Jonathan Swift en Esperanto-vivo

Antonio De Salvo dufoje afiŝis pri Jonathan Swift:

Jonathan Swift (19 Oktobro 2020)

....kaj pli amplekse:

Jonathan Swift (30 Novembro 2019)

John Wilkins & Menace from the Moon

Now here's an interesting item!

Menace from the Moon. London: Jarrolds, 1925.

• Menace from the Moon (1925 novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• The Menace from the Moon (by Bohun Lynch): A review by Georges T. Dodds (SF Site, 2002)
• Lynch, Bohun (SFE, April 27, 2017)

See also:

• Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography
• Science Fiction & Utopia Research Resources: A Selective Work in Progress

Bohun Lynch (1884-1928) was known for other work, including his expertise as a caricaturist. This is his sole science fiction novel, which involves encountering the universal character of John Wilkins (1614-1672) on the Moon. Wilkins himself speculated on how one could travel to the Moon. This is documented in my earlier blog posts on Wilkins.

I was not aware of other uses of Wilkins in fiction, until now: according to the entry on Wilkins in SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

Wilkins appears as a character in Neal Stephenson's historical fantasia about the Enlightenment, The Baroque Cycle (2003-2004), where he is described as the author of a text called Quicksilver, which presumably represents a transubstantiation of Mercury (see above), a text named in the sequence.

There is some poetic justice here, given that the moon is the theme. This novel, unfortunately, is rarer than Lynch's other books. The Library of Congress, the world's largest library, has other books by this author but not this one. If I wanted to purchase a copy today, it would cost me US $120. 

Wilkins to the Moon

This is not the first time in recent memory an article has been published on his subject and documented on this blog. Here is another one:

The Man Who Planned A 17th Century Moon Landing (Curiosity)

This article links to the Atlas Obscura article I previously documented. In this article the faulty scientific assumptions of the time are outlined. Wilkins, nevertheless, was a visionary of the scientific revolution.

John Wilkins' 17​th​-Century Moon Mission

I have blogged about this before, once in Esperanto, once in English. These historical tidbits keep getting rediscovered, this time by one of my favorite enterprises, Atlas Obscura:

The 17​th​-Century Moon Mission That Never Got Off the Ground 
by NATALIE ZARRELLI,
Atlas Obscura, May 03, 2017
(Dr. John Wilkins’ lunar ambitions were a little too lofty.)

Wilkins' ideas were a combination of forward-thinking scientific and technological notions and faulty speculation. His conception of space travel is outlined here. His creation of a universal language is also noted, more than once.  Here is a tidbit new to me:

' A century later, some of Wilkins’ eclectic passions were the butt of small jokes; in a 1784 letter, historian Horace Walpole wrote: “I discovered an alliance between Bishop Wilkins’s art of flying, and his plan of universal language; the latter of which he no doubt calculated to prevent the want of an interpreter when he should arrive at the moon.” '

Let me repeat a few relevant links (see my Esperanto post for non-English links):

By Wilkins:

“A Journey to the Moon Possible” [from The Discovery of a New World (1638)], in English Prose: Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and General Introductions to Each Period; Vol. II. Sixteenth Century to the Restoration; edited by Henry Craik (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916).

The Discovery of a World in the Moone: Or, A Discovrse Tending To Prove That ’Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World In That Planet. Printed by E.G. for Michael Sparke and Edward Forrest, 1638. 

By someone else:

Ballad of Gresham College (1663) 

Jorge Luis Borges on Ray Bradbury (& John Wilkins & voyages to the Moon)

Ray Bradbury          /          Jorge Luis Borges

I have blogged previously on Borges's references to John Wilkins and artificial languages, also on Wilkins's other writings, in both English and Esperanto. Note this Esperanto post on Wilkins's writing of a voyage to the Moon:

John Wilkins (1614–1672) : artefarita lingvo & vojaĝo al Luno

Here is one translation of a related piece by Borges:

Preface to Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles", by Jorge Luis Borges

The translator is "Captain Wilder," who reproduces his translation with additional comments on the Ray Bradbury site.

