- How do aliens in the story language and communication style different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?
- First of all, one of the biggest difference is that our speaking and writing are based on the same channel while Heptapod’s are based on two different channels. It means what they speak and what they write are totally two different languages. This seems troublesome for humans, but aliens may consider it an effective way to communicate.
- The second point comes from writing. Aliens use a semasiographic writing system. And even more amazing, their script isn’t word-divided; a sentence is written by joining the logograms for the constituent words. They join the logograms by rotating and modifying them. Ours is in one direction and each sentence is composed of individual word.
- An alphabetic script is used by humans. However, aliens tend to include some phonetic information in their speech, which is much hard for us
- How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
- Here I think Gary’s sayings make sense. It’s a consequence of their
bodies’ radial symmetry: their bodies’ radial symmetry: their bodies have no ‘forward’ direction, so maybe their writing doesn’t either. Meanwhile, they have eyes in all directions, so they probably know the whole things and what’s gonna happen in the future. They may know all the conditions and possibilities and choose the best one. Compared to aliens, we only have eyes on one side, so we pay more attention to cause and effect. To the results, we have instead of the process.
This story does have a very ingenious ending. Her daughter’s whole life and her experience working with aliens are waved together to emphasize the different ways aliens communicate and think. It impresses me a lot when the author says：
“At that stage of your life, there’ll be no past or future for you; until I give you my
breast, you’ll have no memory of contentment in the past nor expectation of relief in
the future. Once you begin nursing, everything will reverse, and all will be right with
the world. NOW is the only moment you’ll perceive; you’ll live in the present tense.
In many ways, it’s an enviable state.“
I think I enjoy the moment when I was a baby and cared nothing about the past and future. However, the aliens leave without any reason finally, which makes me scared. We’re unable to get the results of their visit, and we fail to know their proposal. It seems like we humans are just something they find interesting and want to play with. Once they feel bored, they’ll leave, leaving us at a loss in the end. I feel the limit of our power compared to the cosmos and a sense of helplessness.