be free(er) to be more caring, tolerant, compassionate individuals, and thus--eventually--to create a better society and a better world. That IS what we all want, isn't it? Those of us who aren't Tea Partiers, that is.<br />
<br />
So who raised the current generation of under-30s? What made their parenting style so different? To be under 30 in the year 2011 means to be born after 1980. Assuming the parents of this age-cohort were between 20 and 35 years old when their offspring were born, this means the parents we are interested in were born between about 1945 and 1960. Seeing that the vast majority of child-rearing in all known human societies is done by women, we may simplify matters here and ignore males, and instead concentrate on women who are now in their 50s and 60s. What made these women so special? What made them different from their mothers?<br />
<br />
For the fact is, they shouldn't have been. Almost all the significant advances in our understanding of child development were made after these women had already matured. And, as the followings of James Dobson and John Rosemond attest, scientific discoveries in this field have been slow to penetrate into the general population: anti-attachment child-rearing is still gospel among many who know nothing of those discoveries and don't care to. Given all of this, the special women we are concerned with here should have been carbon-copies of the women who raised them. Instead, they became something subtly, profoundly different--and not because of anything scientists told them. Nor was it thanks to artists, or writers, or even the Bushmn--it was the doing of those four men who will save the world. . . .<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div><br />
</div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-62617865464788540712011-03-27T17:38:00.000-07:002011-03-27T17:38:17.185-07:00Four Men Who Will Save the World (Part 1)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Whenever I despair over the state of the planet Earth, I recall that I am old and dying, and that this is a very good thing.<br />
<br />
No, I don't mean that I look forward to death as an escape from the disappearance of Bangladesh, the desertification of Beijing, the nuking of Jerusalem, or the inauguration of President Gingrich. Rather, I figure that if I am dying, so are my age-mates. And not a moment too soon. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZw9FlldmISmL8kKRxWcNypt3pqFMas2x-v485iTwe2p_myVeAd68MRTLetNgaZIUS-_tsRd8UnSj4YQxqt2RzQ9uICXe45TQc6BvBw65IXhnyPkor-UvJ5ns7eSsHRyNY5kxRcRQ9Sf5/s1600/newt-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZw9FlldmISmL8kKRxWcNypt3pqFMas2x-v485iTwe2p_myVeAd68MRTLetNgaZIUS-_tsRd8UnSj4YQxqt2RzQ9uICXe45TQc6BvBw65IXhnyPkor-UvJ5ns7eSsHRyNY5kxRcRQ9Sf5/s320/newt-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tunguska Impactor didn't kill anyone--or threaten to.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Here's a key statistic: most Americans over the age of 50 are opposed to legal- izing same-sex marriage, whereas most of those under the age of 30 are in favor. This simple factoid reveals something very profound about America, about its future, and about the future of the species. For I believe that an indi- vidual's attitudes toward homosexuality hint at that individual's basic attitudes toward a broad range of issues--issues that must be confronted, attitudes that will make or break the civilization of the 21st century.<br />
<br />
From a strictly legal standpoint, gay marriage is a no-brainer. The 14th Amend- ment to the US Constitution clearly and firmly guarantees equal protection under the law, and that equality cannot be denied without due process. A century's worth of Supreme Court decisions have established that dividing people into categories and treating the members of each category differently--that is, creating "differen- tial standards of treatment"--is only permitted within narrowly defined limits. In par- ticular, a differential standard must serve a definite and necessary social purpose, and it must not be "arbitrary and capricious."<br />
<br />
The legal drinking age is a good example of a properly established differential standard. Setting the legal minimum for consumption of alcohol at 21 means that all human beings are divided into two categories (those above and those below the limit) and that members of one category are treated differently from those of the other (those above 21 may drink legally, those below may not). Twenty-one is certainly an arbitrary number---it could as easily be 20, or 37---but it is not capri- cious, because society has a clearly rational need to discourage people from drinking before their brains have finished maturing. The boundary has to be set somewhere, and 21 is a traditional and convenient number. (Teenagers may disagree, whereas on scientific grounds the legal age should be 25.)<br />
<br />
Yes, this law is frequently broken--but that does not make it irrational. Law is not just about coercion or punishment: law also serves to embody society's values: in this case the value that society places on the health of its young people. Society can't hold anyone to a standard unless that standard is set up somewhere where people can see it, and in America that somewhere is the law.<br />
<br />
Barack Obama is personally opposed to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Yet he's also a scholar of constitutional law--it's what he taught at the University of Chicago--and he has instructed the Justice Department not to defend DOMA, the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" forced through Congress by Newt Gingrich, and which forbids the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. Obama knows that DOMA won't hold up in the courts, and he sensibly wishes to save the taxpayers time and money be refusing to defend an indefensible law.<br />
<br />
Social conservatives such as the members of the Tea Party claim they wish to "restore the Constitution" and to "return to the values of the Founding Fathers." So why do they continue to oppose same-sex marriage? Their arguments amount to calling for a differential standard of treatment under the 14th Amendment. Mind you, those in favor of same-sex marriage need prove nothing--the onus is entirely on the tea-baggers and their ilk. To succeed in court they must prove that such a differential--treating homosexuals as different from and inferior to hets--is neces- sary to the proper functioning of society in the same way that setting the minimum drinking age at 21 is necessary. And they must also prove that such a standard is neither arbitrary (what about bisexuals? transgendered people? masturbators?) nor capricious (i.e., based on personal prejudices). <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OiuW6qBA0RT3-VWvK7u8O1pLvktf9D_7B5BL8xe4uORNoEOo9owgYPDFbRrvYPcZcRS6VpanbShjTKOkDLOfITY-GQs3FgLLutmAyTHL4YCjf_hPaugJWIWbr6DOZYG98hIp0x6jT6KY/s1600/attachment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OiuW6qBA0RT3-VWvK7u8O1pLvktf9D_7B5BL8xe4uORNoEOo9owgYPDFbRrvYPcZcRS6VpanbShjTKOkDLOfITY-GQs3FgLLutmAyTHL4YCjf_hPaugJWIWbr6DOZYG98hIp0x6jT6KY/s320/attachment.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What kids<i> really</i> need--tiger moms take note.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yet the anti-gay-marriage forces can mus- ter no such arguments. In fact, they don't even try. Instead, they focus entirely on gay sexuality per se, as if sex were all that gay people did, leaving them no time to raise families, care for sick partners, join the army, or any other myriad other things my gay friends, neighbors, and co-workers do. By claiming gay sex is wrong conserva- tives claim that gay marriage is wrong, as if sex and marriage were the same thing--which, in the eyes of the law, they are not. (The eyes of various churches are another matter.) When not claiming that the Bible forbids gay sex (which it does not, <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/homos-and-hebrew-live-long-and-prosper/6044289">and I can prove it</a>), social conservatives claim it's "unnatural" (so is underwear--do you see any other animal wearing any?), or that "the union of a man and a woman is the foundation of society" (which it certainly isn't, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory#Biology_of_attachment">and here's a summary of the evidence</a>). These three claims--from the Bible, from nature, and from social structure--simply don't hold water legally, logically, or morally. So why do so many of my fellow elders continue to make them?<br />
<br />
When people are being grossly illogical there's usually a perfectly logical reason for it. That reason is emotion. Emotions don't just pop up at random: they are caused by certain experiences. Experiences that link regularly to emotions are commonly called "triggers"; when someone has a powerful emotional reaction to a seemingly innocuous trigger, we suspect an illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes the relation between trigger and emotion is evident--a smiling baby makes us happy, a <i>Simpson's </i>rerun makes us laugh, the brilliant acting talent of Rondo Hatton inspires a feeling of awe.<br />
<br />
But the relation of trigger to response can also be buried in the unconscious, and here is where things can get tricky. And dangerous--it can be all too easy to blame the trigger for the severity of the response. We've all heard of cases in which a war veteran cannot tolerate exploding fireworks because they remind him (or her) of bombs. However, I know of no veterans who consciously think fireworks <i>are</i> bombs, or who think that July 4th celebrations are sponsored by Al Qaeda. A diagnosis of PTSD, oddly enough, may help protect the veteran from making the mistake that conservatives make in reacting to homosexuality--reading into the trigger stimulus something that isn't there.<br />
<br />
No gay person I've ever met is any more dangerous, offensive, immoral, or annoy- ing than any straight person I've known, and I have no reason to believe my ex- periences with human beings are fundamentally different from those of most people. If the majority of my conservative age-mates find gay people more dan- gerous, offensive, immoral, or annoying than they find straights, I am forced to conclude that my age-mates are reacting to a trigger in much the same way that veterans with PTSD may react to loud noises. That is: by venting their spleens at queers, they reveal themselves to be reacting to something not in their triggers, but in themselves. Like shell-shocked veterans they have a mental disorder: one captured as well as may be by the term "homophobia."<br />
<br />
If homophobia were merely a garden-variety irrational fear like arachnophobia or claustrophobia, we as a society might sympathize with it or offer its sufferers some kind of thearpy. But since homophobia is a fear of a particular kind of people, it is potentially damaging to those who are feared (because they are likely to be targets of violence--think Matthew Shepard), and thus damaging to the society of which they are members. And it seems that, like PTSD, homophobia is positively correlated with a wide variety of other anti-social behaviors, so that a homophobe is likely to be several other brands of bigot <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFA7SbEpgpsiErnRWyUhPZJIp6bwxydlxIBxLsJQOhpWCUyuoRYEfTLWLXgfM_EI-rIqCy1snignEqN1OkjDznOE6yoQ_Sx0DbYePyExmib7iOd6s8ZWNxMxBZ9VTwJAijfTxvZw-dRqjH/s1600/chicxulub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFA7SbEpgpsiErnRWyUhPZJIp6bwxydlxIBxLsJQOhpWCUyuoRYEfTLWLXgfM_EI-rIqCy1snignEqN1OkjDznOE6yoQ_Sx0DbYePyExmib7iOd6s8ZWNxMxBZ9VTwJAijfTxvZw-dRqjH/s320/chicxulub.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chicxulub--Yucatec Maya for, "Bye-bye dinosaurs."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The tendency of illnesses to appear together--e.g., PTSD and alcoholism--is called "co-morbidity." Co-morbidity explains why the same people who would make the lives of gay people miserable would also do nothing about global warming (or make it worse); would interfere with women's ability to control their own bodies; would sabotage Obama's presidency because he's smart, good-looking, and Black; would do nothing to rein-in the reign of the rich; would let the poor and downtrodden die painful, preventable deaths; and would cheat the rest of us out of our only opportunity to obtain health care. Homophobia, in other words, is co-morbid with racism, sexism, climate denial, class warfare, and mindless worship of the Invisible Hand. Homophobia is just one part of a complex of attitudes and behaviors--fears, resentments, greeds, hates-- that has made the Republican Party and its astroturf offshoot the greatest threat to the health and well-being of this planet since the Chicxulub Impactor.<br />
<br />
And the GOP's core constituency is old people. My age-mates are trying to kill the planet. And they're succeeding.<br />
<br />
But the youngsters . . . there's more to being a progressive than being in favor of same-sex marriage, and I daresay the under 30s have their fair share of fears, resentments, greeds, and hates. Yet from my observations I would say that those in favor of same-sex marriage are also more likely to want us to get below 350 ppm, to advocate for the rights of women, workers, minorities, the poor, and children, more likely just to be <i>aware</i>. They may not know just what actions to take, but they want to do <i>something, </i>and they care about the future. They are going to be living there, after all, as I and my fellow elders are not.<br />
<br />
And so we return to this mother of all generation gaps, the profound differences in attitude and outlook between the over-50s and the under-30s, the gap I am sum- ming up in shorthand terms by dis/approval of same-sex marriage. Why the big diff? What can anyone do about it? Should anyone even bother?<br />
<br />
And what does it have to do with the four men who will save the world?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div><br />
