SECOND THOUGHTS
ISSUE NO.8 DECEMBER 2023 ISSN 2719-6739
Dialogue
EDITOR IN CHIEF Dominika Front EDITING & PROOFREADING Yousif Al-Naddaf Dominika Front Karolina Kowalska Sara Kusio Piotr Miszczuk Antonina Nizielska Aleksandra Socha Dawid Wośko Jan Ziętara ILLUSTRATORS: Jan Bodzioch Iga Chatys Sanaz Nouri COVER DESIGN Jan Bodzioch DESIGN AND LAYOUT Jan Bodzioch
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Contents POLITICAL 2
I Can’t Finish thi-: ‘We Speak an Orphan Tongue’: Trasianka, Named Languages and Code-switching Natallia Valadzko
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History Engine: An Inch to the West Marek Kobryń
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The Empire Strikes Back… And Loses, or How an Angolan King-Queen Opposed the Entire Portuguese Colonial Empire Weronika Kubik
CULTURAL 12
A Dialogue With the Devil Magdalena Sikora
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Howards End: The Edwardian Lesson on Dialogue Dorota Osińska
SOCIAL 17
The Broad Chit Chat – How Do Rumors Spread? Lena Przybłowska
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Intercultural Communication, or Anchors of Understanding Aleksandra Niedziewicz
SCIENCE 22
The Secret Language of Trees Dominika Front
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I Can’t Finish Thi-
‘We Speak an Orphan Tongue’: Trasianka, Named Languages and Code-Switching Natallia Valadzko Upon arriving in Belarus, one might come across a certain linguistic phenomenon and immediately be perplexed by it. To a Russian speaker outside Belarus, it might sound like ‘a weird kind of Russian.’ Another person who is aware of the country’s bilingualism might take it a step further and assume it to be Belarusian. And yet, neither would be entirely accurate. Belarusians know it as trasianka, literally ‘low-quality mixed grains.’ It is a linguistic variety in Belarus that resulted from a longlasting and intensive Belarusian-Russian language contact. Being relatively stable and conventionalized, trasianka is still practiced by a large part of the country’s population. It is obvious from the name that it is perceived as substandard and inadequate, which is why scholars prefer the term BelarusianRussian-Mixed-Speech (BRMS) in their publications. But in this text, I’ll stick to trasianka because I want to focus on and challenge its derogatory status, on the one hand; on the other hand, this abbreviation reminds me of all the confusingly similar four-letter abbreviations in the past and present Belarus.
into towns, where Russian was maintaining its dominant position. The latter secured its overpowering influence owing to a long history of Russification, first by the Russian Empire and then by the Soviet Union. The dominance of the Russian language persisted as ethnic Russians from other parts of the Soviet Union were moving to Soviet Belarus after the war and assuming leadership positions in the Communist Party or state-owned enterprises. People who recently have arrived in towns and cities struggled with linguistic accommodation. As a result, trasianka emerged, which later saw its intergenerational transfer as the residents’ children were growing up speaking the Belarusian-Russian mix. Is trasianka a ‘dialect’ of Belarusian or Russian? Linguists’ opinions vary. Some scholars claim that BRMS (to use their own term) is a variety of Belarusian; others suggest that it might develop into a regionalect of Russian. However, when it comes to the views of laypeople, out of ~1200 Belarusian small-town dwellers, only 20% consider trasianka to be a variety of Russian, 40% see it as a variety of Belarusian, and the remaining 40% believe that it is ‘something in the middle,’ a mix of the two.
For a long time, Belarusian territories have been borderlands, where local dialects came into contact with more socially dominant languages, like Polish or Russian. So the mixing of languages isn’t anything recent. However, what is now recognized as trasianka has to do with the changes in Soviet Belarus after World War II. Due to postwar industrialization there was a substantial labor migration from rural areas to towns. The number of urban dwellers increased from 21% in the 1950s up to 66% in the 1990s. What happened was that villagers were bringing Belarusian, especially dialectal varieties,
The linguistic landscape in Belarus is sometimes described as diglossia, i.e. the context in which the bilingual community switches between two languages depending on the purpose. The high variety is used in formal settings and schools, while the low variety is spoken in informal spaces with family and friends. Trasianka, being the low variety, has been stigmatized in favor of the official and ‘neutral’ high variety of Russian.
