Re: CHAT: "the future," sci-fi, Quecha (Le Guin)

In a message dated 06/29/2002 08.11.27 AM, cathode_ray00@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

>The Akan of Ghana also have a sense of time which is somewhat backward
>to our own.<SNiP of pretty well-written snippet>
    Thanx for adding to this thread, Andy.

    OBCONLANG: I wonder if it is possible - in the NatLang sense - to
lexify/semanticify concepts of a spiral or helical metaphor of time linked to
certain kinds of space (IIRC Navaho comes close to this, right?).
    And how about lexifying/semanticifying concepts of Chaos Science, or less
"ambitious," just merely ideas of cosmic chance and randomness in relation to
time/space (I guess it would _spring_ from a conculture that has a "Quietist"
_Weltanschauung_ or - another words - a passive, observant attitude towards
life/existence and an abandonment of or non-existence of individualism, "the
[individual] will[power]". Or a rather Nihilistic one saturated by a giddy,
sardonic sort of angst and fatalism  - a la "Sh*t Happens... Go with the
Flow" ... La merde majestueuse ;). Are there any natlangs that are even
remotely like this?


Hanuman Zhang
---------------------______________

"Excess is excrement. Excrement retained in the body is poison." - Ursula K.
Le Guin

"O wise humanity, terribly wise humanity! Of thee I sing. How inscrutable is
the civilization where men toil and work and worry their hair gray to get a
living and forget to play!" - Lin Yutang, _The Importance of Living_

"The phrase 'the cost of living' is a not-so-subtle threat that life itself
can be For Sale to the highest bidder ... that living without dreams is
'realistic' and that dying in the gutter may be 'cheap'." - Yuri Mayakovskii