There is an indirect reference to an interview, unrelated to Bradbury:

A Conversation With Jorge Luis Borges by Daniel Bourne (April 25, 1980) in Artful Dodge

See also Bradbury, Borges, and the Future of Media by Austin Allen (Big Think).

Returning to the linked "Wilder" translation: Borges begins not with Bradbury but with early writings about voyages to the moon, long before science fiction ("scientific romances") took shape in the 19th century:

"In the Second Century of our Era, Luciano de Samosata composed a truthful History, comprising, among other wonders, a description of the selenites who - according to the truthful historian - thread and comb metals and glass, put on and take off their eyes, drink air juice or squeezed air; in the early XVI century, Ludovico Ariosto imagined that a knight discovers on the Moon all that is lost on Earth, the tears and sighs of lovers, the time wasted in gambling, useless projects and unsatisfied longings. In the XVII Century, Kepler drafted a Somnium Astronomicum, that aspires to be the transcription of a book read in a dream, densely revealing in its pages the configuration and habits of the snakes of the Moon, that stay in deep caverns during the heat of the day and come out at dusk. Between the first and second of these imaginary trips there are thirteen hundred years, and between the second and the third, about a hundred; the first two are, however, irresponsible and free inventions and the third one is stalled by a thrive for credibility. The reason is clear. For Luciano and for Ariosto, a trip to the moon was a symbol or archetype of the impossible, as black feathered swans were for the Latin; for Kepler, it was already a possibility, as for us. Didn't John Wilkins, inventor of a universal language, publish in those years, his 'The Discovery of a World in the Moone: Or A Discourse Tending To Prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable World in that Planet' with an appendix titled "The possibility of a passage thither"?

In the 'Attic Nights' of Aulo Gelio, one reads that Arquitas the Pythagoric manufactured a wooden pigeon that flew in the air; Wilkins predicts an analog or similar mechanism will take us, someday, to the moon. By its nature of anticipation of a possible or probable future, the 'Somnium Astronomicum' precedes, unless I am mistaken, the new narrative genre that Americans of the North label 'science-fiction' or 'sciencefiction' and of which these Chronicles are an admirable example.

For Wilkins himself on the Moon see:

“A Journey to the Moon Possible” [from The Discovery of a New World (1638)], in English Prose: Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and General Introductions to Each Period; Vol. II. Sixteenth Century to the Restoration; edited by Henry Craik (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916).

The Discovery of a World in the Moone: Or, A Discovrse Tending To Prove That ’Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World In That Planet. Printed by E.G. for Michael Sparke and Edward Forrest, 1638.

There are additional related links (in English) on the relevant Esperanto page:

Ebleco de Vojaĝo al la Luno (el La Eltrovo de Nova Mondo) de John Wilkins, tradukis William Auld

John Wilkins & irony (3): Adorno postscript

In my first post on this subject, I mentioned:

"Ironic Serif: A Brief History of Typographic Snark and the Failed Crusade for an Irony Mark" by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings)

As it happens, Popova wrote another piece on punctuation concerning an author who commands a great deal of my attention:

Theodor Adorno on the Art of Punctuation by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings)

Adorno took punctuation very seriously, as evidenced by an essay I have not seen: “Punctuation Marks.”

A translation of it by Shierry Weber Nicholsen was first published in the Summer 1990 issue of the poetry journal The Antioch Review and later included in Jennifer DeVere Brody’s altogether excellent Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play (public library), the essay explores the “definitive physiognomic status” of each punctuation mark, its uses and abuses in the hands of writers, and how punctuation helps shed light on the relationship between language and music which, as we know, worked in tandem to help humanity evolve.

Popova proceeds to detail Adorno's views. Note that Adorno vehemently objected to punctuating ironic remarks. (Note also that she links to her article on the ironic serif.)

