WEEK 10: Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delany (5)

    Babel 17’s premise is actually extremely interesting to me, as two years ago, I was actually listening to a Philosophize This podcast which was actually talking about the philosophy branch which discusses linguistics and the bias of languages and expression. My memory is a bit fuzzy on the subject, however what stuck with me is the fact that the limitations of vocabulary influences the extent to which you can communicate ideas or feelings. You are simplifying human emotion and thoughts and trying to put them into words. Or put differently, you are altering definitions in order to fit them within the vocabulary of your given language. If you speak multiple languages, you can actually encounter this phenomenon quite often when you try to explain something to someone and realize the perfect word you would prefer using does not exist in this given language. Another concept this raises is human experience. We often “box-in” or categorize through words, different aspects of the world. Hence some concepts such as pronouns, only exist due to linguistics - it is a man made concept. 

Knowing this, Babel-17 was a fun dive into the theoretical possibility of a language containing no first and second pronouns. In fact, in the book, this language is used as a weapon, as it does in fact alter the perception of the speaker, as people are now more prone to think as a unit. They become a collective, and lose their individuality. There is no such thing as the concept of “I”, it is only “we”. What’s more, the words contained within a language can be used to alter perception, which is shown through their wording of a member of the Alliance, which is goes along the lines of “someone who has invaded”, which automatically makes them look hostile. 

However, using language as a weapon was for me what failed to work for the sake of a philosophical work. In fact, Rydra herself, who’s a linguist, was starting to switch sides the more she dove into Babel-17, which wouldn’t make sense given the fact she’s simply adding words to her dictionary. She remains aware of the concept of individuality and self awareness, and thus would not simply turn, unless she started to lose her linguistic skills.