When the Odds Are in Your Favor

Windows to the Imagination: What Reading Books Does for Me

When I read, for once the ticking clock is silent. With my head in a book, my anxiety about project due dates, and my peanut butter cookie craving, that itchy mosquito bite, and my sister calling me to come look at a hummingbird feeder all become background noise.

Books, good books, shows me life through different windows and dunk me in emotion. With their settings they take me places I may never go in real life. I see the glittering lights of fabulous parties, smell the stench on a crowded immigrant ship, feel cold Siberian snows on my bare feet—I bristle when my valet criticizes my fashion sense, and then I wonder how hilariously shallow I might be. When the enemy army begins to fire I wonder, weak-kneed, if I would run. Once I taste Turkish delight, I wonder what I am willing to do to eat another bite. I become the characters, the lovable ones, the hateable ones, and the in-between ones. Their experiences teach me of hardship and of comfort, of hate and of hope, of disillusionment and dreams, of lies and of selflessness. Reading shows me the me I am, the me’s that I could be, and the me’s I want to be. When I finally pull my head out of the water, dry my face, and come back to my own window with its old view, I have to stop wondering what I would do and choose which of those me’s will be.

I think this was the first year that the local shop, Chapel Books, had an essay contest. That meant there was a small pool of entries. That was good for me! I won out of maybe 4 other entries. In addition to a Oxford paperback classic of my choice, I received a $50 check, part of which I plan to use to book shop.

Happy writing!

The Wind and the Waves: Poetry

    New news becomes old news quickly, but if you remember, a couple weeks ago an earthquake and a tropical storm hit Hawaii.

                    

     A second storm, Julio, was predicted to hit my grandparents home on Oahu with devastating force. I started this poem while it was on its way, with the ending already deliberately written in my mind. "Diffraction" is on two pages but is meant to be read continuously.

The Sounds of Bornovian

"How can you tell how good bread is without tasting it? Not the smell, not the look, but the sound of the crust. Listen." --Colette, Pixar's Ratatouille.

Conlanging Post #2: Phonology

     Inventing a language. What comes first? Before fun stuff like calligraphy, syllabaries, alphabets, idioms, onomatopoetic words comes phonology. Language is, at its basic, sound. "Not the smell, not the look, but the sound..."
     When describing the phonology of a language, linguists use a set of symbols called The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is a mixture of the Roman and Greek alphabet, plus extra. Since sound is so foundational, I spent an afternoon last week poring listening to this Interactive IPA Chart and comparing English, Japanese, French, and Welsh phonology with the full range. Then I filled in my own charts.



    

     By the way, I can't keep referring to my language as "my language" or it will get really tiresome really fast.
     I've had a lot of different ideas: Krstovokjn, Davkaiym, Devkpsx, Sberyut. They're exotic-looking because they are the name of the language in the language itself. But names of languages often have history and meaning, so until I know a little bit more vocabulary, I will use the "common speech" (English) name, Boronovian.

     Lots of work still to do. Getting sleepy, good night!

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Warning: Language Under Construction

    As a result of summer research, I officially decided to invent a language. It'll help me in my world-building for the Wynna and Thibault storires as well and give me a better grip on linguistics. I'm excited and daunted at the same time. I'll be working on this on my own time until I actually enroll in my senior English capstone, where I'll do it for a grade and not just for pleasure. So here is the first post in a series of many that will mark my progress. Hopefully you'll be amused or informed and not utterly disgusted. Let me know if you have any tips.

     Constructed Language (Conlang) Post #1: The Workstation

Let me introduce my tools from left to right.

TOP ROW

J.R.R. Tolkien: a Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter: for inspiration. Tolkien was a genius linguist.

The Study of Language by George Yule: for reference, one of my old textbooks.

iPod: to look up the longest consonant cluster in Russian

Cat stickies: to make notes in a borrowed book

V8 juice: to give health to my bones while I sit in one place for long periods of time

IPA charts: to help me decide what sounds are the yummiest in the world so I can claim them

Cup: to keep hydrated

BOTTOM ROW

Sketchbook: to play with the shape of words

Languages of the World by Asya Perelstvaig: to keep my language from becoming English in disguise

     After reading through The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder and In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent this summer, conlanging was starting to look overwhelming. But my linguistics professor alleviated my fears by telling me that 1) I don't have to tackle it all at once, but bit by little bit and 2) I can always change anything I end up not liking or that doesn't work.

     So, here I go. My first assignment is to develop a sound system, syllable rules, and produce a list of 20 nouns and 20 verbs.

This is who is making scary shadows at the top of the other picture.

My Seal of Life: Poetry

     Everyday life can be surprisingly dangerous, but I have a defender. True story.

Click here for full-size image.

~Erika

Angel on the Square: Book Review

     Hello! During my nearly 2 month hiatus, summer came with heat, humidity, and striking sunsets.

Actually, the weather has been extraordinarily good for the most part. Other than one or two weeks in June, we have had tolerably warm days and pleasantly chilly nights.

    Looking back to my last post, I really enjoyed memo-ing in May. It was just soothing to sit quietly outside and reflect on the most significant bits of my day. I hope you tried it.

    Since it's summer--let's talk about reading! My latest read was Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan. Took me a week to finish, because I always feel guilty sitting down with a book instead of whatever else I think I have to do, but it was worth the time!

Summary:  Katya is the daughter of the lady-in-waiting to the Empress of Russia, during the reign of Tsar Nikolai II. The story follows her life from naive childhood in 1913 to trial-changed adulthood in 1918. Used to the lavish life of an aristocratic family, she is forced to come to terms with the harsh existence of the peasants as Russia crumbles.

Why I liked it: This is a much examined period in history, looked at in this book from a child's perspective. The smattering of Russian throughout struck my linguist heart. The imagery in the story brings it full circle. Ms. Whelan's words are artistry, and although she uses conspicuous metaphors and old idioms, somehow the language is not contrived; it is new and alive. I marked up my garage sale copy (in pencil!). Now I can go back to turns of phrase I liked and re-enjoy, share, and hopefully reproduce them. 

A couple favorites:

"The winter would not stop. In the Summer Garden the statues were hidden under a blanket of white" (p186, HarperCollins edition).

"Beyond that, time was an endless ocean I could not see across" (p272).


    If you're interested in the inspiration behind the book, I found a good author interview: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1342&context=lajm

May Memo Madness

    I'm alive! I survived finals week. Dare I say I'm thankful for this past week and a half of craziness because of how nice it feels now to have time? Time? What is that?
    The weekend was busy, too, but in a good way. Yesterday, I enjoyed what I only dreamed of having while I was working fast-food: a quiet Sunday evening. Even though the sun beat down during the day, once it went down it was cool and breezy, and the trees made lofty green rustling sounds. I sat on the deck rail while the guinea pigs puttered around and ate snacks, and I did my new journal challenge. I'm calling it May Memo Madness, and it starts officially today, Monday the 12th. Every day in May I am supposed to write an entry of 50 words (no more, no less), while sitting outside, writing in pencil, about anything signature from that day.
 

      This will be a good, quick way of recording memories. And it'll be a doable daily writing that will help me with word economy.

      Hop on, if you like. Happy Monday.