The Speech: who hears it?

[PK]

I don't mean to be difficult, but I think it's possible that there's a misunderstanding or a misremembered quote somewhere here -- I've certainly mixed things up about the books before, so please, no one take this badly.

But Rhiow thinks repeatedly in The Book of Night with Moon, at least, about wishing to use the Speech to communicate with Susan and Mike (her humans) -- and she doesn't because it's not allowed, not because it wouldn't be understood.

The reason it's forbidden, however, seems to be that most non-wizard humans would either not believe that a cat was talking to them -- explain it away as their imagination, as they did Arhu's theft out of a car's trunk in plain sight -- or, worse, try to figure out how it worked and set everybody to investigating cats.

I think that's probably the point of confusion -- the Speech is said nearly everywhere to be understood by all things (although there seem to be some limits on this), but if someone doesn't believe what their senses are telling them to be possible, they'll overthink and end up, at the very least, not listening. And for most people, having their cat talk to them (and hearing it as their own language) is probably mentally classified as impossible.

It may be worth noting as well that in To Visit the Queen the cats do, well, talk to the queen, who does not appear to be a wizard.

But then there are some things in the most recent books (and immediate future ) that suggest it's not always quite that easy....

[Birdhead]

People try not to believe things. People purposely ignore things. People tell themselves stories, etc.... I think the reasons that "only wizards can hear the Speech" is that everyone can hear the spoken Speech- like Nita talking to her Mom in the hospital. By contrast, the Speech you get from inanimate objects and cats (well, possibly not cats) is not spoken. It is... well, I don't know what it is, but it's not the spoken form. Anyone could hear Nita talking in the Speech to Liused (if she was talking aloud, that is) but only a wizard could hear Liused talking back- and not even all wizards.

I think it depends on the ears you listen with and the eyes you see with. Wizards seem to have a third ear and a third eye that operate on a different level to the electromagnetic spectrum and sound waves- possibly they can even use it to "hear" light waves.
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
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Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

Which always made me wonder . . . how would a deaf (human) wizard communicate? Some people who are deaf from birth couldn't even begin to learn a spoken language. Is there Signed Speech? Or would s/he be forced to speak mind-to-mind with everyone? Or would communication simply happen somehow, as it does with the trees and cars and toasters and all those things?

Oh! rowan tree.
How fair wert thou in simmer time,
Wi' a' thy clusters white,
How rich and gay thy autumn dress,
Wi' berries red and bright.

[PK]

Marissa: Yeah, that's an interesting question... it does seem that the Speech is not sense-dependent, but the mechanism of that...? There are apparently quite a lot of different *cough* parts of Speech, including ones that are essentially biochemical in nature (cf. A Wizard Abroad, just before Nita and Ronan kiss and get distracted by discovering the Defender hanging around, about overhearing each other's bodies); I wouldn't be surprised if there are ones that are motion-based....

Birdhead: Well, there is that bit on the moon in High Wizardry where Nita puts on her headphones to block out the "hiss" of leftover radiation from the Big Bang.... If I'm remembering it right, that is. Don't have the book next to me. Would that be the kind of thing you mean?

[Birdhead]

*nods* Yeah, that's what I was specifically thinking of, actually. The way Nita is "hearing" that sound, as a physical sound, but the sound cannot be heard by a non-wizard and so to some extent must be aphysical. (though only partially... radio telescopes can hear those sounds but the normal human ear cannot.)

*snickers* Biochemical speech... . But yeah, that's interesting too. To fit it in with my theory: possibly that could be viewed as another type of "sound-" or possibly not even a sound. Perhaps more analogous with touch... anyway, it can still be viewed as a sort of- oh GOD, I can't believe I'm using this phrase but it's kinda natural- extra sensory perception. (PLEASE excuse that hideous phrase. Shudder.)

Why does that phrase fit so naturally? Damn...
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[Quill]

Biochemical communication? Pheremones.

I suspect that the Speech is, by its very nature, accessible in any form of communication. Human beings are limited to a certain number of senses and thus forms of communication, with different senses working in different ways (most would have trouble communicating consciously by scent, for instance, since their brains aren't wired for it the way dogs or some other creatures are), and with the human brain limited by its own structure.

While the human body cannot necessarily detect the Universe's background noise without technological aid, wizardry obviously bestows that ability. Since detection of it does not flow through the natural senses, the brain--or wizardry--must translate it somehow so that it can be understood. So Nita "hears" it. I postulate that her brain interprets the incoming data as sound because that's what the signal is closest to, in the range of human detectors. Or wizardry makes it noise because she can therefore shut it out if she wants to, and it does not interfere with other concerns as it might if it were interpreted visially.


-- Dex Lives No, I'm not the author. I just think you should read it.--

[Birdhead]

*nods* Clever. But pheromones... well, could be, but I'm not sure it's all that physical. Nita also picks up thoughts- which may be translated physically, but which actual phrases are less likely to be accurate.
T

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[Quill]

Oh, sorry, I only meant pheremones as one example of biochemical communication. Not Nita specifically.

-- Dex Lives No, I'm not the author. I just think you should read it.--

[Birdhead]

Coool.
T
PS: know any techniques Halstrom used in Gilbert Grape? (No, don't answer that. I have an essay to write ind it is KICKING my @$$. It's NOT funny...)

Tuibird in Aotearoa
Conservationist, Scientist, and proud of both!
Chocolate lover extraordinaire...
Ahahahaha, ahahahahaha, ahahahaha...
My mission: Bringing Maori to the world!
Spelling Freak and Typo Queen

[rae]

Then why am I laughing