[Review] Because I'm Bored Reviews #1 (Spoilers)

[martinphipps2 at yahoo.com]

Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> In article <1114839900.088783.64450 at l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
>  <martinphipps2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >ASH #58 - Big Break by Dave Van Domelen
> >
>      To avoid repeating this too often, since it ties in with a lot
of the
> points below: In 1998, about 2/3 of the world's population vanished,

Oh, okay.

>      Tony established the Sans Rouge way back at the start of CSV.

Of course if 2/3 of the population had vanished then it would have been
appropriate to have another referendum.

>      Okay, I thought Tagalog was a separate language,

Yes, Tagalog is a separate language from Spanish.  My point was that if
you understand Tagalog and you hear a Filipino but don't understand
them then they are probably speaking another dialect such as Cebuano.
In the future there might be Chinese/Tagalog creoles if a large number
of Chinese refugees had gone to Philippines in response to what had
happened there.  Of course, such creoles would take time to develop.
Someone who grew up with both languages would likely switch back and
forth between the two (the way a lot of Filipinos do with Tagalog and
English) but that's not the same as a creole.  To be technical, one
could say that somebody could be speaking "pidgin Tagalog with a
Chinese accent and vocabulary".  If everybody in a given village spoke
the same way then in a generation or so it could develop grammar and
vocabulary of its own at which point it would be considered a new
language, a creole.

> from my interaction
> with a few Filipino grad students doing interview analysis in my
research
> group (and they didn't correct my misconception).  OTOH, see above
about
> death and scrambling and stuff.  It's quite possible that a creole of
pure
> Spanish and Tagalog has formed as shattered communities mixed
together to
> share resources.  Although it may not have had time to rise from a
Spanish-
> heavier pidgin of Tagalog to creole status.
>      I do, however, run these stories past the other ASH writers to
check on
> this sort of thing, since Tony's a Canadian and a linguist, and
Marc's big on
> language as well, but guess it slipped past them this time.

Wow.  I had no idea you were putting so much work into your writing for
RACC.  Anyway, you're right, if we consider 1998 as the date when
communities of people speaking different languages were thrown together
then you would have young people by the year 2025 who had grown up with
both languages and you could say (incorrectly) that these people were
speaking a creole.  The fact that the narration is reflecting one
person's thoughts as opposed to relating what is absolutely true means
you get a bit of leeway.  And you're right, as you say in the followup,
a Chinese/Tagalog creole makes more sense, especially because were
talking about something that might exist in the future and not
something that exists already.

By the way, was Tony okay with Beijing getting nuked?  I mean, geez. :)

>      Well, I find script-style to be a pain to read, and avoid it
most of the
> time.  It's best for being turned into a performance, not for being
read on
> its own.  My writing style is more influenced by novels and short
stories,
> where you know the text will be all there is, rather than being
adapted into
> a visual medium.

I prefer script style, personally, because I am a lazy reader and I
don't want to wade through paragraphs of description.  Scripts usually
start with "Bob enters the room and Sara's there" and then Bob and Sara
start talking right away.

>      I will use script or script-ish mode once in a while when I
think it
> will work better than prose, but I prefer to keep it to the level of
spice,
> not main ingredient.  And you may note that a lot of the "narration"
in my
> work is actually the thoughts of the character as opposed to a
neutral
> narrator.

Yes, I know.  And I know it is like that with novels.  "He thought back
to when he was young and the time when..."  Sometimes though it is
interesting to see how two characters "play off" of one another and
being privy to the individual characters private thoughts can be a bit
distracting.  To be honest, most of my reading is of a technical
nature: it's been a long time since I've read any fiction other than
racc.  Wow.  That's an admission.  But about the only fiction I ever
read anyway was sci-fi and most of it was crap so I'm probably actually
getting more intellectual stimulation by watching CSI.

Martin