Note that Adorno's essay is discussed in Brody’s Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play, but it is not reprinted there. Adorno's essay was collected in book form here:

Adorno, Theodor W. “Punctuation Marks,” in Notes to Literature; Volume One, edited by Rolf Tiedemann, translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), pp. 91-97.

John Wilkins & irony (2)

I have created a web page with the relevant chapter in Wilkins where he discussed irony, along with a supplementary bibliography and web links:

• An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1668): Part III: Philosophical Grammar: Chapter 9: Syntax 
  by John Wilkins (with additional links & bibliography)

I have also updated the other two relevant bibliographies:

• Irony, Humor, & Cynicism Study Guide
• Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography

Here are the most relevant links and references not included in my previous post (but all are included in the web page on Wilkins):

Shady Characters: The secret life of punctuation:
Irony & Sarcasm marks, part 1 of 3 by Keith Houston

Trettien, Whitney Anne. ‘The Sound of the Printed Letter’: Orthography, Orthoepy, Print and Dictionaries in Print Culture. Thesis, Hood College, 2007. See also author’s web site.

‘The Sound of the Printed Letter’: Orthography, Orthoepy, Print and the Naturalization of English Dictionaries. Queen’s University, June 3-5, 2010. Excerpt from full work (above).

The Republic of Codes: Cryptographic Theory and Scientific Networks in the Seventeenth Century by Robert Batchelor, November 1, 1999 [Work in Progress]

Word and Self Estranged in English Texts, 1550-1660; edited by L. E. Semler, Philippa Kelly. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010.

John Wilkins & irony

You learn something old every day. For close to 50 years I've known about John Wilkins' An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (London, 1668), but I didn't know about this.

Irony punctuation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In 1688, John Wilkins in his famous Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language proposed using an inverted exclamation mark to punctuate ironic statements."

The source cited for this tidbit is:

Houston, Keith (2013). Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., pp. 212–214.

Much more detail is provided here:

"Ironic Serif: A Brief History of Typographic Snark and the Failed Crusade for an Irony Mark" by Maria Popova (Brain Pickings)

In the ancient world, however, humorists relied on their audience’s intellect to detect the irony and didn’t find it necessary to flag it as such. But by 17th-century England, writers had become increasingly restless about pointing out irony readers might miss, and so the first documented punctuation mark denoting irony was born in 1668, the brainchild of the English vicar and natural philosopher John Wilkins — brother-in-law of the royalists’ bête noire Oliver Cromwell, one-time head of Trinity College (of which pioneering astronomer Maria Mitchell wrote in her diaries that “in the opinion of a Cambridge man, to be master of Trinity is to be master of the world”), and eventually appointed as the first secretary of the newly founded Royal Society. Wilkins was a kooky character, who believed the moon was inhabited by aliens, proposed the construction of submarine “Arks,” invented transparent beehives that allowed for the extraction of honey without killing the bees inside, and wrote the very first book on cryptography published in English. But his most memorable accomplishment was the publication of his Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, in which he proposed, two centuries before the invention of Esperanto, a new universal language of letters and symbols — a sort of “steroidal, all-encompassing Dewey Decimal System where concepts were organized into a rigid hierarchy.”

Houston amplifies on the concerns of that era, characterized as "information overload". Popova continues:

What prompted Wilkins to propose this punctuational improvement remains unknown, but we do know that he was neither the only nor the first thinker who pondered the problem. Some sixty years earlier, the revered Dutch Renaissance humanist and social critic Desiderius Erasmus, after whom Rotterdam’s prestigious Erasmus University is named, lamented the lack of punctuation for irony, observing that “irony has no place, only different pronunciation.”

We do not know whether Wilkins was aware of Erasmus' comments. In any case, Wilkins' lesser-known proposal sank along with his highly touted artificial language, which Houston characterizes as the "last best hope" of the philosophical-language movement of the era. The balance of the ill-fated history of the irony mark, which continues to our day, is an equally fascinating story, and the question is addressed as to why it never caught on, even in the Internet era.

