|
LITR 4368 Literature of the Future 
|
Sample answers
for Part 2:
|
 |
Audrey Lange
Philology of the Future: Linguistics and Language Formation in Future
Fiction
The introduction of language, as well as its
cycling innovations, changed the landscape of our world brutally. From the first
spoken word to modern meme culture, language refuses to be categorically
summarized or predicted. As humanity is wont to do, we assumed our languages
would remain static. That cannot be the case, and it seems humanity is currently
reckoning with this linguistic change today. Especially as we move into what was
called the “future” by science fiction, i.e. the 2010s and onward, we are
beginning to realize a new future is taking shape amongst our words, nestled
inside of our languages. Through the lens of this future-fiction, and with the
state of rapidly evolving modern technology, we begin to see a new future of
language take shape, one that could be plausible.
Language, and its many fields of study, encompass nearly all of human
expression. With respect to the confines of this essay, however, some terms
become more necessary than others when talking about how language changes.
Primarily, the focus of this essay will be philology, the study of languages’
structure and anthropological significance. As this essay explores futuristic
narratives in relation to language evolution, philology becomes extremely
important due to its focus on how words change humanity and vice versa.
Additionally, linguistics is extremely important when discussing the change that
speech and written word have on language. Linguistics informs us of the changes
in syntax, spelling, and grammar that happen when languages are changed.
Linguistics tells us what has changed, while philology tells us why.
H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” remains culturally
relevant in modernity, resisting the pull of much of science fiction now labeled
“vintage.” Integral to this resistance is Wells’ utter refusal to speculate
about what “the future” is: “The Time Machine” runs so far forward in its
narrative that what we know as modern storytelling will likely not survive to
the foretold time. Indeed, language as we currently understand it seems not to
survive within the narrative. The time traveller, upon meeting what the calls
the Eloi, watches as they “simply
stood round [him] smiling and speaking in soft cooing notes to each other”
(Wells 4.5). Language seems to have been left behind or forgotten in this future
in favor of pointing and noise-making. In an article regarding the creation of
alien languages within science fiction, Ria Cheyne explains that “as readers
encounter a created language (...), they only acquire information about the
language in order to understand the character of the beings who speak it” (396).
While trying to learn the language of the Eloi, the traveller realizes they have
no substantive words, only noises, but peculiarly, they do indicate specific
phrases (4.14). He finds them simple; thus, the information we receive is that
they are unintelligent, and that a lack of complex linguistic structures
indicates an absence of any sort of social progress.
If we assume that a lack of language makes a species unintelligent life, then
presumably, language that has progressed beyond our own means a society has
evolved past our current stage. Neologisms are words and expressions that arise
out of needing to express something beyond language’s current capabilities. They
can also take the form of pre-existing words repurposed to new meaning. Simply,
“a new idea will demand a new word, and a new word will be generated by a new
idea” (Westfahl 291). In Audrey Ferber’s “Drapes and Folds,” we see neologisms
begin to progress as the story goes on. Westfahl describes this phenomenon,
saying in essence, the longer your story is, the more new ideas it will create
or acknowledge, and thus, more neologisms (295). In “Drapes,” the population are
forced to wear “Bracies,” identical uniforms meant to enforce “conformity,
annihilation, the end of clothing as we’ve known it” (130). There are “nipples”
in walls that do not dispense milk, but specific flavors no longer allowed in
regular food (129). These inventions progress wildly beyond our current society,
even running counter to some of our current ideas, such as individualism. In
order to capture these ideas, the character’s language must change and progress
with the technology.
Ralph Lombreglia’s “Somebody Up There Likes Me”
focuses on the (mis)communication between a husband and wife in 1999. The main
character, Dante, exchanges troubled emails with his distant wife, Snookie.