</div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-44259367080413387922011-03-01T15:22:00.000-08:002011-03-01T15:22:49.171-08:00A Request to the Reader, or, The Ghost of Humphrey Bogart<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>#18 in the series, "J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i> </div><br />
Help!<br />
<br />
As of this writing I've completed 17 blogs on the subject of sex in Tolkien's <i>Lord of the Rings. </i>I've had a blast writing them, and from what I'm hearing on the cyber-street at least a few people have been having fun reading them. But now I'm stuck. Try as I might, I can't get a handle on what to write next about everyone's fun couple, Galadriel and Gimli. And I don't think it's writer's block. It's something more . . . <i>sinister.</i><br />
<br />
Part of the joy of writing is that you're constantly discovering things. Your readers, your material, your own subconscious: they're all a strange far country seen in the distance, and you really want to get there. And to get there you have to stretch yourself, poke at the boundaries hemming your life in, crawl under the fence and run around in MacGregor's garden chomping carrots. To write today, you have to be someone slightly different from who you were yesterday--someone <i>more</i>. The "more" is hard to categorize, but it's there. Maybe it's more intelligent, more obser- vant, more creative . . . it doesn't matter. What matters is the far country. But it's hard to get to.<br />
<br />
Which is why it's come to this. Simply stated, I'm out of my league. I suppose I know as much about sex as most mammals, and I also know (approximately) how to write about it in ways that respect its power without letting that power overwhelm reason and turn <i>W2WW </i>into just another porn-site. No, the naughty bits don't trouble me, and I hope they don't trouble you. What troubles me is the stuff that <i>H. sapiens </i>does that no other species can even imagine. Stuff I'm not sure I can imagine myself. Stuff I don't think I can write about. Stuff I don't think I want to. It's . .. ugh . . . dare I say it? . . . It's . . . <i>romance.</i><br />
<br />
I HATE ROMANCE! I can't stand the Valentine's Day bilge, the hearts and flowers, the soulful gazes and sundry symbolic gropings, the bridal registries and soft- focus photos and crappy poetry. And don't get me started on kissing! Whenever Aragorn and Arwen start pitching woo in Jackson's movies I just close my eyes, turn my head, and concentrate on parsing the Elvish. (David Salo's got 'em using too many datives for my taste. Liv Tyler does a fine job on the fricatives, though. But I digress.) Just thinking about the mushy stuff sets off a powerful knee-jerk reaction in my brain, a distaste bordering on revulsion. <br />
<br />
I'm not quite sure why this is. I've got a long-standing debate about it going with an old buddy of mine. I say I have some kind of autism, some form of brain damage that prevents me from comprehending the subtleties of romantic expression. He says I just have an extremely low tolerance for bullshit. Maybe it's both. At any rate I have never married, never will, and don't understand why anyone bothers.<br />
<br />
And how DARE anyone call all that romantic balderdash "love"?! I spent 33 years of my life watching my mother patiently slaughter herself taking care of my pro- foundly handicapped little sister. I saw her sacrifice friends, career, marriage, and finally her life for the sake of someone who couldn't so much as speak her name or say thank you. And mom though herself the luckiest human being on the planet for having such a person in her life. And she was. And so am I. THAT is what I dare to call "love." My little sis taught me everything I need to know or ever will on the subject. Lesser mortals have nothing to tell me.<br />
<br />
Remember Wood Allen's <i>Play It Again, Sam</i> ? Lovelorn Woody-the-nebbish says to the ghost of Humphrey Bogart, "But all I want is a meaningful relationship!" To which Bogie replies--in words that should be carved on a mountain somewhere-- "Relationship?! What kinda woid is that? Sounds like something from one of your Madison Avenue shrinks." My sentiment exactly.<br />
<br />
<i>Hanta i Valar </i>Galadriel and Gimli don't ever have a "relationship"! Yet they do have <i>something. </i>So what is it? What do I call it? How do I explain what I think Tolkien is trying to do? What IS the Master of Middle-earth spending so much time and effort trying to tell us? For it seems to me something is peeking out from behind the thicket of stately diction and sly innuendo, something that is more than sex, more than romance, but isn't "love" in either the hearts-and-flowers sense or the sense I'm used to. To me, love is a kind of work. Joyous work, yes, but still work. Yet to Tolkien it's almost as if "love" was a kind of poetry--an artform. Love as an artform? I'm truly out of my league here.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUjjSS3qqK9UpYFwHAKxbK5p5MU5NaafE_Mbw9_NJ3WXaeqtLelitEbi74PkX2pqwxQl4oBi0FvIyABsw9UadQpUJ7xMzeYZGajJw_E48UM5_ddyVKlUfXt9DuqPzxk9JerfsEHI2pxmi/s1600/bigsleep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUjjSS3qqK9UpYFwHAKxbK5p5MU5NaafE_Mbw9_NJ3WXaeqtLelitEbi74PkX2pqwxQl4oBi0FvIyABsw9UadQpUJ7xMzeYZGajJw_E48UM5_ddyVKlUfXt9DuqPzxk9JerfsEHI2pxmi/s400/bigsleep.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>And so, as I sit in my office pouring over scripts from old Bogart and Bacall movies, I'm asking for your help. I'm not asking for clever ideas or brilliant insights--creativity is my responsibility here, one I took on when I first decided to enter the blogo- sphere. I guess I'm just looking for support. Maybe one of you have encountered a similar difficulty in navigating this aspect of reality and can let me know how you fared--and if it gets any better.<br />
<br />
Because just seeking the far country is scary business, neighbors. I feel like a not-too-bright little kid walking down a dark alley and it's way past my bedtime. Any flashlights tossed my way will be more than welcome. And in the meantime I'll be trying to make sense of maps like<a href="http://www.filmsite.org/bigs3.html"> this one</a>:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>Vivian (Lauren Bacall): Well, speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they're front-runners or come from behind, find out what their hole card is. What makes them run.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart): Find out mine?</i></blockquote><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-32247938866579689292011-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:002012-02-03T14:43:52.082-08:00Happy Birthday, Lion-Man<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A typical scene, somewhere in the wilds of Africa. After a bloody struggle, one of the mightiest predators ever to the walk the earth--a full-grown male lion--has brought down a zebra and hungrily torn it to shreds. Now we see him taking his ease, belly swollen with the 40 pounds of meat he can eat at one sitting. It is a scene that has been repeated countless times for millions of years, and perhaps will be for millions more.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11R3mtDTwUHJk_ofYDdY9nxqrPACSbfXSBMSzbGDDkALAqi9dPK-6T0gUG6CJlJF4UxHLtNU9i5OrF6V7CH96ZyKXC7mBumfdTrQsWi184wODg2Xi8AihdhMYD72M8XXHGm3sN9AhfIXa/s1600/adamson-3a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj11R3mtDTwUHJk_ofYDdY9nxqrPACSbfXSBMSzbGDDkALAqi9dPK-6T0gUG6CJlJF4UxHLtNU9i5OrF6V7CH96ZyKXC7mBumfdTrQsWi184wODg2Xi8AihdhMYD72M8XXHGm3sN9AhfIXa/s400/adamson-3a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Let us all hope so. For to most human beings, the lion IS Africa, the Africa still embedded in our own African genes. With his strength, his beauty, his regal mane, his thunderous roar, he is a summary and avatar of Nature itself, of the world outside our roads and billboards and slums and cement. Somehow we know the ferocious killer we see here is living the life he is meant for, and is in his own way as happy and contented as any living being should be. For he is free: he is himself, master of his own destiny, and beyond the reach of the heavy hand of Man. . . . <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4XZKz1DPM8VS4Sx56IMY8WBpPRkDCPgUkAXBgXMfjkFv9b8l4GPHBzvNuRMLynYRhd2O2HLIZU6GomYUHMRLV2f5B1QVlC-1BhPRDV_ZSdhpjfZz87zdsYdyDB0m1Sa1RK5u6CQJfEMnX/s1600/adamson-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4XZKz1DPM8VS4Sx56IMY8WBpPRkDCPgUkAXBgXMfjkFv9b8l4GPHBzvNuRMLynYRhd2O2HLIZU6GomYUHMRLV2f5B1QVlC-1BhPRDV_ZSdhpjfZz87zdsYdyDB0m1Sa1RK5u6CQJfEMnX/s320/adamson-3.jpg" width="320" /></a>Hey, wait a minute--what's that old geezer doing there? Sitting on a tree branch ten feet from a wild lion, and . . . filling his pipe? He must be crazy! Doesn't he know smoking can kill him?<br />
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Perhaps the old geezer <i>is </i>a bit daft. He'd probably be the first to admit it. But then, this is no ordinary old geezer. This is George Adamson, the Lion-Man.<br />
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Today would have been Adamson's 105th birthday. This is within range of 108, the average number of days that a lion gestates in the womb. And if any man could have shared a womb with lions, it would have been George Adamson. No one before or since has ever had a more profound love of lions, or a more intimate understanding of them. Even George Schaller, perhaps the world's pre-eminent naturalist, and the man who wrote THE book on <i>Panthera leo</i>-- namely, <i>The Serengeti Lion</i>--relied on Adamson to tell him things about lions (such as how they smell, or how they call their cubs) that no scientist could get close enough to discover.<br />
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How close was Adamson to lions? Here is one of many possible examples, from his first autobiography, <i>A Lifetime with Lions. </i>He is speaking of three lions who had originally been kept in captivitiy, and whom he is rehabilitating to return to the wild:<br />
<blockquote><i>Ugas soon found out that it was only necessary for him to rear up and lean on the wire with his great weight for it to sag and permit easy ac- cess into my compound. He availed himself of the knowledge on several occasions and spent nights in my tent, stretched out on the floor alongside my bed. Once Boy and Girl followed him and I had all three lions sleeping beside me. As there was nothing much I could do about it I let them be and followed their example. They were very well-behaved, at least by lion standards; that is to say I was permitted to sleep undisturbed, but lions are not particular about where they urinate. . . .</i></blockquote>How many humans have ever awakened to the aroma of cold lion pee? And how many would have taken the opportunity (as Adamson does in the remainder of this paragraph) to use the experience to speculate on the evolutionary function of lion toilet habits? It was Adamson who discovered that lion urine is a natural insect repellent--a fact which the makers of DEET have been remarkably slow to exploit.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-kiNNhmIyppmnjY7MfJIWZkD6IEuiWJrZLdXRosFauvwXfPQfHjRXFedLtk4iqtpWK0NoQVqS7qjcPqVh1G0Y0hzD8WumGL7UvMzfBj2YwNnSUgoyKl1wvh4hb16Qc7jawfyf7GUpm1cS/s1600/adamson-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-kiNNhmIyppmnjY7MfJIWZkD6IEuiWJrZLdXRosFauvwXfPQfHjRXFedLtk4iqtpWK0NoQVqS7qjcPqVh1G0Y0hzD8WumGL7UvMzfBj2YwNnSUgoyKl1wvh4hb16Qc7jawfyf7GUpm1cS/s320/adamson-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Adamson was born in India, the son of a British civil engineer, but moved to Africa as a child. In his youth he led the life of a typical White adventurer of the day: panning for gold, hiking across deserts, stumbling on ruins and ancient graves, and becoming intimate with peoples who to most outsiders are little more than legends: the regal Maasai, the courageous Boran, the kindly Elmolo. And of course, like all his contemporaries he did a lot of big-game hunting: in those days you could purchase an elephant-hunting license for a couple of week's wages, and you were perfectly free to sell the tusks.<br />
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But at some point Adamson had a revelation: "I realized," he wrote in <i>A Lifetime with Lions, </i>"that I enjoyed watching animals more than shooting them." As a result, he enlisted as a game warden in what was then one of the wildest places in the world: the Northern Frontier Province of Kenya. For decades he criss-crossed hundreds of thousands of square miles of mountains, forests, rivers, deserts, and plains, chasing poachers, bandits, rogue elephants, and an occasional madman or two. He was trampled, gored, bitten, stung, and came down with malaria (more than once). But it was while hunting down and killing a pair of man-eating lions--and almost getting killed in the process--that Adamson came upon the greatest love of his life. Her name was Elsa. . . .<br />
Elsa is the one lioness a significant portion of the human race knows by name. The star of <i>Born Free,</i> written by Adamson's wife Joy, Elsa has had a movie made about her life, a song inspirted by her, and--perhaps her most lasting honor--a change in public attitudes toward wild predators. Before Elsa came along, lions were seen as vicious, frightful killers, symbolic stand-ins for rapacious royal houses. Joy and George changed that view forever.<br />
<i>Born Free </i>went on to sell millions of copies and make Joy Adamson a literary star. Her husband's writings, however, are less well-known. Which is too bad. I've never encountered any works quite like <i>My Pride and Joy, </i>or <i>A Lifetime With Lions, </i>from which I quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>One night I was woken by a yell from Joy. A lion had tried to enter her tent. A few nights later I heard them in front of my tent and looked out to see a young male reaching up the trunk of a tree and tearing a new canvas water bag which I had hung there to shreds. Next, there was a disturbance in the kitchen and by the light of a torch [flashlight] I saw a lioness going off with a large empty cardboard carton. Then there was the hyena who became the bane of my life . . .</i></blockquote><br />
