What Book Did I Read?
November 5, 2013 2:10 PM Subscribe
Sometime around 1997/1998 I read a strange book and since then I've forgotten almost all the details. About the only thing I can remember is that there were some creatures who 'spoke' multiple concepts at once.
I believe it was in 1997/1998 because I tried reading this book over a summer break where I set a goal to read 80 books in 80 days and this would have been just before 8th grade or 9th grade which was 1997/1998. It wasn't a picture book. I'd say it was several hundred pages. I thought the title was something like "Jackalope", but nothing I found with that title on Google, Amazon, or Worldcat fits my memory. I have no idea where I got it, but at least today it's not in mine or my parent's possession.
I don't remember any real plot, but I think the creatures I mentioned were something like lizards. I think part of their speaking involved their tails. I strongly remember their speaking was represented with '/' like "Hello/Happy/Whatever". It felt like a sequel, but that could just because I didn't understand what was going on in the book.
I believe it was in 1997/1998 because I tried reading this book over a summer break where I set a goal to read 80 books in 80 days and this would have been just before 8th grade or 9th grade which was 1997/1998. It wasn't a picture book. I'd say it was several hundred pages. I thought the title was something like "Jackalope", but nothing I found with that title on Google, Amazon, or Worldcat fits my memory. I have no idea where I got it, but at least today it's not in mine or my parent's possession.
I don't remember any real plot, but I think the creatures I mentioned were something like lizards. I think part of their speaking involved their tails. I strongly remember their speaking was represented with '/' like "Hello/Happy/Whatever". It felt like a sequel, but that could just because I didn't understand what was going on in the book.
I'm thinking of a book but I can't remember it. This essay suggests Embassytown, but that's not what's in my head (and is way too recent). There was some science-fiction book with an alien race who used sign language, but also spoke, and they'd say straightforward things but sign about the more complex emotions of it (or something like that). Wish I could help more...
posted by aimedwander at 2:29 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by aimedwander at 2:29 PM on November 5, 2013
Perhaps you're thinking of the Evelm from Samuel R. Delany's Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand? They're lizard-like and have multiple speaking tongues, and there's a lot of discussion of the difficulty of translating the nuances of their speech.
posted by RogerB at 2:46 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by RogerB at 2:46 PM on November 5, 2013
Best answer: Lizard Music did not at all ring a bell. However, I looked for reviews and descriptions of it to get a more in depth description. That's when I came upon the TvTropes page for Daniel Pinkwater. In that page the description of Lizard Music describes them as "sentient lizards". I hadn't tried "sentient" as a keyword search before so I Googled "sentient lizard books". Second link was to this which mentions "West of Eden" "Winter in Eden" and "Return to Eden" by Harry Harrison. The descriptions of those books are closer to what I'm looking for.
posted by Green With You at 2:48 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by Green With You at 2:48 PM on November 5, 2013
Best answer: I was going to suggest the Eden books. A despotic matriarchial lizard like society and there is one human guy living there for reasons I can't recall. He hooks up with the queen lizard person and they have some of the most disturbing sex scenes I ever recall reading. I think the basic premise of the books was - what if the dinosaurs weren't wiped out? Sound familiar?
posted by fshgrl at 3:16 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by fshgrl at 3:16 PM on November 5, 2013
Based on your timeline, here are the only two things I could think of-- they don't quite sound like your memory, but they fit the theme, so I will offer them on the odd chance it might be one of them.
Ted Chiang's short work "The Story of Your Life" features a race of alien "hectapods" making contact with Earth. The protagonist discovers that learning the written form of their language rewires the human brain to perceive all of time simultaneously.
Secondly, CJ Cherryh's works have similar themes, particularly the Chanur Novels. I remember being fascinated reading them as a kid and trying to decipher all of the various meanings from the aliens who spoke only in word matrixes.
posted by seasparrow at 4:19 PM on November 5, 2013
Ted Chiang's short work "The Story of Your Life" features a race of alien "hectapods" making contact with Earth. The protagonist discovers that learning the written form of their language rewires the human brain to perceive all of time simultaneously.