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Jan Bodzioch
The situation of diglossia mentioned above involves trasianka and Russian but not trasianka and Belarusian. Why is that? The answer can be multi-layered, especially when focusing on different time periods in Belarusian history. In general terms, however, Belarusian hasn’t succeeded in becoming the high variety, and for some part due to tragic reasons. The policy of Belarusization in the 1920s was designed to reverse the effects of Russification and was
producing real results in promoting and advancing the Belarusian language. By the end of the 1920s, 80% of civil servants spoke fluent Belarusian and 80% of schools used Belarusian as the language of instruction. However, in the 1930s, Stalinism and its brutal repression of the national elites put an end to Belarusization and other similar national programs across the Soviet Union.
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Is a linguistic phenomenon like trasianka unique? Not at all. New language varieties As for the present moment, things emerge due to extensive language contact have not become easier. Belarusian is all around the world. At the same time, it still not the high variety but it is not the is important not to equate them due to the low variety either. With Belarus gaining different and nuanced sociohistorical and independence in 1991, it is no longer the case linguistic factors in each case. Consider of the colonizer framing the language of Silesian and the influence of German, for the colonized as inferior. The status of the example. Nowadays there are music groups, Belarusian language nowadays is somewhat TV and radio stations in Silesian. Or the mysterious. It is one of the official languages, derogatorily named Spanglish, which one of the languages taught in every school, describes any language variety that mixes and yet with each passing year it feels like it American English and Spanishes, which is slipping through the fingers of Belarusian may include, for example, Mexican or people. It is not an endangered language per Puerto Rican varieties. se but it is the language that is attempted to be erased, one small policy at a time. As To give a quick example, Gloria E. a pushback against this, the Belarusian Anzaldúa, the author of the titular quote, language has at the same time become a explores the Chicano experience through product of ‘bourgeois nationalism’, so its the lens of colonialism, race, and gender use in the public sphere can be considered in her semi-autobiographical work a political statement and is usually seen Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. as such, even by cashiers in grocery stores. She uses code-switching, that is, using both Meanwhile, Russian seems neutral, almost Chicano Spanish and English, to challenge apolitical. There exists a universe where conventional Western writing as well as the nowadays Belarusians switch between invisible ‘borders’ of clashing identities. She Belarusian and trasianka instead, but writes, ‘[w]e are your linguistic nightmare, unfortunately, a lot of history would have to your linguistic aberration, your linguistic be changed for it to be the case. mestisaje.’ Indeed, border identities or mixed speech may be the nightmare of Trasianka has been viewed as an the homogenous, or homogeneity-striving, unwanted form of language, a sign of bad elites and the dominating high-variety taste, and a source of mockery. Is it a variety languages. of the language of and for uneducated people? Trasianka is used by people of At the same time, however, different different levels of education, and in reality, types of code-switching can be an integral the question boils down to something else. aspect of defining and honoring one’s It is an index of its rural origin, and some complex identity. Chicano English, Silesian, will take a classist stance irrespective of trasianka, or any mixed language variety is factual data. It has also been said that if you not just about what you are, and especially, speak trasianka, then you can’t speak ‘pure’ not what you are said to be by others. It Russian or Belarusian. Funnily enough, is also about what you were, what you quite often it wouldn’t be accurate as well. could have been, and what or who was/is For many, trasianka remains the language around you. In certain cases, code-switching spoken at home and one that is acquired can also be a powerful tool of resistance by children first. But once they go to school, and preserving or ‘proving’ your identity. they learn Russian and/or Belarusian This defiance can be against the broadly and then they can switch between the understood dominating powers and be two depending on the interlocutor and public, or it can take a deeply personal, context. So trasianka can’t be seen as just an introspective nature. An example of the understudied variant of Russian because latter is some fiction and poetry written children become fluent in Russian in by Belarusians. Such texts feature codeaddition to trasianka. And it is often done switching, which can feel empowering by simultaneously and not as a result of evoking the common ground, the shared ‘evolving’ trasianka to ‘proper’ Russian. past, present, and hopefully future. Or it might feel melancholic, desperate, or even grieving because they are still overpowered by ‘the oppressor’s language.’ 4
Jan Bodzioch