Adamson was not only a civil-servant/adventurer/animal rights advocate. He was also an excellent writer with a distinct and sometimes hilarious voice. You can easily imagine him sitting in some gentleman's club in a smoking jacket, snifter of brandy at his elbow, regaling his cronies with tales of improbable adventure in a stiff-upper-lip British grumble.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>Every few nights the hyena would come into my tent and steal various items of food. Cheese and bacon were his favourites. When I locked these in an iron box he tried to go off with the box. He seemed to have an uncanny instinct for knowing when I was asleep. Among unopened cans of food he invariably chose Ideal Milk, which he would carry off a short distance, then pierce the cans with his teeth and suck the contents.</i></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIMlyIJfCbRCfnOczCCzbYTU8Vs9DYcxOE0oU-vToG46DK_Kv_6GKkZMiPd2uwsSUuax3G9INeDRVt-uasHXKGI3Iqo9tI0FiA_Zpws2rqBgPRIlI6PEIa3qbNV3EaNpdoLF61x2qU2fd/s1600/adamson-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIMlyIJfCbRCfnOczCCzbYTU8Vs9DYcxOE0oU-vToG46DK_Kv_6GKkZMiPd2uwsSUuax3G9INeDRVt-uasHXKGI3Iqo9tI0FiA_Zpws2rqBgPRIlI6PEIa3qbNV3EaNpdoLF61x2qU2fd/s320/adamson-5.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>You can see a discrete smile play across his face as he pauses to relight his pipe. "Cheeky devil," he mutters, not without a touch of admiration.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>Once he entered my men's tent and stole a pair of shorts, whether for personal adornment, in order to impress his fellow hyenas, or for consumption it is difficult to say. At length, in desperation, I set a rat trap baited with a piece of bacon. This gave him the surprise of his life and a sore nose, and it was a long time before I was molested again.</i></blockquote>One wonders--briefly--how Adamson knew what was or was not surprising to a hyena. But it's a telling detail, and says much about the man, when you realize that Adamson could empathize with a wild and to most eyes rather ugly predator--even one who had the audacity to run off with a gentleman's shorts.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>A week later Black Mane again started a fight with Ugas. I was out in time to prevent any damage and chased him away. But now Ugas was determined to get his revenge and set off after him. I was equally determined that Ugas should not get involved ina serious fight and followed. . . . Black Mane kept his distance. At intervals he would roar a challenge, to which Ugas replied in kind and doggedly followed. Finally, after stumbling over lava strewn plains for hours, I managed to convince Ugas that he had seen Black Mane off and we started back for camp, Ugas leaving many a message, doubtless insulting, on bushes he passed. Dawn was breaking as we entered camp.</i></blockquote>"Doubtless insulting"? Let's remember that the person writing these words is the world's greatest authority on lion urine. If anyone would know, it would be George Adamson.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-88053853471470811772011-01-30T12:26:00.000-08:002011-01-30T12:26:46.111-08:00Her WHAT?!?!<div style="text-align: center;"><i>#17 in the series "J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><br />
In all this talk of love and lust in the <i>Lord of the Rings, </i>one poor guy seems to have been left out completely. Our wallflower's name: Frodo.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJoHI4ccmWzl9HB2yoN3f-n2mYH410hyphenhyphenJa7PLoLEuAA_Yr_yoDA2A3sXmBoV7hCsthSEphyphenhyphenFqdeBfo8TLi5Ums7zwFY6OmLkVakO5FQks0Y3dn2MuWAJiumWmS7yaBqRYmH6to-y72zvKI/s1600/cslewis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJoHI4ccmWzl9HB2yoN3f-n2mYH410hyphenhyphenJa7PLoLEuAA_Yr_yoDA2A3sXmBoV7hCsthSEphyphenhyphenFqdeBfo8TLi5Ums7zwFY6OmLkVakO5FQks0Y3dn2MuWAJiumWmS7yaBqRYmH6to-y72zvKI/s320/cslewis.jpg" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My personal fave</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Frodo is, on one level (of the many possible) the story's Christ-figure. We might expect a devout Christian to weave a Jesus into his tale; plenty of others more talented than C.S. Lewis have done so, and even agnostics like Faulkner have had a go. But Tolkien goes beyond them all by giving us not one but three Christs: there's Gandalf, master of elemental powers and ageless wisdom, and Aragorn, rightful and righteous king, and Frodo . . . sacrificial lamb. We might also expect a typical Christian not to attach any sexual energy to Jesus. Though the Bible portrays him as an ordinary human man who like good food, good wine, and good foot-rubs, the traditional view of Jesus was of someone who--despite being awful chummy with Mary Magdalene--had not the slightest sexual aura<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUuOreCskuL3NUflPjNW5pwji-Q7B5jZQCFhacVpKO3y85ueVoGYXorIE4ORz6wJdGkX54FMJSJ-zBfM0AqzXpSe-Z07cFiHTdyO2oRq2EPASrv4z_ZgNf1rMqZLPswnqYidFuu-EDUAWj/s1600/phial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUuOreCskuL3NUflPjNW5pwji-Q7B5jZQCFhacVpKO3y85ueVoGYXorIE4ORz6wJdGkX54FMJSJ-zBfM0AqzXpSe-Z07cFiHTdyO2oRq2EPASrv4z_ZgNf1rMqZLPswnqYidFuu-EDUAWj/s320/phial.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By Tim Kirk, from the 1975 Tolkien Calendar </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Surely Frodo has no such aura. He isn't as much as chummy with a single female of any species throughout the entire story. Galadriel is one of only three women with whom he has any kind of contact, and she is more mother than mate. (Recall that Frodo is an orphan and was raised by his uncle. And of the other females, Goldberry is a Maia, and Arwen he talks to only after she's married.) I've already asserted that the Phial of Galadriel is not a sexual symbol, and I believe the above data reinforce this view. Frodo's suffering, his receipt of the Phial, and his lack of any percepti- ble libido, make him otherworldly in a way that even Elves are not: other- worldly in the way of wizards. After his wounding with the Morgul blade he even becomes slightly dematerialized: there is a certain transparency about him that can be detected by those with eyes to see like Gandalf. As a Catholic, Tolkien was taught that sexuality and spirituality are not compatible: note St. Paul's "I would that all men were like me." And Paul means not merely abstinent, nor celibate, but "chaste": not even <i>thinking</i> about sex. This was the ideal of the "spiritual" life that Tolkien lived with on a daily basis from childhood--between the ages of 12 and 21 he was even raised by a priest. We can say, then, that the kind of otherworldliness we find in Frodo is a defining characteristic of "spirituality" as Tolkien understood the term. "My kingdom is not of this world," said Jesus, and neither is Frodo's, in the end.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGKmeAWoCk3eLDpdjzt_IrEd1gk6UgV6-VsJgoMAbRxIPCpW-KD2nvrZ-sfrumbxdzFuQsfIFPG-YJg7yryoyyuY9xU02rqKy2opgo75tNF0P7bZQglamqS0w0Y0_0M8pk2QNPOD-8feBu/s1600/edelfeldt-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGKmeAWoCk3eLDpdjzt_IrEd1gk6UgV6-VsJgoMAbRxIPCpW-KD2nvrZ-sfrumbxdzFuQsfIFPG-YJg7yryoyyuY9xU02rqKy2opgo75tNF0P7bZQglamqS0w0Y0_0M8pk2QNPOD-8feBu/s200/edelfeldt-1.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>But all that Frodo might have had in this world he bequeaths to Sam. And unlike his ethereal master, Sam is . . . well, Sam is downright <i>earthy. </i>Sure, he's a gardener, but that in itself should clue us in to the central role fertility plays in his life. We've already seen the overtly sexual nature of his temptation by Galadriel, and his powerful reaction to it. We know exactly with what Galadriel is tempting him--or rather, with whom--and we also know he's been fantasizing about this certain someone throughout the story. He thinks about her in Lorien, he thinks about her in Mordor--on the very slopes of Orodruin!--and no sooner is he back in Bywater than he's getting his mack on with Rosie Cotton before the War of the Ring is even over. Shy stumble-bum he may be, but he knows what he wants. And he wants it <i>bad. </i><br />
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And Galadriel knows it. Which is why her gift to Sam is particularly dirty. Literally.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnyPb3FcU9SybUdRXOhrtY_A2VcypnYqWSJjVdKQbmZs3poDZUxlg3yfWLotbADfmIi83fEpyZ1-wdf_uh-chyiuSE5DHx396jY0O4GnNJAiS6AP7AsUCcG5jvTaK4nHCywpEXNvK76ol/s1600/g-rune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnyPb3FcU9SybUdRXOhrtY_A2VcypnYqWSJjVdKQbmZs3poDZUxlg3yfWLotbADfmIi83fEpyZ1-wdf_uh-chyiuSE5DHx396jY0O4GnNJAiS6AP7AsUCcG5jvTaK4nHCywpEXNvK76ol/s1600/g-rune.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"G" marks the spot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>It's . . . dare I say it? . . . a <i>box</i>. <i>Her </i>box. It's even got a G-rune on it. A box full of<i> dirt</i>. A bunch of dirt with a <i>seed</i> in it. A <i>white </i>seed. And Sam knows just what to do with his seed. After marrying Rosie, that is. Forget the darn mallorn--and remember that Sam and Rosie end up with<i> thirteen</i> children.<br />
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<i>La vala Manwe! </i>No more! I can't go on . . . it's all too smutty . . . her <i>box </i>. . . oh, the humanity . . . parents, tell your children. . . .<br />
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And how does our "gardener and lover of trees" respond to Galadriel's act of generos- ity? "Sam went red to the ears and muttered something inaudible." So, I imagine, have many young men upon receiving the gift of a lady's . . . box.<br />
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Galadriel devotes more time to describing Sam's gift (and telling him what to do with it) than she spends on any other gift she bestows--with one exception. That exception is the entire (paperback) page she spends on her gift to Gimli. And at first she doesn't even know what she's going to give him. But if the previous interaction between the Elf-queen and the Dwarf is any guide, we know that--in the immortal words of James Brown--whatever it is, it's got to be <i>funky. . . .</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued </i></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-68965518983655234102011-01-25T14:38:00.000-08:002011-01-25T14:38:16.261-08:00Greenhorny<div style="text-align: center;"><i>#16 in the series, "J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><br />
"Vagina." Given what we know about that Tolkien fella and his devilish hidden agenda, that was a no-brainer, wasn't it?<br />
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OK, so the sheath that Galadriel gives Aragorn is <i>magical.</i> (Aren't they all?) "The sword that is drawn from this sheath shall not be broken or stained even in de- feat," she says. We should hope not--ouch! But precisely whose "sheath" is the Elf-queen offering? Not her own, certainly. A clue to the identity of <i>this </i>Mysterious Lady lies in the <i>other </i>gift Aragorn receives. For the future king of Gondor is the only member of the Fellowship to receive more than one gift, and his rank isn't the reason. But enough of these sexual speculations--let's have some <i>real</i> fun and talk Elvish.<br />
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In Quenya, Galadriel's native language, there is a complex of words associating youth, femininity, sexuality, and the color green. Here they are, quoted from the "Etymologies," an essay on Elvish word-origins published in volume 5 of "The History of Middle-earth," <i>The Lost Road: </i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczWhhGbcCHXi-JgXW-ticVTH_vL_WJe2wnTzPuq8w7Q1gRfZ86DOMf0lHqIM1tdTkQE_ziF9h6EnjC0t9FcMlCGfyY-5TNvNUt6rmH65t-qchgQ9Pdj1uGHhDy8Oe-mvSol81hgvazNrO/s1600/virgin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczWhhGbcCHXi-JgXW-ticVTH_vL_WJe2wnTzPuq8w7Q1gRfZ86DOMf0lHqIM1tdTkQE_ziF9h6EnjC0t9FcMlCGfyY-5TNvNUt6rmH65t-qchgQ9Pdj1uGHhDy8Oe-mvSol81hgvazNrO/s400/virgin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i> </i><br />