Considering that the purpose of the philosophical language movement was to create a logically tight structured means of discourse as an aid to the scientific revolution, it is all the more ironic that Wilkins would also be concerned about irony.

Further research is indicated.

Additional links:

Irony, Humor, & Cynicism Study Guide

Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography

An Essay Toward a Real Character and a Philosophical Language by John Wilkins

Ironisigno- Vikipedio

Artefaritaj lingvoj per Maria

Artefaritaj lingvoj ĉe blogo Esperanto de Maria ne montras freŝajn informojn, sed montras belajn bildojn en eleganta prezento de projektoj el la epoko de filozofiaj lingvoj.

Dante

Jan Amos Komensky

Leibniz

Ramón Llull

  

John Wilkins

Science fiction, utopia ... & the Hungarian contribution

Here is my 10th podcast, recently recorded:

5/6/14 Science Fiction, Utopia, and the End of Imagination (1)  (57:57) 

I tell a story interweaving the developments in ideas of utopia, dystopia, and in science fiction from the 16th century to the future. I briefly discuss the utopias of the 16th and 17th centuries and the proto-science fiction of the 17th and 18th centuries. The bulk of my presentation focuses on the 19th century, in which science fiction takes shape, new utopian prospects arise, dystopian scenarios emerge, and the future is invented. I begin the story of true science fiction with "Frankenstein" (1818) and continue with developments in France and the USA, with an excursion into futuristic works from Hungary. I discuss key roles played by Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edgar Page Mitchell. I review the history of time travel fiction prior to and including H. G. Wells. I then summarize developments in utopianism. Towards the end of the 19th century dystopian works appear. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1895) marks a historical turning point, as do his other science fiction and futuristic works. Finally, I review key dystopian works covering the years 1920-1970.

The Hungarian literary contribution does not play a sizable role in my podcast, but others would neglect it completely. I mention the historical significance of Imre Madách's The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája, 1861), Mór Jókai's The Novel of the Next Century (a.k.a. A Novel of the Coming Century; A jövő század regénye, 1872), and Sándor Szathmári's Voyage to Kazohinia (in English, 1975, 2012; in Hungarian, first (censored) edition, Kazohinia (Gulliver utazása Kazohiniában), 1941; in Esperanto, Vojaĝo al Kazohinio, 1958) and Maŝinmondo (Machine-World, in Esperanto, 1964).

Jonathan Swift, Gulivero, filozofiaj lingvoj, & Esperanto

Mi jam blogis (anglalingve) pri Jonathan Swift, aŭtoro de La Vojaĝoj de Gulivero. Tiu verko speciale interesus esperantistojn pro du kialoj.

La hungaraj verkistoj kaj esperantistoj Frigyes Karinthy kaj Sándor Szathmári utiligis la rolanton Guliveron en siaj romanoj Vojaĝo al Faremido & Kapilario, kaj Vojaĝo al Kazohinio.

La dua interespunkto estas ke, en la tria parto de La Vojaĝoj de Gulivero (Vojaĝo al Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, kaj Japanio) Swift prezentas satiron de la siaepokaj filozofiaj artefaritaj lingvoj (el kiu la plej fama estas tiu de John Wilkins). Antaŭ pli ol duonjarcento aperis Esperanta traduko de tiu rakonto, en Angla Antologio, kaj lastatempe mi enretigis ĝin:

 La Granda Akademio en Lagado, el: Vojaĝo al Balnibarbi de Jonathan Swift, tradukis William Auld

En la sama antologio troveblas alia ĉerpaĵo el la sama verko, ankaŭ de mi enretigita:

 La Struldbrugoj; El: Vojaĝo al Lugnago de Jonathan Swift, tradukis William Auld

Swift povus esti taksata pioniro de sciencfikcio. Pri la revoj tiutempaj, rimarku ankaŭ:

 Ebleco de Vojaĝo al la Luno (el La Eltrovo de Nova Mondo) de John Wilkins, tradukis William Auld

Partoj de La Vojaĝoj de Gulivero ricevis Esperantajn tradukojn, el kiuj unu haveblas interrete:

El "Vojaĝoj de Gulivero," en: Legolibro por kursanoj (Tangerud, Odd), p. 25-31.

