Author: Ann Aubrey Hanson

Language Is Identity

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I’ve been writing lately about the power of language, even down to the importance of individual letters for freedom of speech, so imagine my interest when I ran across this sentence in a book I was editing (Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media, by Jaffer Sheyholislami).

“When admitting the fact that writing in Kurdish is so difficult that it pushes her to quit, Tewar writes:

‘But, I cannot quit . . . Language is a part of me. Words are mirrors that reflect my ideas and feelings . . . Without [our] language we are nothing . . . A language is as important as a country, history and flag . . . Language is a part of our personality . . . Language is identity . . . To express your inner thoughts and feelings … you need the language of feelings and the soul; no language is closer to one’s feelings and soul than the mother tongue . . . When writing we might make mistakes . . . We may not have a rich vocabulary . . . but, let’s not quit; let’s continue [writing].’ (Tewar, 2002a)

“For Tewar, language is important as a national symbol in defining a people; it is also a decisive factor in defining a person. This idea that the mother tongue is a strong link between the individual and the nation has been advocated by prominent scholars of nationalism and language as well.”

In another book I just edited, I learned that the Zaza Kurds of Turkey have an oral language; the Turkish government has forbidden any written record of their language, so that Zaza history, Zaza literature, and Zaza music must all be memorized and recited. For the Zaza Kurds, there is great truth in the African adage: When a man dies, a library dies with him.

In Alaska, my cousin Beth is working to record the Athabascan language, a language that a few decades ago was dying out, and which certainly had never been recorded or documented. Beth is working to save the language, and, thus, preserve a culture.

This speaks to one of the reasons I am a writer, and why I treasure our language so much, why I am adamant that we learn to speak and write with flair and focus. We are defining ourselves as a people through our use of language. It is so much more than a tool for conveying ideas. It is the means by which we identify ourselves, as individuals and as a nation. It is the avenue by which we share our souls with the world. When we rally for freedom of speech, we rally for freedom as a people.

All Letters Matter

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“To possess language is to possess reality; to lose control of words is to forfeit one’s claim to reality,” writes Nathan Mitchell in Cult and Controversy.

The truth of this became clear as I read Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea, a book I received as a gift for Christmas. It’s a short fable, a cautionary tale, about how each and every letter of our alphabet matters, especially when that letter is deleted from the language, and all words containing that language must be excised from our lives.

At first, the islanders living on Nollop, a fictitious island off the coast of South Carolina, are not too worried. After all, only the letter “z” had fallen off the statue of the island’s hero, Nevin Nollop, the supposed creator of the pangram, “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog,” which sentence graces the memorial to its creator. When the first letter falls off, the island’s government decides that the incident is a message from beyond, from Nollop himself, inducing the islanders to stop their verbal and written laziness and to make better use of the language.

What’s the big deal, asked most of the islanders when the government directed that after a certain date the letter “z” would no longer be legal, either in writing or in speech. Severe penalties were put in place for those who erred in speech or with pen, and the islanders began to inform on one another, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting neighbor who might mention the buzz of bees or how something oozed from a pie. Still, there was no widespread panic. What’s the loss of a simple z?

As the book progresses, it is determined by state-siders that the glue that holds the letters to the memorial has calcified, and all letters will eventually plummet to the ground. But the island governors don’t want to hear such nonsense. Nollop is speaking to them, they are certain, and they will enact Nollop’s wishes.

Once the letter “d” falls, Nollop has become all powerful in the minds of the governors, and, since the word “God” is no longer allowed, he has also become all potent.

The book ends with only five letters remaining in the island alphabet: LMNOP. But the islanders are saved by the discovery of a new sentence that uses all letters of the alphabet (pangram), with 32 letters total.

It’s a fun tale, not too meaty or drawn out, but it did make me realize how even seemingly insignificant constraints on language can have a repercussive effect on thought, on communication, and on neighbors. Words can be used to inspire or to incite, to heal or to wound, to convey truth or lies. But these must never be a law that prohibits free speech or writing, for the public’s good. Who, after all, is to decide that good? Language must be allowed to flourish, or rights will die.

Pilgrimage

/ Ann Aubrey Hanson / 1 Comment

I’m currently reading a book by Dr. Frank C. Gardiner, of UC Santa Barbara, titled The Pilgrimage of Desire: A Study of the Theme and Genre in Medieval Literature. Dr. Gardiner was the father of my great friend, author Meg Gardiner. Reading Dr. Gardiner’s book, it’s easy to see where his daughter got her writing chops. And the book is intriguing with its insights into Medieval literature and original sources. Great reading. To this day I regret the fact that I never took one of Dr. Gardiner’s classes when I was an undergraduate at UCSB. He scared me, he was so brilliant. Plus, he’d seen me in mime costume. It was a no-win situation.