Finally, to put some of the things Thus, we can say that code-switching discussed into perspective, I have interprets language use from the used ‘language’ and ‘language variety’ at perspective of an observer. From their least twenty times in this text. After doing insider’s perspective, however, there is so, even to me, it starts to sound as if a only their idiolect, their unique linguistic specific language was a natural object. repertoire, which belongs to them and not But it is not. Just like an hour is not just a to any named language. naturally occurring ‘thing’, but a concept Translanguaging, on the other hand, of time turned into an object with more privileges the speaker and urges to or less defined boundaries. Surely, we move from a language as a boxed entity need these ‘boxes’ to be able to measure to languaging – the practice of using or talk about them. And yet, why don’t we language realized from one moment to take a moment and entertain the idea that another. Translanguaging pedagogies often language is not just a ‘thing’ a person has or emphasize how ideas of discrete bounded speaks but something a person does. Which languages are ideological constructs that is why many linguists and activists use the may limit language practice and learning. term languaging instead of (or along with) What if we spoke languages without the a language, highlighting the process and rigorous enforcement of named languages, not the object. without suppressing the wrong linguistic I am mentioning this to bring us back to features or the ‘wrong’ named languages? the idea of code-switching and distinguish In conclusion, since it is necessary to it from translanguaging. The latter often put concepts and experiences into ‘boxes’ refers to situations when a multilingual for us to be able to talk about them, for the person’s full linguistic repertoire is used first – and larger – part of the text I have and honored. Code-switching, conversely, ‘boxed’ trasianka. I have talked about codeis a very commonly used term to describe switching, which also means that I did so a general phenomenon of alternating from an outsider’s perspective. But I wish between languages or language varieties. to finish by lingering on (trans)languaging I have used it myself in this text because because then the debate over whether to it is a useful analytical tool fit for many use the term ‘BRMS’ or ‘trasianka’ may purposes. And yet, after foregrounding actually make you reflect on whether we languaging as an activity and not language assess the language from the outside or as an intrinsic ‘thing’, it is worth noting consider the experience of a speaker. that the concept of code-switching implies the existence of two codes, languages This text was brought to you in the as discrete objects. It implies that our named language English, while I took brain ‘naturally’ sorts out everything breaks talking with my mom in Russian into separate linguistic systems. But as and reading poems grieving the Belarusian I’ve mentioned before, they are not really language ‘the one that got away.’ But inherently ‘natural.’ Let’s think of a young these named languages are not objects, I bilingual child who doesn’t know they shouldn’t care too much if I ‘have’ them. If are code-switching after picking up some I focus on languaging, I can focus on my trasianka from their parents and some own complex sense of identity and feel the Russian from the cartoons on TV. The two freedom of languaging. languages of a bilingual child exist only in the outsider’s view.
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History Engine
An Inch to the West Marek Kobryń
According to Vladimir Putin, the Russian “special military operation in Ukraine” answers to broken assurances concerning NATO expansion. Is that indeed so? Did Western powers ever promise Russia to never move “an inch to the East”? And if so, what caused them to change their minds?
This attitude was certain to remain over the next few years, particularly in the U.S., as it was evidenced by the visit of Polish Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka to NATO headquarters in 1992. She then applied for Poland’s admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization only to hear from Wörner that NATO was not going to expand at that time.
NATO was founded shortly after World War II as a shield to protect its member states in case the Cold War ever went hot. However, in 1990 the Soviet Union was clearly past its glory days and it was dealing with the unforeseen consequences of political reforms brought by Mikhail Gorbachev. Suffice it to say that the diminishing power of the Soviet Union made the situation in Eastern Europe uncertain. Wanting to prevent the creation of a unified Germany under the auspices of another power, the United States agreed to talk with Soviet officials about a possible reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic, and removing Soviet troops from East Germany.
Seeing what was happening in the Balkans in the early 1990s, Western politicians feared that Eastern Europe was sitting on the same powder keg. In line with this reasoning was a widespread opinion that if any new NATO members were to be eventually admitted, it should be after a sufficiently long transitional period. And then, the Polish and Czech Presidents, Lech Wałęsa and Vaclav Havel, entered the stage. At the 1993 opening ceremony of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in separate conversations with President Bill Clinton, the two heads-of-state convinced him to change his mind about Central-Eastern Europe.