Gulliver en Liliputlando (mallongigita), trad. M. Inman, ilustrita de J. R. Monsell. Londono: Speaight and Sons, [proks. 1910]. 62 p. Re-eldono: Gulivero en Liliputo, lingve reviziita, Inko, 2002.

Unua vojaĝo de Gulivero: Liliputo, el angla lingvo trad. Ethel M. Prent, antaŭparolo de Edward Ockey. London: Maitland, 1961. 63 p.

La vojaĝoj de Gulivero. I: Vojaĝo al Liliputlando, esperantigis Jos. A. de Roos. Tilburgo: Smits, 1933. 112 p.

Ekzistas tradukoj de aliaj verkoj de Swift en Esperanto:

 Ĉiama Aktualaĵo (Bononcinni swears that Handel...), trad. AEW, La Brita Esperantisto, 1909, p. 109.

 Meditado pri balailo [ĉerpaĵo], trad. AEW, La Brita Esperantisto, 1911, p. 226.

John Wilkins (1614–1672) : artefarita lingvo & vojaĝo al Luno

John Wilkins estas bone konata (ankaŭ inter esperantistoj) kiel pionira verkinto de artefarita aprioria 'filozofia lingvo'. Li estas eminenta ankaŭ kiel kunfondinto de la 'Royal Society' (t.e. Reĝa Societo, pionira brita scienca institucio) kaj promocianto de la nova scienco.

Oni povus ankaŭ konsideri lin pioniro de sciencfikcio kaj konceptigo de interplaneda vojaĝado. Jen lastatempe enretigitaj aferoj:

• Ebleco de Vojaĝo al la Luno (el La Eltrovo de Nova Mondo) de John Wilkins, tradukis William Auld. El verko de 1638.

• Ballad of Gresham College (1663)
  El satira poemo/kanzono pri la Reĝa Societo, alude al la filozofia lingvo de Wilkins

William Blake vs 17th-18th century linguistics (2)

Essick, Robert N. William Blake and the Language of Adam. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

See previous post on this topic for table of contents, etc. And see my web site for:

•      Introduction: on the state of scholarship on Blake as artist & as poet, & on previous studies of Blake's linguistic concepts, the focus of this book: Blake compared to the rationalist & empiricist linguistic ideas of the 17th & 18th centuries


•      William Blake vs Rationalist Linguistics (Excerpt) from Chapter 3: Natural Signs and the Fall of Language; pp. 133-135.

William Blake vs 17th-18th century linguistics

Essick, Robert N. William Blake and the Language of Adam. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Contents

       List of Plates                                                                      ix

       Note on Texts                                                                      x

       Introduction                                                                         1

1.    Adam Naming the Beasts and its Companions            6

2.    In Pursuit of the Motivated Sign                                     28

3.    Natural Signs and the Fall of Language                        104

4.    Language and Modes of Production                              160

5.    The Return to Logos                                                        195

       Afterword: Romantic Languages and Modern

            Methodologies                                                           237

       Bibliography                                                                   240

       Index                                                                               261

Here two usually distinct lines of humanistic inquiry intersect: Blake studies and the history of linguistics and the scientific revolution. Conceptions of language and signification, evolving with the rationalism and empiricism of early modern philosophy and science, are challenged by Blake’s radically different world view.

Of particular interest here is Chapter 2, in which Blake’s view of language is contrasted with the philosophical languages of the 17^th and 18^th centuries—Wilkins, Dalgarno, etc.—a comparison one does not often see. See also pp. 133-135 for more on John Wilkins.

