9.06.2003
All right. Back on to more Speaker for the Dead commentary. On pg. 247 we have the following quote:
Ouanda's anxiety visibly eased, but her hostility was no less. "You're slick, Senhor Andrew, Speaker for the Dead, you're very clever. You remind them of the Hive Queen (a quasi-religious book that had nearly achieved the status and reverence of the Bible in the "Enderverse") and speak scripture to me out of the side of your mouth."
"I speak to everyone in the language they understand," said Ender. "That isn't being slick. It's being clear."
I hesitate to comment on this since Ender's quote is so pithy it hardly requires exposition. Talking to people in the language they understand is not slick. It is clear. How can we expect the pre-Christian to understand Christianese? If we don't approach them with their language we're liable to not even convey a Christian message, let alone a meaningful one.
The difficulty is even worse because we have dialects of Christianese that are of use only to small segments of the Christian populace, let alone the world at large. Lark News did a segment on one of these that is well worth the read. It out-parodies even Gamaliel.
Speaking of the venerable Pharisee, he should have an article on Christianese coming out that will make even the atheists sit up and take notice so you will want to be looking for more on this topic from him.
The main thing is to understand, like Paul on Mars' Hill, that in order to be clear our communication must be understood.
Ouanda's anxiety visibly eased, but her hostility was no less. "You're slick, Senhor Andrew, Speaker for the Dead, you're very clever. You remind them of the Hive Queen (a quasi-religious book that had nearly achieved the status and reverence of the Bible in the "Enderverse") and speak scripture to me out of the side of your mouth."
"I speak to everyone in the language they understand," said Ender. "That isn't being slick. It's being clear."
I hesitate to comment on this since Ender's quote is so pithy it hardly requires exposition. Talking to people in the language they understand is not slick. It is clear. How can we expect the pre-Christian to understand Christianese? If we don't approach them with their language we're liable to not even convey a Christian message, let alone a meaningful one.
The difficulty is even worse because we have dialects of Christianese that are of use only to small segments of the Christian populace, let alone the world at large. Lark News did a segment on one of these that is well worth the read. It out-parodies even Gamaliel.
Speaking of the venerable Pharisee, he should have an article on Christianese coming out that will make even the atheists sit up and take notice so you will want to be looking for more on this topic from him.
The main thing is to understand, like Paul on Mars' Hill, that in order to be clear our communication must be understood.
