Most of the time i don't give much thought to language. I generally use whatever words come naturally for a given situation, pick up new terms and phrases from books, media, and my peers. But i have had the "1984" discussion concerning Newspeak a few times, as well as the discussion on why curse words are curse words. I mean they're just words, right? Isn't it the intent behind the words that matters? Oh right, the words you choose indicate what your intent is. But i'll save the larger discussion for another time and move on to the point of this post.
So i've started watching Battlestar Galactica (i'm only midway through the first season so please, no spoilers!! (No joke spoilers either, sil vous plait)). As you BSG fans out there know, their expletive of choice is "frak". Contextually it is a minced oath for (obviously) the word "fuck", and is proving to be just as versatile and hilarious, in my opinion. "Don't frak with me", "Oh, frak!", "We need to get off this *frakking* planet". And so on.
At first i thought it was just a lame attempt to get around the censors, but the word is so well-integrated into the dialogue; my compliments to the actors for embracing the term and making it sound natural. So natural, in fact, that it seems to have bled into my own vernacular; i've caught myself using the word quite a bit over the past few weeks. And this isn't like back in the 90s when i intentionally adopted a handful of British curses because they sounded so cool coming from Spike. No, it's reflexively the first expletive out of my mouth when something happens. Of course as soon as i hear it, it makes me laugh, so whatever pissed me off doesn't seem so bad anymore. So maybe this is a good thing.
Anyway, i have to go and file my frakking tax returns.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
i live here
In the pilot of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, station commander Benjamin Sisko spends some time kicking it with the aliens who live in the nearby wormhole (known to the Bajorans as the Prophets). The Prophets are not confined to an existance in linear time, and don't understand concepts such as past/present/future, life & death, etc. They speak to Sisko by taking on forms of people he knows, and flash him around to various points of his life (a la A Christmas Carol), trying to learn about him.
One scene they keep flashing to is the moment when his wife, Jennifer, died (two years prior, in the battle against the Borg at Wolf359). The Prophets keep saying "You live here", and Sisko keeps trying to explain that no, this happened in the *past*, and that he lives in the *present*. He grows increasingly agitated because they keep forcing him to relive the most painful experience of his life. Finally, out of sheer frustration, he cries "Dammit, why do you keep bringing me back here? You assholes!" They calmly reply "We are not bringing you here. *You* are bringing *us* here". Lightbulb. Sisko finally understands, and agrees, "I live here."
I've been giving a lot of thought to this idea recently; considering some of the scenes where i "live". Even when you've accepted things, moved on with your life, it can be incredibly difficult to stop going back to those places that had such an impact.
That's all, i guess; just wanted to share my little analogy. It's funny, even though i liked the story when i first saw that episode of DS9, i definitely appreciate it on a new level now.
On a related note, i was hanging out with a friend when he was in town a few weeks ago. During one of our discussions, i referenced the TNG episode "Tapestry". (I'll save that topic for another blog post). I later mentioned my usual comment of "Yeah, since i have a permanent tan, some people don't realize that i'm actually a suburban whiteboy from Michigan." He assured me, "Dude, seriously? You're a cracker. You just referenced STAR TREK to illustrate a point..." :-)
Seriously, though, Star Trek is a goldmine of reference material. I remember dring my summers home from college, i developed a tradition with one of my friends: We'd settle in at a local coffee house (usually the Caribou Coffee in downtown Birmingham, for those of you from back home) and spend the afternoon playing chess and arguing philosophy. He was well-read in the field, so for any topic he'd reference books by actual philosophers, schools of thought, etc. I, on the other hand, would back up my points with Star Trek references. Episodes, story arcs, choices that characters made and their consequences. Alternate realities and the space-time continuum (of course). It worked surprisingly well, and i enjoyed those discussions very much.
One scene they keep flashing to is the moment when his wife, Jennifer, died (two years prior, in the battle against the Borg at Wolf359). The Prophets keep saying "You live here", and Sisko keeps trying to explain that no, this happened in the *past*, and that he lives in the *present*. He grows increasingly agitated because they keep forcing him to relive the most painful experience of his life. Finally, out of sheer frustration, he cries "Dammit, why do you keep bringing me back here? You assholes!" They calmly reply "We are not bringing you here. *You* are bringing *us* here". Lightbulb. Sisko finally understands, and agrees, "I live here."
I've been giving a lot of thought to this idea recently; considering some of the scenes where i "live". Even when you've accepted things, moved on with your life, it can be incredibly difficult to stop going back to those places that had such an impact.
That's all, i guess; just wanted to share my little analogy. It's funny, even though i liked the story when i first saw that episode of DS9, i definitely appreciate it on a new level now.
On a related note, i was hanging out with a friend when he was in town a few weeks ago. During one of our discussions, i referenced the TNG episode "Tapestry". (I'll save that topic for another blog post). I later mentioned my usual comment of "Yeah, since i have a permanent tan, some people don't realize that i'm actually a suburban whiteboy from Michigan." He assured me, "Dude, seriously? You're a cracker. You just referenced STAR TREK to illustrate a point..." :-)
Seriously, though, Star Trek is a goldmine of reference material. I remember dring my summers home from college, i developed a tradition with one of my friends: We'd settle in at a local coffee house (usually the Caribou Coffee in downtown Birmingham, for those of you from back home) and spend the afternoon playing chess and arguing philosophy. He was well-read in the field, so for any topic he'd reference books by actual philosophers, schools of thought, etc. I, on the other hand, would back up my points with Star Trek references. Episodes, story arcs, choices that characters made and their consequences. Alternate realities and the space-time continuum (of course). It worked surprisingly well, and i enjoyed those discussions very much.
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