Presumably here one can learn more about the historically evolving dialectic between scientism and romanticism in the modern world.

Jonathan Swift: standardizing English vs. philosophical languages?

I blogged before on Swift's satire of the philosophical languages of John Wilkins and others in Gulliver's Travels. Part III. A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan; Chapter V:

Jonathan Swift & philosophical languages

In that post I linked also to other studies of the relation of Swift to the linguistics and notions about language in his time.

Now I want to point out another facet of Swift's ideas about language. This essay can be found all over the web, presumably; here's one link:

A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue by Jonathan Swift

Various essays contextualize Swift's intervention:

An Introduction to: A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue

"How barbarously we yet write and speak...": The 18th Century & the Origins of Prescriptive Grammar

Jonathan Swift and Language (Background): Notes on Swift and Language and Restoration History by John Dylan McNeill

Our Fallen Tongue: Jonathan Swift's Indictment of Humanity in Part IV of Gulliver's Travels by John Dylan McNeill

Swift and the English Language by suture

Language and the Hostility of Time: The Failure of Swift's Prescriptivism in A Proposal for Correcting, Improvingand Ascertaining the English Tongue by Jukka Tiusanen

My previous post links to articles that juxtpose Swift to Wilkins et al. This monograph does so as well, with an extensive treatment of Swift's ideas about language:

Language and Reality in Swift's A Tale of a Tub by Frederik N. Smith

Wilkins' founding role in the Royal Society and his speculations on a voyage to the Moon, in relation to Swift's satirical works, are also topics for investigation.

Jonathan Swift & philosophical languages

When my freshman honors English class in high school tackled Gulliver's Travels, I recognized something my teacher did not:

Gulliver's Travels. Part III. A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan. Chapter V (extract) by Jonathan Swift

I knew what Swift was satirizing here, but the class persisted in its Pavlovian literary conditioning.

As it turns out, Swift was deeply engaged in the linguistic issues of his time. Here are some juicy references on the subject:

Bishop, Julie Alexandra. Language at Work in Jonathan Swift. PhD thesis, Dept. of English Literary and Linguistic Studies, University of Newcastle, December 1998.

Francus, Marilyn. The Converting Imagination: Linguistic Theory and Swift's Satiric Prose. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994.

McKenny, John. "Swift's Prescience: a Polite Precursor of Corpus Linguistics," Journal of Language and Literature, Volume 2, Number 1, 2003.

Mulhall, Anne. "Gulliver’s Travels and the Language Debates of Swift’s Time," in Les voyages de Gulliver: Mondes lointains ou mondes proches, ed. Daniel Carey and François Boulaire (Caen: Presses universitaires de Caen, 2002), pp. 63-79.

And sure enough, Swift, Wilkins, and Borges are cited in connection with ars combinatoria:

Het combinatorisch perspektief op de wereld en de kunst (@ Institute of Artificial Art, Amsterdam)

Samuel R. Delany, sciencfikcio, & interlingvistiko

La temo de interlingvistiko plurfoje interagas kun la sfero de sciencfikcio. Kompreneble, artefaritaj lingvoj por literaturaj/artaj celoj, iam la kaŝplezuro de J. R. R. Tolkien, multobliĝis en la pasintaj du jardekoj, kaj oni trovas plurajn artefaritajn lingvojn konstruitajn speciale por sciencfikciaj romanoj aŭ filmoj. Plej ofte ili estas esence trivialaĵoj, sed de tempo al tempo eniras filozofie interesaj aŭ incitaj ideoj.

Nu, mi dokumentis anglalingvajn verkojn kiuj traktas lingvajn konceptojn en sciencfikciaj verkoj en mia bibliografio:

Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography

Jen kelkaj koncernaj verkoj:

Barnes, Myra Edwards. Linguistics and Languages in Science Fiction-Fantasy. New York: Arno Press, 1975 (1971).