To get technical for a moment: all of these words begin with a letter of the Elvish alphabet (<i>vilya, </i>tengwa #24) that was originally pronounced "w" but which in the Third Age was pronounced "v" at the beginning of words. It was still a "w" after a consonant: note the Elvish spelling of the word "Arwen." The typeface used here is "Tengwar Annatar" designed by Johan Winge, and is in my view the most elegant and legible of Elvish typefonts. It is one of many such; Elvish typography is sufficiently sophisticated that there is a standard keyboard layout, and there is a proposal before the International Standards Organization to make Tengwar a Unicode character set. I have supplied the translation "virgin" for <i>vene </i>as it is implied in the source. By "blended with" Tolkien meant that the words <i>ven </i>and <i>vende </i>derived from different forms in proto-Elvish (reconstructed roots *GWEN and *WEN) but are felt to be related words by "modern" speakers--one of whom, we may assume, is Galadriel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheaquJTQ_K33cZbPjlONj_x25jxvXpkJcNy8NbifQm_b7xIQS1pILg5NsmhyphenhyphenPFQ93ITdJBVOUs4JuvEenYrNnBXOxDmj1D4LNdvZLICX7z_nBTOjL_kTxBguQmg3bQuO9qyvQIDlQJqJmi/s1600/galadriel-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheaquJTQ_K33cZbPjlONj_x25jxvXpkJcNy8NbifQm_b7xIQS1pILg5NsmhyphenhyphenPFQ93ITdJBVOUs4JuvEenYrNnBXOxDmj1D4LNdvZLICX7z_nBTOjL_kTxBguQmg3bQuO9qyvQIDlQJqJmi/s320/galadriel-2.jpg" width="289" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miss April from the Tolkien Desk Calendar, 1980</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Armed with a knowledge of Elf-speech, we can see Ara- gorn's second gift in a new light. It's a rock--a <i>green </i>rock. Specifically, it's the "Elessar," a sacred jewel with healing powers. The Elf-queen has foreseen that this stone should come to Aragorn at this time, for "Elessar" is "the name foretold for you." Or so she <i>says</i>. The stone itself--or rather, its color--says some- thing more. Linked with the sheath and the various ideas connected with green, the Elessar lets Aragorn know he has just received a <i>third</i> gift, the most valuable the Lady of Lorien has to give. Though Aragorn denies it--"it is not yours to give me, even if you would"--Galadriel is the eldest remaining member of her clan, and her opinion on a certain matter pertaining to her clan's youngest member should carry considerable weight. To put this more bluntly, Galadriel has a moral (if not strictly legal) right to control Aragorn's access to the one thing he wants above all else: Arwen. Or rather: Arwen's <i>venya venesse.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrzYnG-B1FjXFD6cN5kKot_XiWknVopohg-TzRCk74GwOiUaaUVBtA0Pa0oRCBtKmfrZNBVBqZZtH39QdxVAA9wViIUZt7KHS1yIs8WCiUqLCTaotBBpR2q5cB-JYTzPeMG04AiafD9nf/s1600/galadriel-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrzYnG-B1FjXFD6cN5kKot_XiWknVopohg-TzRCk74GwOiUaaUVBtA0Pa0oRCBtKmfrZNBVBqZZtH39QdxVAA9wViIUZt7KHS1yIs8WCiUqLCTaotBBpR2q5cB-JYTzPeMG04AiafD9nf/s320/galadriel-3.jpg" width="289" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinky by the Brothers Hildebrandt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>By providing Aragorn with not one but two symbols of Arwen's sexuality, Galadriel blesses the union of the two lovers and signals her approval. The mes- sage is not lost on the scene's other speaker of Quenya, for Aragorn immediately draws the connection: "For the gifts that you have given me I thank you, O Lady of Lorien, of whom were sprung Celebrian and Arwen Evenstar. What praise could I say more?" The stone itself actually belongs to Arwen, who got it from her mother and she from hers; Arwen has entrusted it to Galadriel to give to her beloved should he pass through her realm. It is not just the Elessar itself but the women it came from and the blessing it symbolizes that evokes Aragorn's outpouring of gratitude. We know he needs Arwen, but he needs Galadriel, too. For Aragorn, like so many characters in the <i>Lord of the Rings</i>--and like its author--is an orphan, and the Lady of Lorien is the nearest thing he has to a mother.<br />
<br />
Once again we see that a close reading of Tolkien's work--including obscure texts typically assumed (by, say, <i>The New York Times Book Review</i>) to be of interest only to geeks--reveals that the tweedy Sweet Old Dear of back-cover photographs is more than he seems. You don't have to play it backwards, and it won't screw up your turntable, yet "playing" the text of the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> the right way reveals messages far more interesting (and useful) than "I bury Paul." And if vaginas and virgins aren't sweaty enough for you, there's still what Galadriel does to that poor hobbit. . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">to be continued</span></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-49690325249719332582011-01-17T18:18:00.000-08:002011-01-17T18:18:05.673-08:00Of Bottles, Bows, and Belts<div style="text-align: center;"><i>#15 in the series, "J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Of the various gifts Galadriel bestows upon the members of the Fellowship of the Ring on their last day in Lorien, the easiest to interpret symbolically are those given to the "mid-ranking" characters, the ones we've already mentioned as being the least interesting (so far). Legolas receives a bow; Merry and Pippin each receive a silver belt. These gifts are physical embodiments of a gift Galadriel herself possesses: prophecy. Though she denies her own ability--"all foretelling is now vain"--everything she predicts for the various members of the Fellowship eventually comes true. Tolkien surely intends for her to be seen as (among other things) a kind of sybil or oracle. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7c83ZU14b8QDpFHI2mEmp52KH8yXrgobV_Kte-WCNPeOeK9jrhQ3ntmB2yxxjx9yCSbSxV_pQDFHBX0aFfwFgRNbjlDkoVEmUgPqagY_S46Uqsr9diPH5DDQeR7A7jsXhXfyStsayKYjj/s1600/legolas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7c83ZU14b8QDpFHI2mEmp52KH8yXrgobV_Kte-WCNPeOeK9jrhQ3ntmB2yxxjx9yCSbSxV_pQDFHBX0aFfwFgRNbjlDkoVEmUgPqagY_S46Uqsr9diPH5DDQeR7A7jsXhXfyStsayKYjj/s400/legolas.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By Inger Edelfeldt, from "Tolkien's World"</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Through her strong sense of foresight Galadriel perceives that Legolas may need a weapon powerful enough to deal with a flying Nazgul. So she gives him a bow-- and a week later he uses it to shoot down one of the dreaded winged riders. The Elf-queen also perceives that the two hobbits may one day need to take up lead- ership roles in their native culture, and so--expercising a traditional royal preroga- tive--she elevates them to the nobility. In England even today there are "belted earls," aristocrats whose badge of office is a special belt. After Merry and Pippin return home the Shire will have a similar custom, at least in their case. Matured by their journeys, the two will become "noble": not just the somewhat spoiled sons of the landed gentry they'd been when they started off, but leaders who rally their people against their enemies. "Lordly," their folk will call them--even, presumably, those who care little for elves.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(To those of us who grew up in lands where patents of nobility are unconstitu- tional, it may be easily forgotten that once upon a time nobles really <i>were </i>war-leaders and not just parasitic anachronisms. And the tradition of aristocratic leadership hasn't entirely died out. During World War II a teenage noblewoman remained in London during the Blitz and made radio broadcasts rallying the British against the Nazis. Later she enlisted in the army and served in uniform as a truck-driver and mechanic. That young woman's courage, aplomb, and willingness to serve are still remembered in Britain today, though the noblewoman--a certain Princess Elizabeth--is now an old lady, and has a number "II" after her name.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiv8EoDpSG607BW-H9kd9bB78KBYU6Nhg60aaHo6pZm9lO4B3TLyUwt-bjpKPQS0Um0NidilHPwAIlLkc88UyED4sTRXfIGJxZiuTS-SwboaisELS9BYbQ6G9mDWuCXIGrmxjQLczH2VcE/s1600/cigar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiv8EoDpSG607BW-H9kd9bB78KBYU6Nhg60aaHo6pZm9lO4B3TLyUwt-bjpKPQS0Um0NidilHPwAIlLkc88UyED4sTRXfIGJxZiuTS-SwboaisELS9BYbQ6G9mDWuCXIGrmxjQLczH2VcE/s200/cigar.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm going to pass lightly over Frodo's gift of the star-glass. This is not because it is too difficult to shoehorn it into my interpretive scheme, but because it's too easy: too easy to claim that the phial is a uterus and the white fluid within is seminal. I don't believe Tolkien had the slightest intention, conscious or not, of making the Phial of Galadriel a symbol of anything remotely sexual. His good buddy C.S. Lewis was famous for his critiques of Freudianism, and Tolkien certainly shared his disdain for Freud's one-dogma-fits-all approach. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; sometimes a glistening whiteness is just a star.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYaRmxazXntvtdEsLgny9k5inD_mW2rZo5MJBp9g_YNDNux78h7L8sGxn2Lvs_RoMDqoOt52S_TgupC77FT42lF8HRrdQz7T6L15OVRF0XQS9YMwpOVohuTAlFJnEJZD4zpW6zE2awhqYW/s1600/freud-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYaRmxazXntvtdEsLgny9k5inD_mW2rZo5MJBp9g_YNDNux78h7L8sGxn2Lvs_RoMDqoOt52S_TgupC77FT42lF8HRrdQz7T6L15OVRF0XQS9YMwpOVohuTAlFJnEJZD4zpW6zE2awhqYW/s200/freud-1.jpg" width="158" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">But the remaining gifts--those bestowed on Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli, and Sam--are definitely cigars in the Freudian sense. Given Boromir's sexual insecurities, is it not fitting that Galadriel gives him a chastity belt? It's a gilded belt, true, and without lock or key, yet unlike those of Merry and Pippin this belt ele- vates nothing, Indeed, it seems intended to prevent an elevation or two. It is a tactful reminder that our macho war-chief has a bit of a problem in the vicinity of his hips, and that he might want to get a grip, as it were. This belt, in other words, is also a prophecy-- and a warning. The only other time we hear mention of it is when Boromir is arrayed for his funeral.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiul2UqD_pI01UzVPxNMU6xaImAb_3F26F34D9KboNEobmSzUXYGjJQTGn0cy5Lp7E71jvWxjuzJDi0WIkQcbIkNLgkoAOnrp24c_DNC6zWQ5EZWfu7R81UG6ZKiS_LT7vq_qpO64tq6GEM/s1600/beowulf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiul2UqD_pI01UzVPxNMU6xaImAb_3F26F34D9KboNEobmSzUXYGjJQTGn0cy5Lp7E71jvWxjuzJDi0WIkQcbIkNLgkoAOnrp24c_DNC6zWQ5EZWfu7R81UG6ZKiS_LT7vq_qpO64tq6GEM/s200/beowulf.jpg" width="157" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The good translation.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">I suspect many people have asked, "Why the heck does Galadriel give Aragorn a scabbard for his sword? Does it even need one? It doesn't seem . . . well, a fancy enough gift for the occasion. Shouldn't he have something a bit more . . . magical?" Well asked, o perspecacious reader! How to read this riddle aright? Let's do it the way Tolkien himself might have done it were he in our position: by focus- ing on the etymologies. Note that in the text the scabbard is actually called a "sheath." The use of this word instead of "scabbard" is significant. "Scabbard" is the more technical of the two terms; it is only used of coverings for swords and knives, and is only attested as far back as the Middle English period. "Sheath," on the other hand, goes back to Old English, which despite being a more generic term would still make it the more attractive choice to a dedicated fan of <i>Beowulf</i> and the <i>Battle of Maldon </i>such as Tolkien.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">But there's another possible motive influencing the choice of "sheath" here: Latin. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien#Religion">Tolkien's grandson Simon </a>tells us that his gaffer was mighty put out by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, disliking in particular its imposition of the vernacu- lar Mass. In fact, he disliked it so much that when responses were called for in church he would respond (loudly) in Latin rather than English, to Simon's intense chagrin. Tolkien appears to have been as fluent in Latin as he was in Anglo-Saxon, and there are Latin influences present in Quenya, the language of the High Elves. So the Master of Middle-earth was certainly aware of the Latin trans- lation of the English word "sheath." Are you? I'll give you a minute here to run off to that pile of books you keep for bathroom reading and dig out your Latin dictionary. On your mark . . . get set . . . go!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-13565737594928055132011-01-09T15:19:00.000-08:002011-01-14T13:59:45.674-08:00Three Scenes for the Elven Queen<div style="text-align: center;"><i>#14 in the series, "J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><br />
There are three scenes featuring Galadriel in the <i>Lord of the Rings.</i> We've now dealt with the first, in which the Fellowship encounters the White Lady of Lorien in her palace atop the <i>mallorn.</i> The second, which we won't get into just yet, involves only Frodo, Sam, Galadriel, and her Mirror. The third and final scene brings the Fellowship and their hostess together one last time for a ritual of considerable significance in the traditions of the fairy-tale: the ceremony of gift-giving.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsHKAFRONLRpFPdeiF4FV5WZAYSHOM6Gl2lkMxlV10SrkpepQzeq_ZZ_1PEGZPxfX5ibWS_umk6YVjLGWDOzw949WlbvcNkglIuQCTT5TNAK2WAJsAZrApr3Ej8TEbuGVcua6Mxb96MPN/s1600/morris-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsHKAFRONLRpFPdeiF4FV5WZAYSHOM6Gl2lkMxlV10SrkpepQzeq_ZZ_1PEGZPxfX5ibWS_umk6YVjLGWDOzw949WlbvcNkglIuQCTT5TNAK2WAJsAZrApr3Ej8TEbuGVcua6Mxb96MPN/s320/morris-1.jpg" width="320" /></a>From its beginning with William Morris's <i>The Wood Beyond the World,</i> fantasy literature has been firmly identified with medieval imagery. <i>LotR </i>is the type- specimen of the tradition. How many of us would have known (or cared) what a "vambrace" was if we hadn't encountered the word in the <i>Return of the King</i>? And of course Tolkien was a professional medievalist, an expert on the literature and life-ways of the western Europe of a thousand years ago. But <i>why </i>was he a medievalist? Why, for that matter, have all the Great Ones of fantasy--Morris, Dunsany, Eddison, Lewis, Tolkien, Le Guin, and now George R. R. Martin and J. K. Rowling--set so many of their tales in a medieval setting?<br />
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Let's start our journey toward an answer by following the FREPE. This is a mnemonic used by anthropologists when describing any human culture. The FREPE for a fantasy medieval society would run, very broadly, something like this:<br />
<blockquote><i>Families </i>are extended, patriarchal, and close-knit<br />
<br />
<i>Religion </i>may be important but is usually kept in the background. Diversity of religious/metaphysical opinion does not exist--everyone believes pretty much the same thing.<br />
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<i>Education </i>takes place at home or in cloistered settings. Books are rare and valuable.<br />
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<i>Politics </i>is the business of an aristocratic elite. There are kings, nobles, ladies and lords. Commoners are seldom visible, but (contrary to actual medieval practice) serfdom does not exist.<br />