Dante, despite being relatively proficient with technology, does not understand
its social implications of his technological use. His boss’ emails go unopened
and unanswered, effectively ending his career. His emails to his wife are “so
cold,” she describes him as monstrous (Lombreglia 208). What we see, however, is
not a monstrous man. The way these images are communicated indicates that
language is changing technology, and vice versa. Dante describes several
computers that have been rendered obsolete or are seemingly brand new. This
mimics one of the key points of David Wittenborough’s article on technological
advances: “technology might, at times, be plausibly imagined to develop
incrementally in a manner describable as evolutionary” (428). This evolution has
to be supported by change in other areas, which we do not see, specifically in
the realm of language and communication. We see that Dante runs his wife’s
emails through a randomized word processor in the hopes of finding something to
ease the tension (214); he finds that she simply cannot understand his desire to
rearrange her words (220). He sees it as a way to engage with the technology of
the future and enhance their lives; she sees it as absurdity, thus capitulating
the problems of a rapidly changing future.
Part of the changing language of the future is
not only how the language itself shifts, but also the delivery mechanism. We
move from verbal modes of communication into technological modes as we see in a
short story by Richard Goldstein titled “The Logical Legend of Heliopause and
Cyberfiddle.” One of the characters is described as trying to “snap a neurolink”
(161). Neurolinks are the new verbal conversations, the new cell phones, etc.
This paves the way for fully robotic or AI speech, but in the interim, we have
androids. In his article about post-human literature, Patrick Parrinder notes
that androids are “not intended as post-human beings but as para-human beings,
as replacements for the real thing” (60). Androids become the in-between step
from hard reality into cyberspace. “There is an inevitable progression,” one of
the characters says in “Heliopause”. “From the concrete to the abstract. (...)
Now we eschew materials entirely.” The character then severs the com-link, as if
to provide one final touch of unreality (165).
As the story wears on, the humanity of its
subjects is called wholly into question. Is it possible to be a human while not
possessing a body, or anything but a consciousness? Parrinder addresses this
idea in his article, saying “consciousness itself [would] end or vanish in a
humanity that has become completely etherealized, losing the close-knit
organism, becoming masses of atoms in space communicating by radiation, and
ultimately perhaps resolving itself entirely into light” (62). To this end, we
have to redefine humanity by its relationship to language. As communication
methods become more and more advanced and cerebral, at what point does it stop
being language and bleed into abstract ideas?
The nature of language is to change, to shift
with the ideas of the times, and to become obsolete when necessary. As humanity
moves into a more technologically advanced future, we begin to imagine the sort
of vocabulary our descendants will have in a hundred years, provided global
warming is halted. Futuristic literature can give us glances, inspiration, into
a future where we don’t necessarily use verbal language to communicate -- where
verbal language may be considered gauche, even. The way language changes, the
way it exists within and without us, is a shaping force. It is only a matter of
how we use it.
Works Cited
Cheyne, Ria. "Created Languages in Science Fiction."
Science Fiction Studies, vol. 35,
2008, pp. 386-403.
Ferber, Audrey. "Drapes and Folds."
Virtually Now: Stories of Science,
Technology and the Future, edited by Jeanne Schinto, Persea Books, 1993, pp.
126-40.
Goldstein, Richard. "The Logical Legend of Heliopause
and Cyberfiddle." Virtually Now: Stories
of Science, Technology and the Future, edited by Jeanne Schinto, Persea
Books, 2013, pp. 159-81.
Lombreglia, Ralph. "Somebody Up There Likes Me."
Virtually Now: Stories of Science,
Technology and the Future, edited by Jeanne Schinto, Persea Books, 1993, pp.
208-38.
Parrinder, Patrick. "Robots, Clones and Clockwork Men:
The Post-Human Perplex in Early Twentieth-Century Literature and Science."
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews,
vol. 34, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. 56-67.
Wells, H.G. The
Time Machine. William Heinemann, 1895.
Westfahl, Gary. "The Words That Could Happen: Science
Fiction Neologisms and the Creation of Future Worlds."
Extrapolation, vol. 34, no. 4, 1993,
pp. 290-304.
Wittenberg, David. "Indecision and Splendid Excess:
Analogies of Evolution in Stanislaw Lem’s
Summa Technologiae." Science Fiction
Studies, vol. 40, 2013, pp. 428-38.