Conley, Tim; Cain, Stephen. Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages, foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.

Meyers, Walter E. Aliens and Linguists: Language Study and Science Fiction. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.

Pli grava ol la nura ekzisto de artefaritaj lingvoj estas la esplorataj filozofiaj konceptoj pri la lingvo. Ekzemple, jen libro, nomita klasikaĵo, kiun mi akiris sed ankoraŭ ne legis:

The Embedding, de Ian Watson.

Nu, mia favorata scienfikcia verkisto (rigardu foton supre) kiu aperis en la 1960aj jaroj estas la genia Samuel R. Delany (1942- ), kiu cetere estas la unua sukcesa usonnegra sciencfikcia verkisto, kaj ankaŭ geja (ambaŭ faktoj kiuj disfamiĝis dum la progreso de lia kariero).

Oni trovos interesajn konceptojn pri la lingvo en la  romano Babel-17 (1966). Ĉi tiu afero kaj sia konekso kun la historio de artefaritaj lingvoj estas esplorata en la jenaj artikoloj:

Collings, Michael R. “Samuel R. Delany and John Wilkins: Artificial Languages, Science, and Science Fiction," in Reflections on the Fantastic: Selected Es says from the Fourth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, edited by Michael R. Collings (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 61-68.

Malmgren, Carl. “The Languages of Science Fiction: Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17,” in Ash of Stars: On the Writing of Samuel R. Delany, edited by James Sallis (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996), pp. 3-16. (Originally published in Extrapolation, vol. 34, no. 1.)

Mi ne memoras ajnan tradukon aŭ mencion de Delany en Esperanto. La jena retpaĝo resumas la temon kaj ties variantojn en sciencfikcio:


Future Language (Atomic Rockets, June 17, 2012)

Enestas mencio de Esperanto kaj Harry Harrison (fakte lastatempe mortinta), sed nur negative kiel difektplena lingvo.

Mi referencis la romanon de Delany Empire Star [Imperi-Stelo] (1966) en mia anglalingva omaĝo al esperantista verkisto Endre Tóth (kiun kune kun alia materialo mi baldaŭ tradukos Esperanten):

A Memorial Tribute to Endre Toth

Tiurilate mi citis por komparo la konceptaron inventitan por tiu verko de Delany: Simplex, Complex, and Multiplex [simpleco, komplekseco, plurplekseco].

Leibniz, race, nation . . . & universal language!

I am amazed when two entirely separate interests unexpectedly intersect. In this case, I had just acquired a book on the issue of racism in early modern philosophy. (I am footnoted in the essay on Spinoza.) I turned to this essay on Leibniz:

Fenves, Peter. “Imagining an Inundation of Australians; or, Leibniz on the Principles of Grace and Race,” in Race and Racism in Modern Philosophy, edited by Andrew Valls (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005), pp. 73-89.

The editor Andrew Valls summarizes Fenves' argument on p. 10. To add to it: Leibniz is mistakenly identified as a pioneer in the advocacy of 'race' as a concept, where in actuality he never endorsed François Bernier's work. The closest he came to advocacy of noxious distinctions was in his youthful proposal to unite the powers of Europe in a campaign of conquest of the 'semi-beasts' of the non-Christian world and even to indoctrinate them as servile conscripts in this campaign. Liebniz's views of language are relevant here, and may be damning in a way that we would not otherwise realize. The concept of race, though, is not at issue. Leibniz's mature philosophy makes the concept of race practically unworkable, as, according to the monadology the classification of individuals and their conceptual subsumption into larger groups becomes metaphysically problematic. Furthermore, he revises his notions of non-Christian non-Europeans, taking the example of 'Australians', and argues that as rational beings they could be converted to Christianity.

