A Curious Expedition to Esperanto-land

Welcome to the web site Curious Expeditions: "We, your humble explorers, are devoted to unearthing and documenting the wondrous, the macabre, and the obscure from around the globe." They have not overlooked Esperanto in their adventures.

Here is a beautifully presented introduction to Esperanto:

Doktoro Esperanto, December 8th, 2007

Here, with some nice images, one will learn about Teodoro Schwartz and his son George Soros, William Shatner and Incubus, the Esperanto Museum in Vienna, products with Esperanto names, the Republic of Rose Island whose official language was Esperanto, and persecutions of the Zamenhof family, the Esperanto movement, and Esperantists.

There are two other blog entries mentioning Esperanto:

A Steampunk Galaxy, December 3rd, 2007

"Vienna is the place to go for obscure museums. From the Undertaker’s Museum to the Clown and Circus Museum to the Esperanto Museum, it is nigh impossible to decide which to see during a short visit."

Gloomy Sunday, July 16th, 2008

"Following the worldwide press of the song that drove people to their deaths, Gloomy Sunday became a hit, covered by more than 40 artists around the globe, in many different languages (including our favorite, Esperanto)."

George Eliot kontraŭ Universala Lingvo (2)

Kompareblas la historiaj kondiĉoj de la socio kaj de la lingvo. Oni devas cedi, ke la lingvaĵo de evoluintaj nacioj troviĝas en ia ajn stato krom racia; la grandaj sekcioj de la civilizita mondo nur iom reciproke kompreneblas, kaj tiel nur je kosto de longdaŭra studado; unu vorto portas multajn signifojn, kaj pluraj vortoj signifas unu aferon; la subtilaj nuancoj de signifoj, kaj eĉ pli subtilaj eĥoj de asociado, konsistigas el la lingvo instrumenton kiun apenaŭ io krom genio kapablas utiligi kun difiniteco kaj certeco. Do supozu ke la penado kiu multfoje direktiĝis al konstruo de universala lingvo racia finfine sukcesus, kaj ke oni havus lingvon sen necerteco, kapricaj idiotismoj, maloportunaj formoj, sporadaj trembriloj de buntaj signifoj, antikvaj arkaikaĵoj "familiaraj kun forgesitaj jaroj"—evidenta senodorigita ne-resonanta lingvo, kiu plenumas la celon de komunikado tiel perfekte kaj rapide kiel algebraj signoj. Via tia lingvo estus perfekta medio de esprimado je la scienco, sed neniam esprimos la vivon, kio ege superas la sciencon. Kune kun la anomalioj kaj ĝenoj de historia lingvaĵo, vi estos forlasinta ĝiajn muzikon kaj pasion, ĝiajn vivigajn kvalitojn kiuj esprimas individuan karakteron, ĝiajn subtilajn povojn de sprito, ĉion, kio potencigas ĝin je imagopovo; kaj la venonta paŝo de simpligo estos invento de parolanta poshorloĝo, kiu atingos la plejajn facilecon kaj rapidecon je komunikado de ideoj per laŭgradaj alĝustigoj de tiktakoj, reprezentotaj skribe per korespondaj aranĝoj de punktoj. Jen melankolia "lingvo de la futuro!" Tiuj sensaj kaj motoraj nervoj kiuj kune eninge pulsas, apenaŭ ligiĝas per pli necesa kaj delikata unuiĝo ol tio kio kunligas homajn afekciojn, imagopovon, spriton, kaj humoron, kun la subtilaj disbranĉiĝoj de historia lingvaĵo. Oni devas lasi la lingvon mem kreski je precizo, kompleteco, kaj unuiĝo, kiel mensoj kreskas je klareco, amplekso, kaj simpatio. Kaj estas analoga rilato inter la moralaj emoj de homoj kaj sociaj kondiĉoj hereditaj. La karaktero de eŭropaj homoj havas radikojn interplektitajn kun la pasinteco, kaj povas evolui nur per laso de tiuj radikoj nealtruditaj dum evoluado procedas, ĝis tiu perfekta maturiĝo de la semo kiu kunportas vivon sendependan de la radiko. Ĉi tiu viva konekso kun la pasinteco pli vive senteblas ĉe la Kontinento ol en Anglujo, kie ni devas rememori ĝin per strebo de memoro kaj medito; ĉar, kvankam nia angla vivo estas kerne intense tradicia, Protestantismo kaj komerco modernigis la aspektojn de la lando kaj socio multe pli multe ol en iu ajn surkontinenta lando:—

FONTO: George Eliot, "The Natural History of German Life" [La naturhistorio de germana vivo], The Westminster Review (July 1856), Vol. 66 (old series), 10 (new series), pp. 51-79. Tradukis Ralph Dumain.