Secondly, CJ Cherryh's works have similar themes, particularly the Chanur Novels. I remember being fascinated reading them as a kid and trying to decipher all of the various meanings from the aliens who spoke only in word matrixes.
posted by seasparrow at 4:19 PM on November 5, 2013
Seasparrow, yes. The Knnn and the t'ca. God I love Cherryh, the Chanur books are a Traveller campaign in space.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:15 PM on November 5, 2013
posted by Sebmojo at 5:15 PM on November 5, 2013
Empyrion II: The Siege of Dome by Stephen Lawhead has empathic "talking fish" similar to dolphins.
She concentrated for a moment, deciding how best to interpret herself for Glee, then sent an affect phrase that went: elation/hope/amity/wonder/zest and also, after a moment's hesitation, a touch of disquiet.
Glee played back understanding which was followed by a moment of fleeting uncertainty and the same disquiet--as much to say, "Why uneasy?" This was accompanied by a long, lingering, brushing stroke of a flipper against Yarden's side.
Yarden stared in disbelief. The animal was asking her about the source of restlessness in her soul. Would it understand? Indeed it seemed to be an extremely understanding creature. She gazed in to the deep green eye closest to her and projected fear/anxiety/depression in roughly equal proportions.
...
Without additional prompting, Yarden understood that Glee wanted to tell the others what she'd shared with Glee. So Yarden sent the fear/anxiety/depression string while flippers continued to stroke and caress her.
posted by xedrik at 5:21 PM on November 5, 2013
She concentrated for a moment, deciding how best to interpret herself for Glee, then sent an affect phrase that went: elation/hope/amity/wonder/zest and also, after a moment's hesitation, a touch of disquiet.
Glee played back understanding which was followed by a moment of fleeting uncertainty and the same disquiet--as much to say, "Why uneasy?" This was accompanied by a long, lingering, brushing stroke of a flipper against Yarden's side.
Yarden stared in disbelief. The animal was asking her about the source of restlessness in her soul. Would it understand? Indeed it seemed to be an extremely understanding creature. She gazed in to the deep green eye closest to her and projected fear/anxiety/depression in roughly equal proportions.
...
Without additional prompting, Yarden understood that Glee wanted to tell the others what she'd shared with Glee. So Yarden sent the fear/anxiety/depression string while flippers continued to stroke and caress her.
posted by xedrik at 5:21 PM on November 5, 2013
Response by poster: I acquired the Eden books and I think I must have read the third one because it has a lot of occurrences like these:
"To a place where fish live/go/swarm richly"
"A good exercise/walk for male/fat/Yilane."
"Eat with us/join with us"
etc.
I have no idea where the Jakalope thing came from. Must've been something I saw around the same time and it got jumbled in with the Eden book.
posted by Green With You at 7:16 PM on November 5, 2013
"To a place where fish live/go/swarm richly"
"A good exercise/walk for male/fat/Yilane."
"Eat with us/join with us"
etc.
I have no idea where the Jakalope thing came from. Must've been something I saw around the same time and it got jumbled in with the Eden book.
posted by Green With You at 7:16 PM on November 5, 2013
In the common universe most of C.J. Cherryh's books are based in, the Tc'a are described as serpentine; the best automatic translation of their speech can do is express ambiguous matrices whose actual meaning might be read in any direction, e.g., from Chanur's Venture (1984):
posted by Zed at 11:46 AM on November 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
CHI TC'A CHI KNNN HANI HANI MAHE TC'A HANI HANI HANI SAME OTHER OTHER KSHSHTI KSHSHTI KSHSHTI KSHSHTI KSHSHTI KSHSHTI KSHSHTI MKKS MKKS MKKS MKKS MKKS MKKS KSHSHTI SEE SEE SEE SEE GO DIE STAY DANGER DANGER DANGER THREAT DANGER DANGER DANGERMight you have read one of these?
posted by Zed at 11:46 AM on November 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by xenophile at 2:16 PM on November 5, 2013