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<i>Economics </i>is very definitely non-capitalist. </blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUxlw1QtfhMy7QkJQQm1kJIDi-zvmRZ6gdGSaIftqUJCFWG1UkuRrOdgytI75vBlK91UlG7aDDibhkrOerdFgY_oDbDzI4T0oSoaNb4hoAqyXlkQ1-ySGrq5Z04B3vM3TCYKEa88Ld8YQ3/s1600/leguin-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUxlw1QtfhMy7QkJQQm1kJIDi-zvmRZ6gdGSaIftqUJCFWG1UkuRrOdgytI75vBlK91UlG7aDDibhkrOerdFgY_oDbDzI4T0oSoaNb4hoAqyXlkQ1-ySGrq5Z04B3vM3TCYKEa88Ld8YQ3/s320/leguin-1.jpg" width="320" /></a>I'd like to focus on this last point. Fantasy literature is fake-medieval for more than aesthetic reasons. Morris, the founder of the modern fantasy tradition of castles and kings, was a revolutionary socialist who spent much of his life trying to revive the medi- eval craft-guild; indeed, he is best known today not as an author or a radical, but as an interior designer and the creator of Morris furniture. Le Guin, the most honored fantasy author of all time (Hugo, Nebula, Gandalf, Lifetime Achievement and National Book awards) is an anarcho-feminist who has written the only convincing Utopian novels I have ever read: <i>The Dis- posessed </i>and <i>Always Coming Home. </i>Just about everything Le Guin has ever written has included an at least implicit attack on "propertarianism": late-imperial, industrial, statist capitalism. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLBFtGDXcuvFyyEj_hmcfCc0BXwgyMofe7YT2Fckf2ha1fzoh2zRoOODWKY1abKzm5k64bZzB92ONt7MpuuQm3VSgURYvtzuq1eNEUhtv-BYAV4J-SHaLVKwtZ1C3vOCETh5ixp5jw2pIP/s1600/dunsany-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLBFtGDXcuvFyyEj_hmcfCc0BXwgyMofe7YT2Fckf2ha1fzoh2zRoOODWKY1abKzm5k64bZzB92ONt7MpuuQm3VSgURYvtzuq1eNEUhtv-BYAV4J-SHaLVKwtZ1C3vOCETh5ixp5jw2pIP/s320/dunsany-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So: why did Dunsany, Tol- kien, Le Guin, et al. set their tales in worlds with- out machine guns, stock-exchanges, credit-default swaps, or Great Gatsbys? It's not just the castles and sailing ships, the cobbled streets and torch-light, the flashing swords and pris- tine forests that make a fairy-tale world "medieval." The Middle Ages were the last time in history that most people on this planet could survive without turning everything (including themselves) into a commodity. Ours is a world of Bernie Madoff and Casino Jack, but once upon a time. . . . Only in a pre-modern, pre-capitalist world could Frodo travel thousands of miles across alien territories and not have to spend any money. Not a silver penny! And he can only do this because his author ignores the Invisible Hand and relies instead on the Open Hand: the gift. Fairy-tales are a collective, fading memory of a time before the Almighty Buck, of a time when not everything was assigned a numeric, monetary value. If you want to talk about gifts--as opposed to commodities--then the fairy-tale is one of the few ways we still have to do it.<br />
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In "modern" "civilization," giving is often considered a <i>negative </i>behavior. We can't just <i>give </i>citizenship to all those pesky illegals, can we? It's far too valuable!. So it may be easy to lose sight of the social significance of generosity. In most soci- eties, throughout almost all of history, most goods and services were circulated as gifts, not as things to be bought and sold. Did Jesus <i>sell </i>his life on the cross? To listen to Mel Gibson you'd think he had. And <i>Yoga Journal</i> is none too eager to remind its well-toned readers that Lord Buddha spent the last 45 years of his life as a beggar. Feudal warriors offered their swords to the local lord; lords fed and clothed their retainers. No money was exchanged; the value of a man's arm was not set by "market mechanisms." The great cathedrals of Europe were built on donated land with volunteer labor. Chinese emperors made such magnificent gifts to their Tibetan gurus that to this day the Han name for Tibet is <i>Xizang, </i>"Western Treasure-house." <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIKt__APrtYUOquQYkeI0NFSWcWS8YqqAMQeTCpiJ4fEGARYYfTm-j5Wfovqi1sGQqA_6-5cn674eoMKJaFMXtoHXu8x4kUzqSjgH6zeXRYZu7B8F0RSaVXgiB-hv84vmc2AEccGqQTwe/s1600/nisa-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIKt__APrtYUOquQYkeI0NFSWcWS8YqqAMQeTCpiJ4fEGARYYfTm-j5Wfovqi1sGQqA_6-5cn674eoMKJaFMXtoHXu8x4kUzqSjgH6zeXRYZu7B8F0RSaVXgiB-hv84vmc2AEccGqQTwe/s320/nisa-1.jpg" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Shostak's "Nisa." Mother Eve would have looked like this.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Lewis Hyde refers to the gift as "anarchist property." The gift is the original ownership, the property of the original anarchists, the Ancestors. Gift-giving is in our genome: humans and bonobos are the only animals that share food with anyone other than their children, as well as being the only primates who copulate face-to-face. And those of us humans who still retain a connec- tion to the Ancestors--for example, the Zhun/twasi Bushmen--have in their !Kung language the word <i>kxaro. </i>This is a word for a concept almost completely alien to English-speaking culture, so much so that we have no word for it. A <i>kxaro </i>is a "market" where nothing is bought, sold, bartered or traded, but only given: a network of formal, ritualized gift-exchange. It wasn't until a couple of generations ago that the Bushman even learned what a commodity is. They would have been better-off without the knowledge: they hadn't needed it for 100,000 years. <br />
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Given the economic structure implicit in Middle-earth's medievalness, we can anti- cipate that Galadriel will give gifts to her guests, gifts "fit for a queen," as we still say. And given the powerful charge of symbolic energy the Lady of the Golden Wood carries with her whenever she appears, we can also anticipate that her gifts will carry a good portion of that emotional electricity. Tolkien, as usual, does not disappoint us: every one of the gifts Galadriel gives to the members of the Fellow- ship is not only sumptuous, but charged with hidden meaning.<br />
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Readers of modern literature are used to thinking of the "meaning" of objects in terms of symbolism, of "objective correlatives." Hollow men with heads full of straw stalk the pages of our poetry; bits of <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/portrait-of-the-artist-with-spoon/12184947">cutlery</a> sum up a woman's failed relationship with her mother. But in the non-literary world every gift is, by the fact of being a gift, a bearer of meaning--namely, the meaning of the emotional bond between the giver and the recipient. What is the "meaning" of a piece of cheap plastic crap from Walmart? Utterly nothing--unless it was bought for you by your child with her lunch money. Poof! The piece of crap is crap no more. The magic that can trans- form even Walmart junk into something marvelous is the decision to give it away rather than to sell it or hoard it. And if that decision is motivated by love, no spell of Faerie is mightier.<br />
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Magic is something Galadriel is famous for. On the other hand, we don't usually associate the Lady of the Golden Wood with cigars. . . . TBC<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>homage to Christina-Taylor Green</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>may she find refuge from suffering in the bardo</i></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-2897078446577492222011-01-02T14:58:00.000-08:002011-01-02T16:28:24.491-08:00"Womanly Words, Manly Deeds"<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Happy 119th birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">What is a four-letter word that ends in "K" and means "intercourse"? Talk.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Followers of this blog should know by now that if you want the kind of "good time" promised in countless public restrooms thoughout the land, don't bother calling that number--just reach for the works of that sultan of smut, J.R.R. Tolkien. Who was the first to give us sex between and an Elf and a Dwarf, eh? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">As we saw in our last installment, Galadriel, in her role of Mysterious Lady of the Deep, Dark Forest, has been busily seducing the local Young Man Seeking His Fortune, the Young Man in question being Gimli son of Gloin. And she seduces him--in the very nicest sense of that somewhat disreputable word "seduce"--by speaking to him in his native tongue. Khuzdul is a secret language, never spoken around strangers; to learn it one must either be a Dwarf or be extraordinarily cozy with them. Even Gandalf must rely on Gimli "for words of the secret Dwarf-tongue that they teach to none," yet here's this Elf-lady, of all people, speaking words that prove (a) her respect for Dwarvish culture, (b) her excellent sense of timing, and (c) her desire to make Gimli feel good.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The scene of Gimli's encounter with Galadriel, up a tree without a grappling hook, is a sex scene and nothing less. Granted, there's no T & A: no one breaks a sweat, creates a fetus, incubates a disease, or mentions word one about con- doms. And the sensuality of the scene seems to have flown beneath the radar of most critics: despite a deep understanding of his work, even Ursula Le Guin--inheritor of Tolkien's mantle as Grand Master of Fantasy-- asserts in her essay "The Staring Eye" that "there's no sex" in the <i>Lord of the Rings.</i> Perhaps in a world where girls barely into puberty wear bombshell bras, it is unreasonable to expect people to recognize sexuality unless it's expressed Nicky Minaj-style. (Though I daresay there's plenty of folks who know more about the subject than I do, including the esteemed Ms. Le Guin.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLGTfpwWpd4g35evKdewr70IEAV8lAqcph1FhZsJUkR2-NEjIp1fqL7Z6Vui8MQj7dcfkM3scK4dB_rOxVbtDVgLTCN9Cxqm2YckfCmseMxyRRkATOAADgFYhemvs0B6nFltBwvM3eCbdE/s1600/nicki+minaj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLGTfpwWpd4g35evKdewr70IEAV8lAqcph1FhZsJUkR2-NEjIp1fqL7Z6Vui8MQj7dcfkM3scK4dB_rOxVbtDVgLTCN9Cxqm2YckfCmseMxyRRkATOAADgFYhemvs0B6nFltBwvM3eCbdE/s320/nicki+minaj.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An image from <i>Rolling Stone</i>, slightly modified</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">Not that i'm knocking knockers here, but could sexual expres- sion have other, more subtle options? There must have been such options in Tolkien's day, even if men back then weren't supposed to talk about their own underwear let alone anyone else's, and women were sup- posed to lie back and think of England and not of orgasms. Yes, sexuality was suppressed during the Edwardian era, yet truth will out, and Tolkien--who grew up during the reign of Victoria the Virginal and Edward the Uptight, and who spent his adolescence under the care of a priest--got his ya-yas out anyway, through the medium of his writing. There's no escaping the erotic imagery of seduction in <i>LotR</i>, of one party sweet-talking away the other's resistance, of penetrating and being penetrated. Like Galadriel's beauty--or Gimli's--it's there to be found. If you're willing to find it, that is, and if you're willing to accept what you find when you do.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And if you want to make a hard and fast distinction between metaphorical/symbolic/sublimated/displaced lust versus what you'd see on RedTube, go right ahead. I'd only point out that without the metaphorical kind the more physical kind would never get off the ground, or on it. Neither we nor the Dwarves are animals: we don't go around smiffing each others' butts and then presenting. We need a bit of foreplay. And that almost always means . . . talk.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSxUAzeipgYeQM5dZGOJq20pDhXKhCooS866VUHCAv-RsngJ5JXoEBoqs9HIPLI8YrjPFBSA7uMj28gB5KezgZrc6wTrQ3wtfYT93Lp9W-tdR4zbCDQpcUbgkRFufRkEj93CEOWQbBKWOM/s1600/south+carolina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSxUAzeipgYeQM5dZGOJq20pDhXKhCooS866VUHCAv-RsngJ5JXoEBoqs9HIPLI8YrjPFBSA7uMj28gB5KezgZrc6wTrQ3wtfYT93Lp9W-tdR4zbCDQpcUbgkRFufRkEj93CEOWQbBKWOM/s200/south+carolina.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note Islamist date-palm and crescent moon.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">(The title of this installment is taken from the official motto of the great state of South Carolina. The words were originally chosen to be blatantly sexist, but let us be charita- ble. Afterall, words <i>are</i> deeds--as any politician or preacher will tell you--and deeds can relate to each other in a kind of syntax. So perhaps the good citizens of South Carolina are trying to tell us that the ideal human being is a hermaphrodite. Put <i>that</i> on RedTube and smoke it!)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Alright--after all this argument you're finally willing to accept the idea that there really is s-e-x in the <i>LotR</i>, that Tolkien had something to say about sexuality, and that for reasons cultural and personal he chose to say it in the language of the fairy-tale. But let's face it: his "sex scenes" aren't very . . . well . . . <i>sexy.</i> It's not as if they're, um, <i>arousing</i> or anything. If we're going to say that Tolkien is writing pornography, shouldn't we at least see a little cleavage?</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Cleavage, you say? Very well! Rest assured, o reader, that at <i>Welcome to Weird World </i>what you want is what you get! But you might also want to be careful what you pray for. It's easy to forget that "cleavage" can be something created by the scrunching of a pair of breasts--or it can be something created by the slashing of a sword. . . .</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgfRMUn9uVhH35fPLNC60l8KMLrLRnkGBztfYD8tu8O13Q3fzCpvdHUT5ev4xHyi35GQ144airz4oEGyevek6O4LLEja8KaJ-a7LFVqxVu74L-O67M2MVpEoJ48SFarxote5c0Ui3yfkv3/s1600/haudhafang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgfRMUn9uVhH35fPLNC60l8KMLrLRnkGBztfYD8tu8O13Q3fzCpvdHUT5ev4xHyi35GQ144airz4oEGyevek6O4LLEja8KaJ-a7LFVqxVu74L-O67M2MVpEoJ48SFarxote5c0Ui3yfkv3/s400/haudhafang.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-34874011905975250012010-12-29T16:05:00.000-08:002010-12-29T16:05:21.001-08:00Sex and the Single Dwarf<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>#12 in the series </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><br />