Vi trovos la originalan anglalingvan elĉerpaĵon ĉi-bloge. Vikipedio enhavas skizon pri George Eliot.

Steampunk / Vaporpunko

First, introductions via Wikipedia & Vikipedio. While I have encountered manifestations of what is now called Steampunk, the term--the named genre--is new to me. Back in the 1960s I watched the TV series The Wild Wild West, an obvious precursor or example of the genre. (And, a few days ago, I made it halfway through the ineptly executed film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) Someone had to name the confluence of science fiction, the historical novel, and alternate history scenarios into a single concept. It's a new focal point for elements that are not so new. Yet I suspect it fits into the self-reflexive character of our time.

I wrote about the increasing profile of self-referential cultural artifacts in a 1993 essay:

Cultural Sophistication and Self-Reference on American Television: Seeds of Hope?

Owing to the acceleration of social and cultural change, it becomes obvious how drastically basic social assumptions are different now than from decades past, which has long been a device pursued by TV series, most recently the runaway hit Mad Men. Also, I've long held the view that all the avant-gardes have done their work, that we have reached the end of the line, and what's left to us is retrospective engagement, combined with a recombinant orientation towards cultural elements, also a long-standing feature of avant-gardes. Combining all this with alternative history, it makes sense that writers would add to the mere possibility of alternative outcomes for critical historical/political events (the Civil War, World War II, assassinations of heads of state, etc.) alternative technological, cultural, and aesthetic developments, as an extension of a retrospective, self-reflexive orientation. This becomes yet another manifestation of an all-encompassing artistic ars combinatoria.

Given that the Steampunk era coincides with the rise of artificial languages as a mass social phenomenon, I would naturally be interested in the intersection of Steampunk with Volapük and Esperanto, and less likely, other artificial languages.

I have already blogged about Andrew Drummond's novel A Hand-Book of Volapük, which is in the neighborhood of steampunk, a genre admired by Drummond. See An interview with Andrew Drummond (2006).

Note also Michael Chabon's popular Yiddish Policemen's Union, which also pays homage to Zamenhof and Esperanto. See The Grad Students Who Mocked Michael Chabon's Science Fiction by Charlie Jane Anders.

Volapük is featured also in Spook Country by William Gibson, godfather of cyberpunk.

But here's the pay-off for you super-nerds: you can join . . .

League of Steampunk Esperantists (GVE), a unit of The Steampunk Empire.

Graham Greene & Esperanto (3): Stamboul Train

Jen raporto pri utiligo de Esperanto en romano Stamboul Train:

Jul 11, 2002:
Pri Greene kaj Esperanto:

En lia romano Stambul Train la ĉefpersono, la hungar-origina Czinner trajne traveturas Budapeŝton. El sia kupeo li vidas kaj deĉifras iujn skribojn, sed li bedaŭras ne kompreni ilin, ĉar ili estas « en lingvo kiun li de longe forgesis » (mi citas elmemore). La kunteksto evidentigas ke devas temi pri la hungara. Aŭ devus – ĉar la vortoj estas fakte en Esperanto.

Laŭ mia privata supozo, dum la verkado Greene devis konstati ke li ne havas eĉ frazlibron hungaran ĉemane, kaj li trompetis sian publikon, pigre konsultinte surbretan Esperantaĵon.

Amike
Istvan Ertl

Jaŝovardan el Germanio faris prelegon je 20 aŭgusto 2010 ĉe la Londona E-Klubo pri la temo "Uzo de Esperanto en Fervoja Romano "Stamboul Train" de Graham Greene".

Graham Greene & Esperanto (2): The Confidential Agent

Graham Greene's novel The Confidential Agent (1939) contains an obvious parody of Zamenhof and Esperanto.

