Notes
- The woman is married, has a child and a husband
- It seems that the husband is Gary
- The aliens’ communications are ubiquitous with many “looking glasses” all over the world
- Heptapods are the aliens; they have seven eyes and seven limbs
- They use a seismographic language to communicate (Heptapod B)
- They are able to produce sound with their mouths(?) (Heptapod A)
- The woman seems to have split up with her husband and is raising their child on her own
- The woman’s Heptapod proficiency is increasing as the story progresses, these memory “flashbacks” are becoming more frequent
- Heptapods are able to understand advanced physics and mathematics much more easily than when the humans had tried to explain basic geometry and algebra to them
- The Heptapods seem to be able to comprehend variational calculus, a type of calculus that uses maximums and minimums
- Aliens understand the concept of Fermat’s principle, in which a beam of light takes the shortest path everytime. Strangely, how does the light take the shortest path everytime? That means it must know the longest path as well to the target. But how could it know the target?
- This menas the aliens must know everything
- Heptapods leave after the gift giving, they never return again
How do aliens in the story using language and communication style different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?
The aliens use a seismographic writing system, in which the written “words” are not representative of phonetic sounds, but are instead are an entirely separate method of communication that does not use phonetic sounds like spoken language. The writings are based on graphical orientation and visual representations of ideas. A somewhat near comparison to this type of language are road signs. Road signs use an image to convey meaning. For example, and arrow turning left may mean that the lane you are currently in will only turn left, or most notably, any octagonal sign on the road will be a stop sign (the octagonal shape maintains its meaning regardless of orientation as well). However, the alien’s language is more complex than road signs, as it has its own grammar and rules that must be followed to convey meaning. The meaning is expressed in different strokes and lines. The way a line bends in a certain direction conveys one meaning, while bent in the other direction may convey a totally different meaning.
How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
The physical structure of our body, more specifically the vocal tract, mouth, and ears are meant to be used to communicate. These organs are designed specifically with using air we breathe out to produce sound. The aliens have seven eye slits and seven limbs. In this way, their body is meant to be used to easily convey meaning through a non-linear method of language. Although they are able to produce sound, it is merely a performative action as the text had stated, because they already know what is going to be said. Humans on the other hand, only have two hands, two eyes, two ears, and one vocal tract. We are limited by our body parts to be able to produce a writing system matched to that of the aliens.