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ljwritesThis Open Review is on The Boy from Babel by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lavanyasix (fanfiction.net profile, though this particular story is not in her ff.n archive plus ff.n link. Thanks somariel!). Written in response to the "Language Barrier" prompt at the Avatar Spirit forum, it takes off of what many fans might have thought of--namely, the different Nations and in some cases, regions having different languages.
The thought of the entire world sharing the same language always seemed a stretch to me. I mean, take China for instance. While we politely call the language of the entire country Chinese, and they do share the same writing system much like the world of Avatar (though there are regional variations in the writing, too, I hear), in reality the major different dialects of Chinese are different languages. Mandarin and Guangdong Chinese aren't like American and British English: They have different phonetics and vocabulary, and a speaker of one has to learn the other like a foreign language, with the saving grace of the same writings to work from.
The Avatar world is presumably bigger than China (in my mind the Earth Kingdom is approximately China-sized, perhaps Eurasia-sized), and its level of transport and communications technology is lower. Even assuming the peoples all share a common root, I see no plausible way for all of them to speak in ways that are comprehensible to each other once they have lived in such far-flung locations for so long. The language homogeneity of the fictional world, like most instances of Common Tongue, is a plot convenience that falls apart when you apply real-world logic.
Enter real-world logic with a vengeance in The Boy from Babel, and suddenly the nice little Nickelodeon-appropriate world explodes with color and texture. Take the exponentially increased level of "awwww" that happens when Sokka must overcome the language barrier to apologize to Suki in "The Kiyoshi Warriors:"
As anyone who has tried learning a foreign language knows, your effective IQ points plummet about 83 points when you try to speak in a language unfamiliar to you. Sokka chose to assume that vulnerability in this scene, and that more than anything else shows the depth of his sincerity. He has lowered himself in so many senses to Suki, making the scene so much more moving to me. And that's not even going into the adorability of the two of them just trying to pronounce each other's names in the scene after.
One stroke of genius that the author showed was in the way she presented the languages. Basically every viewpoint character's language is written in English, and she uses variations in the English language, smooth or mangled, colloquial or courtly, modern or archaic to represent the varieties. This requires a good command of both point of view and the nuances of language, and she shows both, as demonstrated in this amusing rendering of Sokka's interaction with his other main lady:
Stories like this is one of the many reasons I love fan fiction, because fanfic makes possible kinds of storytelling that are simply not possible in original fiction. The Boy from Babel is another example in a long line of examples why fanfic, far from being an inferior reflection of original fiction, opens up innovative avenues for new kinds of stories and expression.
Long story short, I highly, highly recommend this story just in case you can't tell from my ramblings so far. If you haven't read it, go read it! If you have, go read it again! That is all.
lavanyasix (fanfiction.net profile, somariel!). Written in response to the "Language Barrier" prompt at the Avatar Spirit forum, it takes off of what many fans might have thought of--namely, the different Nations and in some cases, regions having different languages.The thought of the entire world sharing the same language always seemed a stretch to me. I mean, take China for instance. While we politely call the language of the entire country Chinese, and they do share the same writing system much like the world of Avatar (though there are regional variations in the writing, too, I hear), in reality the major different dialects of Chinese are different languages. Mandarin and Guangdong Chinese aren't like American and British English: They have different phonetics and vocabulary, and a speaker of one has to learn the other like a foreign language, with the saving grace of the same writings to work from.
The Avatar world is presumably bigger than China (in my mind the Earth Kingdom is approximately China-sized, perhaps Eurasia-sized), and its level of transport and communications technology is lower. Even assuming the peoples all share a common root, I see no plausible way for all of them to speak in ways that are comprehensible to each other once they have lived in such far-flung locations for so long. The language homogeneity of the fictional world, like most instances of Common Tongue, is a plot convenience that falls apart when you apply real-world logic.
Enter real-world logic with a vengeance in The Boy from Babel, and suddenly the nice little Nickelodeon-appropriate world explodes with color and texture. Take the exponentially increased level of "awwww" that happens when Sokka must overcome the language barrier to apologize to Suki in "The Kiyoshi Warriors:"
Rubbing the back of his neck, avoiding her gaze, the outsider clambered down onto his knees. Suki, taken aback by this turnaround, watched silently as he smoothed out a scrap of paper onto the floor. Inked on it was a nonsensical series of bent lines and geometric shapes.Notice how much depth the broken apology adds to Sokka's character. He chose to address Suki in her own language, on her turf and her terms without taking the much more convenient route of having Aang (who as the Avatar is appropriately multilingual) translate. He had to get Aang to write out words that meant nothing to him, and probably practiced over and over, and still the words come out understandably mangled. While as a rule I'm not a fan of phonetically writing out accents, rules were made to be broken by the brilliant. In this case I approve 1000%, because the awkwardness of the reading is the point of the dialogue.
The Ice Man sounded out in rough Kyoshinese, "Ahy am sor-ee, Sookie-sama. Ahy... uh-pol-uh-jahyz... fer mahy rood-nes. Ahy woo'd bee... on-erd... if yuh woo'd... teech mee."
As anyone who has tried learning a foreign language knows, your effective IQ points plummet about 83 points when you try to speak in a language unfamiliar to you. Sokka chose to assume that vulnerability in this scene, and that more than anything else shows the depth of his sincerity. He has lowered himself in so many senses to Suki, making the scene so much more moving to me. And that's not even going into the adorability of the two of them just trying to pronounce each other's names in the scene after.
One stroke of genius that the author showed was in the way she presented the languages. Basically every viewpoint character's language is written in English, and she uses variations in the English language, smooth or mangled, colloquial or courtly, modern or archaic to represent the varieties. This requires a good command of both point of view and the nuances of language, and she shows both, as demonstrated in this amusing rendering of Sokka's interaction with his other main lady:
"G'day, mate!" He leaned against the table, grinning confidently. "Sokka. Southern Water Tribe."If you don't find this scene heart-warmingly adorable and funny all at once, you're dead to me. It's basically the same scene as the show, but with the differences in culture and mood making it so much deeper and, dare I say, more grownup. The whole story is not very long (this review is probably longer) but it captures the implications of a multilingual Avatar world in such deft strokes, creating the atmosphere of the world through mere glimpses.
Yue smiled, and not entirely because diplomacy demanded politeness. Father had told her that they and the Southerners were divided by a common language, more so now than ever because of the last few decades of isolation. He'd neglected to mention how smooth they sounded. Yue had never heard anything like it. "Very nice to meet you."
Stories like this is one of the many reasons I love fan fiction, because fanfic makes possible kinds of storytelling that are simply not possible in original fiction. The Boy from Babel is another example in a long line of examples why fanfic, far from being an inferior reflection of original fiction, opens up innovative avenues for new kinds of stories and expression.
Long story short, I highly, highly recommend this story just in case you can't tell from my ramblings so far. If you haven't read it, go read it! If you have, go read it again! That is all.
