Narratives from the Multiverse

My read through for this book left me just a bit confused. It was worth a bit of research to get some form of clarification as to what exactly had been going on, and I like to think I've finally picked up on the bulk of this text. Being an older book, it is based on a dated (and generally refuted) theory about how language affects not only the way a person thinks, but also how a person behaves. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which was the basis for most of this piece of science fiction, had at one point merit enough to inspire what would happen to Rydra Wong. Without really realizing it, she had been learning an ancient language, the first language, I think we're told, that has basically been booby-trapped and used as a weapon to control (or at least manipulate) the interpreter. In this case, we're in the midst of war-plant sabotage, and Rydra, being a brilliant linguist and all, has been asked to decipher this cryptic code. The more she discovers about it, the more she finds herself enveloped in it, indeed manipulated by it. She accepts this with some surprise, still marveling at the brilliance of the language, which has opened up the world so much wider to her, and Butcher. It ends on a fairly positive note. The varying critiques of this book suggest a second read, which I think I will have to do when I get a little more time. Over the break.

The book gets into other elements that would have otherwise just been thrown in, but fit nicely. There are several characters who have gone through body manipulations, adding robot parts, or gaining additional ligaments, or whatever their hearts may desire; in some cases, people might be modified so that they appear near reptilian (isn't there a guy these days who has gotten many tattoos and his tongue split to achieve this effect? I'm pretty sure there is) or even dragon-esque. Nails, tails, scales, and the like. In some ways, these are just ways of expression, like language is. Sending a message. The other large plot element is that there is a huge galactic war going on, and that the bad guys are never really introduced properly (to my better memory). It's a novelette that is very heavily focused on language and construction, and I'm sure the writer was himself a linguist. He points out the absolute importance of how we perceive, how we express, and how we interact based on just a single language. There are many universal truths that can be explored through his interpretation of a fictional language, most notably that, while it IS a theory that has been tested and refuted time and again, there is some important differences in the fundamentals of a person's thoughts depending on the language that has affected them. In these instances that happen in the book, it is up the reader to decipher how Rydra and Butcher are different in their knowing this language, as it's something they can't recognize themselves. We are asked, therefore, to be more aware of ourselves, and of our surrounders, and to be critical of language in every sense of the word possible. Not bad for a short story, not bad at all.