I’m reading the book in preparation for an article I am working on for Via Lucis, the photography group and publisher for whom I am editor. Our first major volume, Light and Stone: France Romanesque, is currently being revised for publication in 2011. One of the chapters I want to add to the book (with photographs by Dennis Aubrey and PJ McKey) is about pilgrimage and its importance in the lives of those who lived in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The magnificent Romanesque churches of France, of which there are more than 5,000, are testament to the faith of mere mortals. Built not by slave laborers, as the pyramids were, these were edifices built to glorify God and to show humankind’s reverence for His beneficence and care. Many of these churches housed relics of saints, and, thus, were the focus of pilgrimage by the masses. Others exist quietly, off the beaten track, but are no less important in the lives of the people of the region, yesterday and today. Even as they sit silent and empty today, they echo with the “hallelujahs of the past,” waiting for the day when believers will once again enter through their doors and raise their eyes to heaven. They await new pilgrimages and a new flock.

If you are at all interested in seeing images from these wonderful churches, visit www.vialucis.wordpress.com and www.vialucis.us.

Christmas Vacation

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Having finished editing the books on Theatre of the Absurd, theoretical math, democracy and Senegal, and Islam and modernity, I closed my computer and greeted the holidays with joy. It still being the holidays, I am abstaining from work (two more books have come in and await my editing later in January), but am indulging myself now with reading for pleasure.

I received several intriguing books as presents, and have started Ella Minnow Pea, about an island where letters keep dropping off a statue and the City Council decrees that those same letters must be dropped from the language. At first, this seems a minor problem, since the first letter is only a Z. But havoc ensues when bees are banned from the island and all books which contain the offending letter are burned and banned. Thus far, I am delighted with the new idea of this book and the author, Mark Dunn, is doing an excellent job of keeping my interest.

Next on the list is a memoir of Zimbabwe, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, by Peter Godwin.

There are more, but these will be my first two feasts. Oh, and I mustn’t forget Light and Stone, the first book published by Via Lucis. That will take hours to devour!

Merry Christmas, All! And please take time to relax and regain your energies for the exciting 2011 ahead!

Absurd is Finished, Now to Math

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I’ve just finished editing a book that re-examines the Theatre of the Absurd (wonderful discussions of Rhinoceros, The Birthday Party, and Waiting for Godot, among others). What struck me most while editing was the fact that we, as students of the world, must continue to read and study if we want to stay up to date with current trends in thought. In editing the book, I learned that in 1995 there was a movement that proposed the idea that Camus was not an existentialist, that he was saying more than “life is absurd, accept it.” I also obtained a new understanding of Waiting for Godot, for which I have a new-found appreciation.

Another thought that struck me is how some academicians get stuck in a field and never leave it for their entire professional life. Not the world for me! Boredom and I are incompatible.

Now, having finished a course in the absurd, I begin editing a book about Albert Lautman and his mathematical theories. Not only is the book a discussion of mathematical philosophy, but it’s translated from the French. Guaranteed to be a tough one to edit, since I’ll have to read every line carefully, fixing syntax as well as grammar and punctuation.

Waiting in the wings: education and democracy in Senegal–and Islam, modernity, and the social sciences. All before Christmas arrives. Heigh-ho!

Metaphor and Insight

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One aspect of descriptive writing is the use of simile and metaphor.

Simile is the “like” description: The child’s laughter was like music to her ears.

Metaphor is the “is” description: He is a volcano. Consequently, people tiptoe around him, fearing an eruption.

While similes are easier to use for most writers, metaphor has a great deal more power. As Sallie McFague beautifully put it, “A metaphor is a word used in an unfamiliar context to give us a new insight; a good metaphor moves us to see our ordinary world in an extraordinary way.”

As you edit your first drafts, try to find those places where you can strengthen your language, imbuing it with power through the use of simile and metaphor. This requires looking at the world as though you’ve never seen it before and describing what you see in new terms, with new references. That copse of trees bordering the lane? An military rank of sentinels, their heads entwined and interlocking, guarding the path below.

Most often, simplicity is key. It isn’t a matter of using a thesaurus, but of seeing the world in new ways, with new images. Typically, with metaphor, a well-known object is compared with a less-well-known object, creating a vivid link and new vision in the reader’s mind. Play with language. Re-imagine your world. Don’t settle for reality.

Theatre of the Absurd

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Today, I begin editing a new book, on a renewed conception of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Having just finished editing a book about the Hospitaller Knights of Malta, I look forward to this change of pace and focus. It has been years since I read any of Samuel Beckett’s work, or the work of Ionesco or Pinter. Apparently, in that time, a new understanding of Albert Camus’s writing has developed, stating that Camus wasn’t truly an existentialist. Imagine my surprise! But now I have to go back and read a 1995 book about Camus that seems to turn our previous understanding of his work and philosophy on its head. As a consequence, the term “absurd” must now be re-examined. Absurd, or not? It’s too early to tell.

More on this later, after I’ve edited and digested the book.