096: How Our Tongues Split
It's funny -- well, maybe not so funny in the end -- when you don't get enough sleep, how sleep becomes an obsession. Or maybe it's just the way Hypnogogia pursues you during the day, tugging at your hair. If I had an infinite amount of time, I would be reading up on dream symbols today, trying to learn about the core symbology which resonantes in all of us. I think I've touched on it briefly before at opi8 (back in February actually) and, in my sleep-deprived state, I'm relooping on unfinished conversations in my head. You know, those bits of memory which are still labeled "active" and "open," waiting for some resolution so that they can be filed away.
Anyway, symbols. Dreams and symbols. The reoccuring point in my thought processes is the possibility of a single human language -- the core mode of expression that rises above regional dialectic differences, above cultural and religious lines. Is there something akin to species knowledge? If you took monkeys from one region to another, would they be able to communicate with other monkeys of the same species whom they've never encountered before? What about dolphins and whales? Is there a species-wide language among them all?
Funny thought: Do whales have regional dialects in their songs?
What drove us to different tongues? Babel and our hubris of reaching for the sky? It's a religious metaphor -- well, I guess that depends on what you do Sunday morning; it's a metaphor around my house -- a myth and, like all myths, there is probably some kernel of truth to it. At the very least, it is an attempt to explain the way that the world works. If so, then are we just not evolved enough to understand the true reason for the diversification of tongues? (In much the same way that primitive cultures believed that the sun died every night and was reborn again in the morning because they were too ignorant to understand the physics of planetary rotation.)
Today, in my lucid dreaming state, I like the idea that it was done on purpose. Our tongues were scrambled to make us less homogeneous, less unified. Scatter these tribes, mar their tongues, keep them from looking at the stars. Keep them from realizing the potential of a unified group-mind.
You can blame the Old Ones, if you like.
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.