Re: Darmok beyond the pale; was: criteria
| From: | Sally Caves <scaves@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, December 12, 2006, 3:33 |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
Yes, "Darkmok"! hee! ;) What's even more amusing about his snippet is that
he's way behind the game. Not a reference in our family (or among my
students I've shown it to) comes up that we haven't noted exactly that very
defect in linguistic credibility. But the UT is even more lacking in
credibility, and I like the fact that they finally proposed something unique
and difficult for that sorry little instrument. What I loved about 'Darmok'
(the episode, not the language) was the Gilgamesh symbolism, actually. The
play was about a test: finding a common enemy for two men of different races
and philosophies to bond around, and a means to communicate, even if one of
them dies for the sake of making that connection. Yeah, you can't really say
"there's a problem with the power converter" in Tamarian, or "pass the
cranberries," at least not as it was presented on that show, but come on,
Tensor! He's missed the point, and he's really about fifteen years too
late!
Sally and Issytra at the Great Lake, their eyes wide!
A snippet I found amusing:
>
>> If all you're doing is arguing about a general course of action,
>> [Tamarese] might be
>> enough, but how can you run a starship using it? When the captain wants
>> to tell the
>> helmsman to go to warp factor five, does he say, "Darmok...uh...that time
>> he went warp
>> factor five"? At the end of the episode, in fact, the first officer
>> orders his ship to warp out
>> of orbit with "Mirab, with sails unfurled", which is used several times
>> in the episode to
>> mean something like 'go'. Shouldn't the helmsman reply,
>> "Mirab-with-sails-unfurled factor
>> what, sir?".
>
> --
> Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
>