It's odd that critics who admire irony in literature might also insist on explicit literary sexuality. For when you think about it, sex is in many ways the opposite of irony. Irony separates; sex brings together. Irony is emotionally cold; sex is usually not. To adopt an ironic attitude is to step outside and contemplate from a viewpoint removed from the action; to be sexual is to step inside, to penetrate and be pene- trated, to get into the thick of things. The theme-song of the ironist is "I Am A Rock"; the theme-song of the romantic is . . . well, half of all the songs ever sung. Maybe more. Maybe all of them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGC-o68v6vyVPG_0A4iqB7CwMWDdz-P8skGH6Q0myemjmnd832Is9olphLLchBAZJpR4b9RESgeepdTXLwdfKtK8EO-gxpj-LyxWJuTieRplCfof3bOLokgSLem3dvfPth-L7Nz0n3uz4r/s1600/i+am+a+rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGC-o68v6vyVPG_0A4iqB7CwMWDdz-P8skGH6Q0myemjmnd832Is9olphLLchBAZJpR4b9RESgeepdTXLwdfKtK8EO-gxpj-LyxWJuTieRplCfof3bOLokgSLem3dvfPth-L7Nz0n3uz4r/s320/i+am+a+rock.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>And no one is born an ironist. Children--especially young ones--have little self-consciousness, a lesser sense of separation from the world, and therefore scant capacity for irony. Irony is a learned behavior; one must be trained in it. But we are all born craving touch. Even Dwarves. And no Dwarf has ever been quite as touched as Gimli son of Gloin.<br />
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If you've been following the argument up to this point it should come as no surprise that the <i>real</i> Young Man Seeking His Fortune in the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> is Gimli. Irony may be the official emotion of modern literature, and Tolkien may be writing a fairy-tale, but human emotion is notoriously ill-inclined to pay attention to boundaries, literary or otherwise. So Tolkien makes no big deal of the irony of Gimli and Galadriel's relationship. We're given no indication that it's supposed to be funny in any sense, ironic or not. Instead, the Master of Middle-earth con- centrates on what modern novels and ancient fairy-tales do best: explore the secrets of the heart.<br />
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When we first see Gimli and Galadriel together the Dwarf's heart is heavy with the loss of Gandalf and the horror of the Balrog. To add insult to injury, Celeborn clearly doesn't approve of Gimli's presence in his realm and says so. Yet Galadriel clearly does approve of Gimli: not only does she stick up for him in front of her own husband, she then directly proceeds to seduce him. <br />
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Yes--that's exactly what she's doing. For to judge by Gimli's reaction there is surely something erotic going on here:<br />
<blockquote>"Dark is the water of Kheled-zaram [says Galadriel], and cold are the springs of Kibil-nala, and fair were the many-pillared halls of Khazad- dum in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings beneath the stone." She looked upon Gimli, who sat glowering and sad, and she smiled. And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and under- standing. Wonder came into his face, and then he smiled in answer. He rose clumsily and bowed in Dwarf-fashion, saying "Yet more fair is the living land of Lorien, and the Lady Galadriel is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth!"</blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDBTXqo8nazXa41Re1GtwrO9Xle_d0IUQH6JPqlQCumfQKS2w9rziPhpzIxKuRqM-Tn1mPztjDVxcmeukydjp6Kef07FBsZBNmqnNHyKDHUQ9BOcjeVKRir5B0WhQDgosvVTikUBn1YuI/s1600/moria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="507" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDBTXqo8nazXa41Re1GtwrO9Xle_d0IUQH6JPqlQCumfQKS2w9rziPhpzIxKuRqM-Tn1mPztjDVxcmeukydjp6Kef07FBsZBNmqnNHyKDHUQ9BOcjeVKRir5B0WhQDgosvVTikUBn1YuI/s640/moria.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Base map by Karen Wynn Fonstad, from her wonderful "Atlas of Middle-earth." Note: contrary to the custom of Dwarvish map-makers, who place east at the top, this map is oriented northward.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table><br />
Whoa--that was quick! And as fine an example of instant intimacy as any you'll find in a porn video. Come now, we've all seen 'em: two total strangers mosey into a bare room and in a twinkling are inserting Tab A into Slot B. Or, if you wish: two total strangers meet a hundred yards up a tree and at once set about penetrating each others' hearts. In the space of perhaps two minutes Gimli has gone from enemy alien to courtly lover. How'd Galadriel do it?<br />
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If you're going to score in the romance department like Galadriel does you've got to have that extra something: namely, the ability to answer riddles. And now you can answer mine. Remember? Name a four-letter word that: (1) is common in ordinary English, and (2) ends in "K," and (3) means "intercourse." And now . . . may we have the envelope, please . . . the answer is. . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-15603559383986092682010-12-26T19:14:00.000-08:002010-12-26T19:14:11.314-08:00Perp Walk<div style="text-align: center;"><i>#11 in the series "J.R.R. Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><br />
So far we've seen Galadriel's sexual energy encountering--and recoiling from--two of the eight remaining members of the Fellowship. We've got six to go: rather a crowd. Tolkien could line each of them up in front of the elf-queen and give us their reactions (and hers) one by one. Instead, like any good porn-writer he streamlines the process so we can get to the good stuff quicker. What's the "good stuff"? Why, sex, of course: finding out who gets down and dirty with Galadriel.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5f4bWNhb2zYj2IL3V3mWZRienrJh9CwU62IF4rSy-gCTn2FAuPR34bldEb4IlZS7dDMNf1w6hhLnKaZnijOD6x0AzZol1oU91QUdyoyDSFrvqGkfDLGe4Dducq4i_1RfBXCvvNYn9ltnT/s1600/fellowship-x.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5f4bWNhb2zYj2IL3V3mWZRienrJh9CwU62IF4rSy-gCTn2FAuPR34bldEb4IlZS7dDMNf1w6hhLnKaZnijOD6x0AzZol1oU91QUdyoyDSFrvqGkfDLGe4Dducq4i_1RfBXCvvNYn9ltnT/s400/fellowship-x.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> To understand Tolkien's streamlining strategy we must divide the Fellowship into two groups: the hobbits and the non-hobbits. Such a division is justified thematic- ally and stylistically, and not just in this instance but throughout the story. The hobbits talk and act very differently from their larger Fellows--they're more like "us," and are thus the point-of-view characters, the reader's portals into the tale. We see the Big People mostly from the outside, as sets of traits and behaviors; the hobbits are made more familiar, easier to identify with. It's hard to visualize Aragorn stopping by the side of the trail to piss on a tree, whereas it's easy to imagine beer-swilling Sam anointing more than his fair share of shrubbery.<br />
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Within each group there is, as they said in the Middle Ages, a place for every man, and every man is firmly in his place. Hierarchy is everywhere in Tolkien's writings: we find it even in the Fellowship, his closest approach to egalitarianism. Aragorn as king is the highest ranking non-hobbit; he is followed by Boromir (son of the ruler of Gondor), Legolas (son of a minor elf-king), and finally, as offspring of a mere nobleman, Gimli. The hobbits are similarly arranged, with Frodo as a member of the landed gentry at the top, Merry and Pippin as sons of prominent families next, and lowly Sam, our only peasant, at the bottom. <br />
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To the modern nose this insistence on rank smells . . . well, rank. But Tolkien has uses for hierarchy beyond a fondness for medieval sociology. In the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> rank serves, among other things, to structure the movement of libido, to direct our attention to where it "should" go. For example, Aragorn may have sexual access to Arwen only after he has become ruler of Gondor and Arnor, i.e., when he has a rank more or less equal to her own. (I'm assuming, of course, as Tolkien would have, that both are virgins at the time of their marriage.) Knowing a character's rank sets up certain expectations as to whom he or she will find attractive, as well as telling us that when such expectations are NOT met we should sit up and take notice.<br />
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And when we first meet Galadriel what we notice is that libido, like Jesus, prefers the hot and the cold. Erotic energy is attracted to extremes, which is why in the scenes featuring the elf-queen the least active, least interesting characters are those in the middle of the Fellowship's hierarchies. Legolas is, in his own words, "an Elf and a kinsman here," making him too incestuously close for comfort, so he's out. Merry and Pippin have not yet developed enough personality within the story to be interesting in much of any way, erotic or otherwise; their time as characters has not yet come. Boromir's macho makes him, ironically, off limits.<br />
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As for the extremes, Aragorn is easily identified as also being too close to Galad- riel (although in another way). Frodo as Ringbearer is in a position somewhat like that of Boromir: he's brought evil into Lorien with him, though it's not of his own making as Boromir's is. Boromir in fact grills Frodo about what Galadriel offered to tempt him (thus diverting attention from his own guilty conscience), but Frodo--unlike Sam or Merry--refuses to divulge even the tiniest hint. And this is a hint that<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGC_Xh3VB-Z5WGsq-m22mtuC1aLMgHqk8iXkusObfLqzAM_C9YFltMiHD2Vmi-LV6XDZx3foknRV-6H8JLl_RLmdgGu7y6M5ftIUFJMmE4Ur1KUsg35cayyqKzMuK6WFIoSnpOxg2fANc/s1600/galadriel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEGC_Xh3VB-Z5WGsq-m22mtuC1aLMgHqk8iXkusObfLqzAM_C9YFltMiHD2Vmi-LV6XDZx3foknRV-6H8JLl_RLmdgGu7y6M5ftIUFJMmE4Ur1KUsg35cayyqKzMuK6WFIoSnpOxg2fANc/s320/galadriel.jpg" width="237" /></a><br />
Frodo's sexuality is not going to be an issue. We'll see later what kind of relationship he establishes with the Mysterious Lady; for now we'll treat him as eliminated from consideration.<br />
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We've already seen how poor Sam reacts to the elf-queen's telepathic probing, and can easily deduce the sexual nature of his temptation. In fact, his reaction is so powerful we can imagine Sam running away from his own erotic instincts at full speed; the energy of <i>eros </i>is so strong that, though it would like to alight, it can't keep up with its moving target. (At least, it can't until Rose Cotton catches up with it.) For now, at any rate, Sam's also out of the picture.<br />
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So who do we have left? Who in the Fellowship does the Lady of the Golden Wood actually bond with on a sensual level? To put it more baldly: who's gonna get a piece of Galadriel? Here's another hint: it's not going to be her husband. . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>(to be continued)</i></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-31122452010683483382010-12-22T13:59:00.000-08:002010-12-22T13:59:16.623-08:00Confessions of a Macho Man<div style="text-align: center;"><i>(#10 in the series, "J.R.R. Tolkien: Smut Peddler!")</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oPNPmTqg04-k-Hv-Plf6kQt5tW20EiixJ0Hnqex2z8XXW0deVPjLftSQACHKKdpJ68mlUq7ZolGpDyF9bbEAuDCi_rw8Ul-MIXfLTI2bXVrZ_T13vbmlRM4F9q_leV932zHrRYM5tcXj/s1600/barack+and+michelle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oPNPmTqg04-k-Hv-Plf6kQt5tW20EiixJ0Hnqex2z8XXW0deVPjLftSQACHKKdpJ68mlUq7ZolGpDyF9bbEAuDCi_rw8Ul-MIXfLTI2bXVrZ_T13vbmlRM4F9q_leV932zHrRYM5tcXj/s200/barack+and+michelle.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Boromir is one of many characters in the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> well worth watching, and not just because he's interesting in his own right. For as we observe in the reactions of certain people to Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton, Boromir walks among us. And not just the part of him that is envious of Aragorn and craves power and glory. I mean the other part: the part that can't stand even the thought of a powerful woman.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">To be fair, Boromir's macho isn't entirely his fault. His mother died when he was young; he's spent his adulthood slaying monsters; his father has pushed him into the role of Gondor's savior. With this kind of background, it's small wonder he's never had the time or inclination to get to know women. (Hard for a fella to get a date while drenched in orc-blood.) Certainly the cause of True Love has gotten little encouragement from Boromir's stern, grim father, still in silent mourning for his long-dead wife. And Boromir's hostility to Galadriel is more than a response to deeply buried sexual drives, for he's so gynophobic he turns up his nose even at the harmless "old wives" who tell nursery-tales of Fangorn Forest.<br />
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It's interesting how many characters in the <i>Lord of the Ribngs</i> lead double lives. Gandalf appears to be a frail old man; Saruman appears to be kindly and wise; Aragorn appears to be a wandering scruffy. And Boromir? Listen to this descrip- tion from Appendix A: "Boromir was a great captain, and even the Witch King feared him. He was noble and fair of face, a man strong in body and in will." Sounds just like our man . . . except that this is a description of Boromir the First, a Gondorian general who died a half a millenium before the War of the Ring. Our Boromir is the second man in Gondor's history to bear the name, as Aragorn is the second Chieftain of the Dunadain to bear his. And what our Boromir shares with his long-ago relative--in addition to his qualities as a military leader, and a father also named Denethor--is suffering. "He received a Morgul-wound in that war which shortened his life, and he became shrunken with pain and died twelve years after his father." Boromir I is maimed physically; number II suffers emotional stunting, as Denethor II seemed to foretell when he named him.<br />