This is certainly interesting, and as far as the military campaign is concerned, even more damning than what most people know about Leibniz's proposal for the invasion of Egypt as a deflection from the prospect of war in Europe. But the unexpected twist here is that there is a connection to Leibniz's interest in a universal language (and his advocacy of national languages and national particularity, e.g. with respect to German) and even to the taxonomy of the most successful inventor of an a priori artificial language, John Wilkins!

Who knew? But you can read the relevant extract for yourself:

Leibniz on Language, Race, and Nation

Kiu regas la konceptojn?

Verkite 30 Oct 2007:

La kampo de komunikado:
Kiu regas la konceptojn?
Le Monde Diplomatique en Esperanto
de Armand MATTELART

[RESUMO:] Por kio utilas komunikado? Oni provas kredigi al ni, ke ĝi povas unuigi kaj pacigi la mondon. Ke sufiĉus tutmondiĝo kaj tutglobiĝo de komerco - danke al aparte la parigo de komputilo kaj telefono, kaj al disvolvo de Interreto – por ke la sociaj, politikaj aŭ militaj konfliktoj kvietiĝu kaj malaperu. Temas kompreneble pri mito. Disvastigata de tiuj, kiuj regas la konceptojn. El tio fontas la ega graveco de la nuntempe okazanta vortobatalo.

Jen interesa artikolo, interalie pro devojiĝo de la ĉefa temo.

(1) Degenero de lingvaĵo kaj penskapablo; interesaj esprimoj, ekz.:

Dum la vorto-merkato pli kaj pli reduktiĝis al la vortoj de la merkato, pliintensiĝis la ŝrumpo de la konceptoj, kiujn ni uzas por nomi la staton kaj la estonton de la mondo.

Kaj:

La fragila grundo de la vortoj favorigis prosperon de amneziaj neologismoj, kiuj produktas «realeco-efektojn» tra la agomodeloj, kiujn ili enkadrigas kaj prezentas kiel sole eblaj. La plurjarcenta mond-unueciga movado troviĝis senigita je sia historio kaj konflikta geopolitiko, kaj reduktita je fenomeno apenaŭ malpli ol 20-jara.

(2) Referenco al verkisto Jorge Luis Borges & artefaritaj lingvoj:

La «tutmonda socio de informado» apogiĝas je trietaĝa historio. Kerne de tiu «novlingvo» ĉefas la nocioj «socio de informado» kaj «tutmondigita socio de informado», elstarigitaj kiel dominaj paradigmoj de socia ŝanĝo kaj garantiaĵoj de pli travidebla mondo. Tiu paro aperas en la 17a kaj 18-a jarcentoj kun la pensmaniero de numereblo kaj mezureblo kiel prototipoj de ia vera diro. Ĝia pli aktuala historio komenciĝis ĉe la fino de la dua mondmilito kaj daŭris dum la du sekvantaj jardekoj. Ĝia mallongdaŭra historio, la tempo-spaco kiun historiistoj nomas «nun-ismo» funkciis sub influo de konkurado al aktualeco.

Neniu pli bone parolis pri la longdaŭro ol la argentina verkisto Jorge Luis Borges, kiam li referencas al la mito de konstruo de artefarita lingvo, kundividata de iuj kiel fundamento de universala komunumo kaj de perfekta komunikado. Jen la kongreso imagita de Don Alejandro Glencoe en El libro de arena (La libro de sablo). Jen la ĥimero de arbitra konstruo de analiza lingvo la John Wilkins en Enketoj. La inventinto de kibernetiko Norbert Wiener en 1948 nomumis Leibniz sankta patrono de tiu nova scienco, ne nur ĉar tiu inventis la binaran kodon kaj diferencialan kalkulon, sed ĉar, tra sia projekto pri aŭtomatigo de rezonado, ankaŭ li provis krei «artefaritan» lingvon, lingva characteristica, senigitan je la naturaj malvirtoj, el kiuj fontas miskompreno kaj misakordo, lingvon kiu kapablu kontribui al kreado de universala komunumo.