Wednesday, July 15. 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Talk attracts Trekkies
Klingon expert goes where few linguists have gone before
By Graham K. Johnson
Kansan staff writer
Kap· la! Kap· la! The sounds of students, writers and Star Trek fans practicing their Klingon filled the Pine Room of the Kansas Union last Thursday.
About 50 people gathered to hear Lawrence Schoen, director of the Klingon Language Institute, discuss the intricacies of Klingon and other alien languages and how they can be used to improve science-fiction writing.
Schoen's talk was part of the annual Writers Workshop in Science Fiction, sponsored by the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. The conference, which Schoen attended, was held from June 28 to July 10.
Schoen discussed making alien languages more realistic and exotic in science-fiction writing and gave lessons in Klingon, which he said was his favorite alien language.
The artificial language, created for Paramount Pictures' Star
Trek movies and television series, has spawned The Klingon Language Institute, located near Philadelphia.
With more than 1,600 members in 45 countries, the institute has become a popular leisure and academic organization. The institute publishes its own quarterly academic journal and has translated the Bible and Hamlet into Klingon.
Schoen said that critics who charged that his institute was not a serious academic endeavor were too narrow-minded to see the benefits of studying artificial languages.
"I think that anything can be pursued with academic rigor," Schoen said. "Studying even an artificial language has a great deal of utility because it gives you insight into language in the larger sense."
Schoen said that Klingon study attracted many people to foreign-language study who otherwise would be uninterested.
Many young Trekkies in the audience eagerly awaited Schoen's lessons on the Klingon alphabet. However, Schoen focused on teaching science fiction writers how linguistic rules such as syntax and phonology can be manipulated to create strange yet realistic aliens.
"Communication is so difficult among our own kind. It shouldn't be any easier between us and aliens," Schoen said.
occurrence of aliens speaking in English was unrealistic.
Kevin Wohler, a writer and Topeka resident, said that he came to the talk to improve his science fiction writing, and that it was very helpful.
"When he was talking about the different parts of semantics, I thought there was a lot there that you can play with and add to your writing," Wohler said. "If I can incorporate just one of these ideas about communication problems into a story, it's going to add something."
Schoen said the science-fiction
James Gunn, professor emeritus of English and conference director, said that Schoen's talk was a rare treat because his specialty in the Star Trek language interested the general public yet related to the conference's mission of improving science fiction writing.
"Science fiction attempts to represent the world of science fiction accurately. And part of that world are alien beings," Gunn said. "Anyone who wants to write science fiction ought to know as much as possible about the way creatures communicate so that they can project in their fiction a believable world."
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