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Boromir has a wounded heart, and it is this that makes him the outwardly tough, inwardly vulnerable man that he is. Macho doesn't come out of nowhere, as some feminists (Andrea Dworkin, Valerie Solanas, even Ursula Le Guin) seem to believe. Nor is it the fault of ideology, or the Y chromosome, or "testosterone poisoning" (an expression first made-up--as a joke--by Gloria Steinem). Macho has an emotional cause, and that cause is whatever awful thing it is that makes a man give up on love. Our intuitive knowledge of this cause is what allows us to feel sorry for Beowulf, Boromir, and Quaritch, even as we see that character is destiny and that their destiny is doom. Boromir's death-scene is genuinely moving, Aragorn's tears for him realistic and right (as Marion Zimmer Bradley recognized). It is easy to imagine Tolkien himself witnessing more than one such scene in the trenches of World War I. As Boromir floats off on his final journey we grieve with his companions, and wish him well.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ZngZgSr1uRra9IYL11-EXruxNXtJJenGejqaO80ZbFHdaNPL4cqa9BDDH5s6cRnPI0yxdJl1MqG4Pz-iNa3YpB7eJ8HNdhq0LY6qPZYqDafuDRcBaUlDAs2ipcQhtyjNvDChBS7a4DvZ/s1600/death+of+boromir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ZngZgSr1uRra9IYL11-EXruxNXtJJenGejqaO80ZbFHdaNPL4cqa9BDDH5s6cRnPI0yxdJl1MqG4Pz-iNa3YpB7eJ8HNdhq0LY6qPZYqDafuDRcBaUlDAs2ipcQhtyjNvDChBS7a4DvZ/s320/death+of+boromir.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>And we can rest assured that his final journey will have a happy destination. Boromir's soul has been saved--and not just by his sacrifice for the sake of the hobbits. Aragorn is the last descendant of the kings of Numenor, who alone among the Men of Middle-earth had the authority "to call the One to witness." As the One is, in effect, the God of the Catholic Church, the kings of Numenor and their descendants are, in effect, priests. Thus, Aragorn is empowered to hear Boromir's confession ("I tried to take the Ring from Frodo. I have failed.") and to grant him absolution ("You have not failed. Be at peace!"). Boromir is well aware of Aragorn's status as priest-king (though those who haven't read <i>Unfinished Tales</i> may not be), and he dies with a smile, his tormented soul at ease at last.<br />
<br />
Boromir's reactions to Galadriel are "realistic" in the sense the term is usually employed in modern fiction, and can serve us as a critique of the wall of separa- tion between "realistic" and "fantastic" literature. I've spent extra time on the poor guy to demonstrate that Tolkien is as ready to confront an Awful Truth of human sexuality as anyone working in the so-called mainstream--to wit, the Awful Truth of gynophobia. It's an truth all of us living under patriarchy have to confront at some point, and the guidance that Tolkien offers us on this subject can be profoundly useful. That the son of Denethor carries an aurochs horn and fights cave-trolls should not obscure for us a simple fact: Boromir is the kind of guy we could meet on any street, on any day.<br />
<br />
Or, for that matter, the kind of gal. For if current events are any guide, men aren't the only ones who think we're supposed to be impressed by their ability to field- dress a moose. . . .<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>to be continued</i></div></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-32276470417322807332010-12-19T15:50:00.000-08:002010-12-19T15:50:24.716-08:00Macho Macho Man Man<div style="text-align: center;"><i>(# 9 in the series, "J.R.R. Tolkien: Smut Peddler!")</i></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkTQMNsxowpMeIoSnsK9LCUO7g3T_EepdJqK_FJpGdjhOGsvvu6T_4HTHK6O5ZICce3ycja6JpxLjcFoYOkJhA1UDhYgdGvh_2gUnDBXX9YtYaZWz4e9F6-yXis37qy5CpEOqD_iCx98po/s1600/scarhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkTQMNsxowpMeIoSnsK9LCUO7g3T_EepdJqK_FJpGdjhOGsvvu6T_4HTHK6O5ZICce3ycja6JpxLjcFoYOkJhA1UDhYgdGvh_2gUnDBXX9YtYaZWz4e9F6-yXis37qy5CpEOqD_iCx98po/s200/scarhead.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Stephen Lang, the actor who did such a great job portraying Colonel Quaritch in <i>Avatar,</i> gives us a brilliant insight into his character's psyche. In an interview in <i>Energy Times </i>(Nov/Dec 2010) he says, "[Quaritch] comes [to Pandora] as a victim. He's been dehumanized. . . . In many ways [he] presents some very fine qualities . . . but it got so twisted in these filthy wars back on Earth that part of him has just been burned away, that part being is soul. What's left is pure function." Lang--who specializes in playing tough guys--has hit the nail on the head. "Pure, soulless function": a superb description of the Colonel, of Beowulf, of your typical orc . . . and very nearly of Boromir. It's also a perfect description of others less overtly violent, such as <i>Avatar</i>'s corporate lackey . . . or of those Republican congressmen mindlessly forcing the government to give worthless tax breaks to billionaires. It appears the Nazgul walk among us as well. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2VKZB9eHtFh54ZQYmUcirj9g_vwZDlKljEQ4APkmq9-l69RnPhIJrsSYHlA03S7Vil3_5cJsDh7UYbyoEyexM5vBs1wuoGw1CkqtWhXcfPOtSsFFH2oM-5fUO_ySk-0Knggkef89C7xh/s1600/nazgul-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2VKZB9eHtFh54ZQYmUcirj9g_vwZDlKljEQ4APkmq9-l69RnPhIJrsSYHlA03S7Vil3_5cJsDh7UYbyoEyexM5vBs1wuoGw1CkqtWhXcfPOtSsFFH2oM-5fUO_ySk-0Knggkef89C7xh/s320/nazgul-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I don't think much about why I do things."--G. W. Bush</td></tr>
</tbody></table>(A buddy of mine once had the opportunity to see a Nazgul up close and personal. He said that even from 100 feet away he could feel the Black Breath; it literally made him sick to his stomach. Pretend Nazgul have cool-sounding names like "Gothmog" and "Angmar." The real thing had a more prosaic name: George W. Bush.)<br />
<br />
<br />
The Colonel's lack of soul is why it makes such perfect, poetic sense when Neytiri puts an arrow into his heart: she's only making up for what he's missing. Since he won't let female power enter him, he'll have to have it inserted by force. And to reinforce the message, Neytiri gives him <i>two </i>arrows: one for her beloved father, and one for the courageous young war-chief who would have been her mate. The Colonel dares to penetrate the Bush with evil in him--and the Bush penetrates right back.<br />
<br />
For there is no evil in <i>this </i>Bush unless a man brings it there himself. Then . . .<br />
let him beware.<br />
<br />
(It would seem a lot of fantasists like tall women. Neytiri is nine feet tall . . . so how tall is Galadriel? According to Tolkien's precise calculations, she's two Elvish <i>rangar,</i> which works out to be 6 feet 4 inches. The Lady of the Blue Wood and the Lady of the Golden are both tree-top lovers, and in more ways than one.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRG5zZDk8XT-CjhDH4sCjtqjplYvrYk7dEgKvAag5h49U6Rh_qrV0TWEOY4qsEQBRhu0PAdmqPznhE2SI3slycrPZLx7RaSLNrwSQLzWEwAHJVLXI1va1CM9NYolUUD5ZyejQztYTYmlDq/s1600/stephenlang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRG5zZDk8XT-CjhDH4sCjtqjplYvrYk7dEgKvAag5h49U6Rh_qrV0TWEOY4qsEQBRhu0PAdmqPznhE2SI3slycrPZLx7RaSLNrwSQLzWEwAHJVLXI1va1CM9NYolUUD5ZyejQztYTYmlDq/s320/stephenlang.jpg" width="200" /></a>Lang's insight into the character of Miles Quaritch lends a depth to his portrayal that aligns it with the fairy-tale tradition. Lang, Tolkien, James Cameron, and the unknown author of <i>Beowulf</i> all agree: the warrior virtues, noble in themselves, are not enough --not for the man, and not for his people. They also agree that a society run by warriors is likely to function more like a baboon-troop--or a modern corporation--than a healthy human community. Through the artistry of his portrayal, Lang shows us both the seductive charm and the deadly brutality of the warrior, and helps us to see (as Tolkien's Boromir does) the fatal flaw at the heart of the warrior mystique: the warrior is not a whole man. There's a hole in the middle of him where his heart should be. To be a whole man the warrior must Seek His Fortune . . . and heed the advice of the Lady when he finds her. Jake does--and awakens to a new life.<br />
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(Incidentally: those are Lang's real muscles, not CGI. He worked out for eight months to get the right build for the role.)<br />
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It's important for our appreciation of the <i>Lord of the Rings </i>that we realize Boromir is a "good guy." He's not there just to be shadow to Aragorn's light, or to represent Aragorn's "shadow side," or even to show us what Aragorn might have become if the Ring had gotten to him. Boromir is a tragic hero in Aristotle's sense, a good man with a character flaw that leads to his undoing. But here's another way in which Tolkien gives us more than we might have bargained for at the fairy-tale bazaar: Boromir has <i>two </i>such flaws. He's no ordinary macho man--he's a <i>macho-macho</i> man. But there's one more thing about Boromir--and about Aragorn--that even the Village People may not have known. . . . .<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>(to be continued)</i></div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-37375351927044741692010-12-15T15:13:00.000-08:002010-12-15T15:13:57.016-08:00Everybody Wants to Be a Macho-Macho ManWhat Boromir doesn't like is women--especially a certain woman named Galadriel. "I do not feel too sure of this Elvish lady and her devices," he says, just one of the many indications that Boromir has a problem in the female department. He never complains about Celeborn, eh? Fellow warrior Aragorn will have none of it: "Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel! . . . There is in her and in this land no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself. Then, let him beware!" It is in the conversations between the two human members of the Fellowship that we see most clearly how the elf-queen is not only a character with a personality of her own, but a screen upon which the other characters--and the reader--can project some of their deepest emotions. Which is to say: their sexual emotions.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb7Mw4JydO7LYv_W56LkBgO4f-kP2GMkHnnBMJC5JQlxkY7ddEbO3Ndt5sX4WiDMqCiqMQ1wxr4VxfCkLskheJdJ5CcEr2zDoeB_F1_MnPDjaScLHpfhcDVeaRw9P67EhW5ikpnderE7bk/s1600/projector.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb7Mw4JydO7LYv_W56LkBgO4f-kP2GMkHnnBMJC5JQlxkY7ddEbO3Ndt5sX4WiDMqCiqMQ1wxr4VxfCkLskheJdJ5CcEr2zDoeB_F1_MnPDjaScLHpfhcDVeaRw9P67EhW5ikpnderE7bk/s200/projector.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Boromir does plenty of projecting onto Galadriel, and what he projects is his deep anxiety about women and about his attraction to them. He's Tolkien's portrait of something Americans didn't have a name for until Hispanic culture become more prominent. He's a macho man: comfortable in the clash of combat, dauntless in deeds of strength and daring . . . and terrified of any temptress who might distract him from his task (in his case, saving Gondor). As Tolkien was <i>the</i> original expert on <i>Beowulf</i>--he's the reason we all had to read the story in high school--it makes sense the Old English tale would induce him to include a Beowulf-type in his own story. Boromir fits the Beowulf-bill to a T: both are mighty in war; neither ever has a relationship with a woman.<br />
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Another guy who fits the bill is Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's film <i>Avatar.</i> Like Boromir and Beowulf, the Colonel is a man with all the warrior virtues: courage, strength, loyalty, charisma. He leads from the front, inspires everyone around him, shows a fatherly interest in his troops. Quaritch is why I must disagree with those critics (I'm thinking of the reviewer in <i>Rolling Stone</i>) who would have us believe <i>Avatar</i> is a simplistic story of evil humans vs. good aliens. Pandorans are not noble savages--they are ignorant of the outside universe, have bad tempers, and suffer from sexual jealousy. The only truly evil human in the film isn't the Colonel but the corporate lackey: the guy who obsesses about unobtainium and his quarterly reports. We last see him being marched off Pandora at gun-point to face certain humiliation back on Earth. The resentful, playground-bully look on his face is very telling--and tells us that the real bad guys in Cameron's world aren't humans as such but capitalists.<br />
