life in space/ squatters on mars/ part 5

life in space/ squatters on mars/ part 5

fiction
edward w pritchard


here is a part of how early earth bound writer Pritchard imagined human language would have difficulty adapting to life in space. Pritchard imagined life away from earth as hostile to humans in all ways.

to yearn for something

fiction
edward w pritchard

Word derivations are bursting human treasures passed to us from our nameless ancestors.

First, although everybody is unique, we all experience the same basic daily stimuli. Waves, sunrises, phases of the moon, fingers smashed, loved ones removed.

Over time we realize that sometimes we are happy and sometimes sad. Often reason unknown. Our moods are a legacy passed on to us in deep human time from our ancestors who came before us and language is the  tally as our species successfully struggled to exist, uttered sounds to convince, order and express fleeting wistful emotions and moods.

To express the moods and longings they experienced our ancestors passed on to us and reluctantly sent us the words that composed the language they used in a shrinking attempt to order their lives.

I "yearn" intensely for what I have lost. My distant Grandfather, great greatly had a "yernen" to understand why he missed his dead wife. With his great great grandmother, she had a "giernan", an intense desire to know why she felt as she did, but her Great great great [ times ten] aunt  used "hortari" and urged  the future descendants to use "chairein" to encourage and to rejoice in the travesty of life. 

In space, here on Mars for example like everything else, language doesn't adapt well. Words from earth seem distant, quaint unable to stand up to the harshness of space. More on this later.

end