Kafejo.com : Auxlang Mentions : The Confidential Agent

Here we find a few quotes and samples of Entrenationo, the artificial language of Dr. Bellows, who greets his visitors in his language: "Me tray joyass."

There is an entry on Graham Greene in Vikipedio, the Esperanto version of Wikipedia, but no mention of Greene's references to Esperanto in several of his novels.

The Confidential Agent was watered down beyond recognition in a 1949 Escape radio adaptation, which you can listen to online. No Dr. Bellows here.

The novel was made into a film in 1945, in which the character Dr. Bellows appears. I have not seen this.

Greene's novel is mentioned in passing in this article:

Esperanto and the ideology of constructed languages
By Donald Broadribb, International Language Reporter, 2nd Quarter 1970, pp. 1-9.

The blog Running like hell in the land of overkill has an entry that begins:

June 5, 2003 Brookline
Up at seven A.M., Boston time. I weigh 184 pounds. Went downtown for an interview at the language school. Such an odd air to all of those places, captured perfectly by Graham Greene in one of his novels. Always remember the Esperanto teacher in his rubber shoes, poking his nose into classrooms.

Greene portrayed the informal (but high pressure) sales pitches that all these schools employ. It's quasi-religious. Remember how, returning from Rome to Paris, I saw an Esperanto school from the metro somewhere near Place d'Italie. What qualifications must one have to work there. Are there any native speakers of Esperanto, for example?

This article by a noted linguistics scholar gives us the most information on Greene's attitudes about language:

Going Especially Careful in The Third Man: A Linguistic Exploration by David Crystal.
Paper given to the Graham Greene Festival, Berkhamsted, September 2009.

Crystal finds the danger-signals in Greene's novel often connected with language. Artificial languages are markers of especially ominous developments. 

Graham Greene & Esperanto (1): quotes from novels

He went on, 'All the same, the other does represent a mood. It's we who are the materialists. The scrapping of all the old boundaries, the new economic ideas . . . the hugeness of the dream. It is attractive to men who are not tied—to a particular village or town they don't want to see scrapped. People with unhappy childhoods, progressive people who learn Esperanto, vegetarians who don't like shedding blood.'

SOURCE: Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear (1943).

---

It was a very obscure poem, full of words which were like Esperanto. He thought: So this is English poetry: how odd.

SOURCE: The Power and the Glory (1940).

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There were coloured photographs of naked girls outside and in night-club Esperanto one neon-lighted word, Strippteese.

SOURCE: Our Man in Havana (1958).

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. . . he was like a man without a passport, without a nationality; like a man who could only speak Esperanto.

SOURCE: England Made Me (1935).

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And besides he was happy here, sitting where the rat had sat, in his own world. He began to think of the Esperanto, and of the next day's work.

* * *

"One more glass," the captain of the Esperanto, said.

SOURCE: The Heart Of The Matter (1948).

---

For the most part, Greene's references to Esperanto are negative. In my next post I will focus on Greene's novel The Confidential Agent (1939), which includes a satirized Zamenhof-like figure and his artificial language Entrenationo, along with some secondary sources that highlight Greene's negative disposition towards Esperanto and artificial languages.

Solresol web guide / retgvidilo

Jen retgvidilo pri muzika lingvo Solresol, kreaĵo de la 19a jarcento. Rigardu ankaŭ blogeron "Solresol Vivas!"

I have already written about contemporary interest in Solresol, Sudre's 19th century musical language, in Esperanto under the title "Solresol Vivas!" on this blog. Now see my guide to Solresol on the web, a section of my Esperanto & Interlinguistics Study Guide.

Amazon.com lists this curious monograph:

Musical Languages: Whistled Languages, Pirahã Language, Supyire Language, Language of the Birds, Silbo Gomero Language, Solresol, Soundpainting. Books LLC, 2010.

The chapter on Solresol in Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly is based on an article in McSweeney's, which also includes diagrams at the end of the article:

“The Strange and Epic and Tragic Trajectory of Solresol, The Universal Musical Language, and of Its Creator, Monsieur Sudre,” McSweeney’s 5, pp. 50-66.