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(Perhaps it's unreasonable of me to expect those working for corporate media to talk about such things. It's so much safer for their careers to condemn Cameron for being "morally simplistic," and for giving the Oscar to a film no one ever saw or wanted to. Cheer up, James! You're in excellent company: namely, that of J.R.R. Tolkien, who took the same rap from Edmond Wilson. Edmond who?)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEOVrlKIO4qK7RvfkAFlGdzAAce2QU3NdMhQu7bHD925SKQwd3sJZ2l9Nf2GjrFcUsuKzKsO-JPmzv3XWx1tWcAGl7UHekhnzdmTiX_2cJRkVh7v7tz6oewNHZEgkLpsaFtxDfbMU3qCfa/s1600/neytiri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEOVrlKIO4qK7RvfkAFlGdzAAce2QU3NdMhQu7bHD925SKQwd3sJZ2l9Nf2GjrFcUsuKzKsO-JPmzv3XWx1tWcAGl7UHekhnzdmTiX_2cJRkVh7v7tz6oewNHZEgkLpsaFtxDfbMU3qCfa/s320/neytiri.jpg" width="283" /></a></div>Miles Quaritch, in his own way, is an honorable character. De- spite his cruelty and arrogance he has too many positive qualities to write him off as a generic bad-guy in the manner of, say, your typical orc. Yet when his protege bonds with a native woman we see the central weakness in the Colonel's character. His words to Jake speak volumes: "So you're getting some local tail and now you forget who's paying you?" (The best line in the movie, especially as Neytiri actually <i>has</i> a tail.) The Colonel can't under- stand love--or doesn't want to. The sexist soldier-slang and the reference to Jake's paycheck make it obvious that, if the Colonel has ever been in love, he's never let it interfere with business. In other words: he's too much of a warrior to be a real man. And "how to be a real man" is the whole point of Young Man Seeks His Fortune . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">(to be continued)</div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-49102693203539631602010-12-12T19:54:00.000-08:002010-12-12T19:54:18.754-08:00Teeth, Tolkien, and "Twilight"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ask anyone who's read them what they find least satisfying about the <i>Twilight</i> novels and they'll likely tell you it's their utterly unrealistic view of human sexuality. You get a couple of teenagers making goo-eyes at each other for several hundred pages, and now the elders are out of town, they're in the bedroom together, half their garments have gone AWOL, and . . . nothing happens. First base, second base . . . the baseball diamond has gone straight-edge. Bella and Edward don't even have the condom discussion. Perhaps vampires are unusually sensitive to fluoride? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWEOrdq9d52XHoQeQy2wbsuvsLPnBpFDQ0xVC8o7Qcj7LFbv-fGHGj9yj9FckpZIJjdRI_zi7NuA_m0Ea2Y9DX6Kq6-hAOIjTtSdWwyI6salybsiRPiMfBsZxGkjpeaMKWQo3KDuvv0dc8/s1600/condom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWEOrdq9d52XHoQeQy2wbsuvsLPnBpFDQ0xVC8o7Qcj7LFbv-fGHGj9yj9FckpZIJjdRI_zi7NuA_m0Ea2Y9DX6Kq6-hAOIjTtSdWwyI6salybsiRPiMfBsZxGkjpeaMKWQo3KDuvv0dc8/s320/condom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Most of us assume that if you put a straight man and a straight woman in a room together, extraneous factors being ignored, it's likely there will be at least a tiny smidgin of sexual tension between them. And if there's more than two people in the room, or if the would-be sex object is for some reason inap- propriate or unavailable, then--like a fly bumping around in a bottle until it finds a way out--the sexual energy will hover until it finds someone (or something) it can fix on. Until it does, everyone involved is going to feel the buzzing of frus- trated libido.And as any human being who has ever had wisdom teeth can tell you, libido doesn't like being frustrated.<br />
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Tolkien knew this as well as anyone--even though he wore dentures. (Which, incidentally, he liked to give instead of money to unattentive cashiers at the grocery store, just to see their reactions.) Being a professional medievalist, the Master of Middle-earth tended to adopt at least some portions of the medieval world-view and its sundry symbolic displacements, so that his own sexuality, even in his private letters, tends to be skillfully and modestly hidden. Carpenter's <i>Biography</i> speaks of Tolkien's intense need for privacy in regards to his marriage, and there's no reason for us to speculate on the nature of his relationship with Edith. Unlike her beloved husband, SHE was no smut-peddler.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcd_PAGNuXf1vXqMi1P2cpF6nEiET5REb1Oz2ZjCYYCB6re_Jb_dd8cee1hTXYu-56EAjAGqVzksf5r1y9UGJI1eXKwzpAgNmwApaBh1NKjC5hkmIu22fs1Dsk-dIcKLwwhyjWlkdj2Qir/s1600/teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcd_PAGNuXf1vXqMi1P2cpF6nEiET5REb1Oz2ZjCYYCB6re_Jb_dd8cee1hTXYu-56EAjAGqVzksf5r1y9UGJI1eXKwzpAgNmwApaBh1NKjC5hkmIu22fs1Dsk-dIcKLwwhyjWlkdj2Qir/s320/teeth.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
So here I'll just mention the simple fact that J. R. R. Tolkien was more than a scholar. Yes, he was a devout Catholic who got up at the crack of dawn to ride his bicycle five miles to church so he could take communion before early Mass. . . . but he was also a man who, after the birth of his fourth child, had to sleep in a separate bed because getting his wife pregnant again might have killed her. (Afterall, being a devout Catholic in his day meant he couldn't even <i>discuss</i> condoms, let alone use them.) Heavily sublimated as his feelings may have been, Tolkien knew about sex, and about sexual frustration. He also knew how to write about them.<br />
<br />
Libido's need for a nesting place is especially obvious in literature. Authors can't just conjure up sexual imagery without doing something with the resulting emo- tional urgency, in either their characters or their readers. The "head" of pressure (as it were) must be released. Even the most skillful author can't make the pressure simply disappear, because they've used sex to arouse the reader's expectations, and it's answering the reader's "and then what?" that keeps them with the story. Copulation needn't be the only way to release the tension, but the power of libido must in some way be acknowledged, or the reader has been cheated. And I can't imagine that Mormon housewives approve of cheating any more than non-Mormon non-housewives--even when they're doing just that.<br />
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Tolkien has set up his own, fairy-tale equivalent of a bedroom scene when the Fellowship meets Galadriel. And (unlike some authors), he has no intention of cheating his readers. We've already seen how sexual tension is present, and thick enough to cut with a charmed knife forged by the Men of Westerness. The source of the tension is, of course, Galadriel; indeed, it's almost shooting out of her like a laser. But unlike the traditional fairy-tale, in which we get to see everything from only one point of view--i.e., the male's--Tolkien lets us also see the sexual energy through female eyes. That is: what is the goal of <i>Galadriel</i>'s libido? Where should <i>her</i> desire come to rest? Who should <i>she </i>want?<br />
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According to the canons of the classical fairy-tale, the fixation object should be Aragorn. (Big Pointy Things--chick's dig 'em.) But as we've seen, Aragorn is engaged to be married. In a "modern" novel this would present no problem: gal and guy could do the wild thing or not, with plenty of soul-searching agony thrown in to make the encounter "realistic" (think <i>Bridges of Madison Country.</i>) But even within the "fantasy" setting Aragorn has a perfect reason to avoid Galadriel's libido, and she to avoid his: the elf-queen is the future king's future grandmother-in-law. Even in a "realistic" story this could be expected to dampen his ardor, and maybe even hers. (This isn't <i>The Graduate</i>.) So Aragorn, Big Pointy Thing notwithstanding, is out of the game. One down, seven to go. . . .<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qQuDvf53aa0rqj9SQ19ob094788ogJ7-8PRO-lfr1g0Q-38CauukLhyphenhyphendEUlvNqYxA3f1ZXoedhO1iDIJC6jKd8A-mGB8kbK1mWu_h_ZW-6spFGvRZk9ZXDZMJYB8PXLzvfJbY6LtBgXp/s1600/boromir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qQuDvf53aa0rqj9SQ19ob094788ogJ7-8PRO-lfr1g0Q-38CauukLhyphenhyphendEUlvNqYxA3f1ZXoedhO1iDIJC6jKd8A-mGB8kbK1mWu_h_ZW-6spFGvRZk9ZXDZMJYB8PXLzvfJbY6LtBgXp/s320/boromir.jpg" width="190" /></a>So who's next in line? It should be Boromir. Strong, handsome, courageous, noble, Boromir has the <i>cajones</i> to battle hordes of orcs yet is gentle enough to carry the hobbits piggy-back down from the Redhorn Pass. Well-connected, too: he's the heir of the cur- rent ruler of Gondor, and the leader of Gon- dor's army. There's just something about a man in uniform . . . particularly when he's got a great big horn. What's not for a (straight) woman to like?<br />
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Unfortunately for the cause of True Love, it's what Boromir doesn't like that's the problem. . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">(to be continued)</div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039441484315194294.post-27702040556857992812010-12-08T16:46:00.000-08:002010-12-08T16:46:42.776-08:00Nice Hole!<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Part Six in the series "J.R.R.Tolkien--Smut Peddler!"</i></div><br />
Now our heroic Young Man has penetrated The Bush, along with his seven would-be-merry men. The seven buddies aren't in the script--the classic fairy-tale script, that is--but then, Tolkien isn't quite the "traditionalist" many would like to believe. Every so often he is wont to take fairy-tale tradition and mess with it. You could say that the whole of the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> is such a "messing": whereas in the typical fairy-tale the hero is trying to <i>find</i> the Magic Dingus, in Tolkien's tale the hero is trying to <i>lose</i> it. Such modifications of tradition--even reversals--come thick and fast when we get to the scenes featuring females. And no one in Tolkien's work is more female than Galadriel.<br />
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Ah: there she is! A vision of loveliness--if we so chose, and we do. But hold (as they say in Middle-earth)! The Mysterious Maiden we find in Lorien isn't your typical young virgin living in an enchanted forest with no visible means of support. For one thing, Galadriel isn't exactly young--unless the yonder side of 6,360 years old is considered "young." (I imagine immortals have a different standard for when a woman enters "cougar" territory.) And she's no virgin: she's married, and has been for literally ages. There's a vague implication that the lost elven-prince Amroth is Celeborn and Galadriel's son . . . and a quick check of Appendix B reveals that they also have a daughter named Celebrian--the wife of Elrond, and thus the mother of Arwen. And so . . . Galadriel, our supposed Mysterious Maiden of the Deep, Dark Wood, is a grandmother. Oops! So much for her maidenhood, and maidenhead.<br />
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It seems our fairy-tale expectations have been dashed on both sides of the gender wall: our Young Man is no gawky stripling, our Lady no blushing maiden. Yet at least part of the classic script IS adhered to: from the moment we meet Galadriel the sexual tension is there. How do we know this? Check out the fine gentlemen of the Fellowship for the classic symptoms: staring, stammering, blushing, head-hanging, general bashfulness, inuendo . . . and temptation.<br />
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One of the traditional functions of the Mysterious Lady is to serve as a temptress. Particularly in stories from Christian countries, the Lady acts to divert the hero from some appointed task such as finding the Holy Grail. And she does this, delicate and defenseless as she may appear, by wielding her sexuality as a weapon. The hero has his Pointy Thing, and she has hers. In <i>LotR</i> we see Galadriel perform exactly the function of temptress, using her telepathic powers to try to talk her guests into abandoning the Quest of Mount Doom. And the nature of the temptation is quite explicit. How "explict"? How do we usually use that word nowadays?<br />
<blockquote>If you want to know [says Sam], I felt as if I hadn't got nothing on, and I didn't like it. She seemed to be looking inside me and asking me what I would do if she gave me the chance of flying back home to the Shire to a nice little hole with--with a bit of garden of my own.</blockquote>Let's get this straight (and we are being quite hetero here): Galadriel gets Sam naked, and then she offers him a nice . . . little . . . <i>hole.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnTMXiEo6_1sb0ISjwgIN984ikZ1WpcKcusG-3hfnXK_WdXRAKRlsVbW42V72QrHF0-U_1XPHCUCEHRCwXjHs1ABqtD1C5v1hNhtKMCaxBvGkuxXA-N6LvJ5om-bVAMQufUlMnka0-ZQB/s1600/3+bagshot+row.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnTMXiEo6_1sb0ISjwgIN984ikZ1WpcKcusG-3hfnXK_WdXRAKRlsVbW42V72QrHF0-U_1XPHCUCEHRCwXjHs1ABqtD1C5v1hNhtKMCaxBvGkuxXA-N6LvJ5om-bVAMQufUlMnka0-ZQB/s320/3+bagshot+row.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
A hobbit hole! That's what he means! Of course he does! Something to live in . . . I mean with furniture! And bathrooms! And a--oh, a "garden," is it? Yes, a garden. A nice, quiet, secluded garden. A nice fertile garden. A garden chock full of . . . roses. Maybe a particular Rose. Maybe the one who will eventually give her husband <i>thirteen</i> children. <br />
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You mean to tell me you've been reading the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> all these years and you didn't notice that "nice little hole"? Get thee to a Viagra factory!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6awijyHAFM_2M19NHOxBrXLhaMbs3rMFHwGLPb6o65JrtHRHphnNAjePs8sfbMo31Zumn88I9rU0Vl0QjkCeoEDik-F1WOfYOE1EDx5QGEY9ImjNvdcspvTxaukdlH7Gx4Oaou26fFxR/s1600/edelfeldt-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6awijyHAFM_2M19NHOxBrXLhaMbs3rMFHwGLPb6o65JrtHRHphnNAjePs8sfbMo31Zumn88I9rU0Vl0QjkCeoEDik-F1WOfYOE1EDx5QGEY9ImjNvdcspvTxaukdlH7Gx4Oaou26fFxR/s200/edelfeldt-1.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>Who'd'a thunk it? Samwise Gamgee, the baby of the bunch, is the only member of the Fellowship to have explict (<i>very</i> explicit!) sexual fantasies. And Aragorn, our Young Man With Pointy Thing, is the one <i>least</i> affected by Galadriel's wiles. But then, this isn't the only ironic twist on traditional themes that Tolkien pitches us. For despite his patriarchal upbringing, Tolkien was a lot more comfortable with strong women than many authors, traditional or modern. Though he was no feminist, the Master of Middle-earth seemed not to be disturbed that his female characters occasionally climbed down off their courtly pedistals and . . . <i>wanted. </i>Eowyn wants Aragorn, Shelob wants to eat up the world, Ioreth wants someone to listen to her, and Galadriel . . . she wants something, alright. She wants it <i>bad.</i> And it ain't the Ring of Power, bucko!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">(to be continued)</div>m g meilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04903657908338924922noreply@blogger.com1