As the recently declassified stenographic records of the talks revealed, such prominent figures as German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and United States Secretary of State James Baker tried to calm the Soviet Union’s fears about NATO admitting new members. Manfred Wörner, former NATO Secretary General, put it explicitly that the NATO Council and he are against the expansion of NATO. No official document prohibiting future NATO expansion was signed despite these assurances, though.
The efforts of both Poland and the Czech Republic continued beyond mere conversations. In August 1993, at the Prague Summit, President Lech Wałęsa threatened that he would not allow Poland to enter into the US-brokered Partnership for Peace program for the CEE countries if it did not include assurances of a future NATO membership.
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Attempts to ensure Poland’s membership in NATO did not end with Wałęsa’s presidency. When asked about the greatest opponents of Poland joining NATO, Wałęsa’s successor, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, mentioned Russia and The New York Times. The newspaper published a series of articles highlighting a possible deterioration of the United States’ relations with Russia in the event of NATO’s enlargement. These texts also stressed the unstable political situation in Belarus, Poland’s immediate neighbor, which allegedly created a possible risk of NATO’s involvement in a potential conflict with this country. Thus, The New York Times was strongly lobbying against Polish membership in NATO.
Thus, the answer to the question of NATO expansion is a complicated one. Assurances were made but no treaty forbidding NATO’s enlargement was ever signed either with the Soviet Union or with the Russian Federation. Moreover, the countries of the former Soviet Bloc, such as Poland, which fully gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, were trying to join NATO, perhaps more actively than the Alliance was willing to expand.
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As for Russia, the United States reached an agreement with the successor state of the USSR in 1997. Russia agreed on expanding the Alliance, provided that NATO would not build permanent military bases on the territory of its new members. Thanks to the joint efforts of the authorities of the Third Republic of Poland, notably including the ambassador to the United States, Jerzy Koźmiński, former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński, and the Polish community in the United States, the U.S. Senate on August 30th, 1998, voted 80 to 19 to accept Poland, along with Hungary, and the Czech Republic, as a new NATO member.
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The Empire Strikes Back… And Loses, or How an Angolan King-Queen Opposed the Entire Portuguese Colonial Empire Weronika Kubik
The beginning of the Portuguese Colonial Empire can be marked by their conquest of Ceuta, a North-African coastal city, in 1415. Overtime, they established colonies in five African countries, known today under the collective name PALOP (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa). One can list several reasons for these overseas voyages. From the Christian crusade against os mouros, as the Portuguese called Muslim people of Northern Africa, through simple human curiosity about the terrifying, unknown territories (it was believed that the waters and lands beyond Cape St. Vincent were the home of dangerous sea monsters and demons, with climate so unfavorable that would make human existence a living hell), as well as the desire to form new trade routes, discover sources of foreign commercial goods and precious metals, all the way to the mission of bringing the so-called light of civilization and faith to the natives. The Portuguese presence in Africa ended in 1975, when all of the colonies declared independence and demanded that the colonizers leave the borders of the countries. Although the Portuguese still believe themselves to be the “good colonizers”, their attitude towards the inhabitants of the lands they occupied wasn’t always harmless or noble. One particularly interesting episode in the Empire’s history involves relations with a political structure that was at the time known as The Kingdom of Kongo and its vassal states.
Iga Chatys
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The Kingdom of Kongo was located in West Africa and stretched over the terrains of today’s northern Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Powerful and influential, the Kingdom of Kongo established feudal relations with neighboring states, such as Ndongo and Matamba. The very first appearance of the Portuguese in this region was made in 1482 when Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo River. However, only a century later, the Portuguese established a permanent outpost in Luanda.
Unfortunately, these preventive actions didn’t solve the issue. Despite the fact that the European-African conflict quieted down for a period of time, the Portuguese didn’t plan to subject themselves to the control of Africans. Upon the Mani Kongo’s death, the struggle for power and rule over the great Kingdom created new problems for the local people. Additionally, the rising tensions between the Kingdom of Kongo and the Kingdom of Kasanje pushed the new Mani Kongo Álvaro I to request Portuguese help. The Europeans perceived it to be their chance to subjugate the Africans and demanded that from that moment on the Kingdom remains under the Portuguese rule. Desperate, the Mani Kongo agreed. The Portuguese continued to abuse their power, unlawfully capture and ship out Africans to other colonies, and ravage the lands they now had under their domination. The damage began to be so severe that some of the Kongo’s vassal states decided to take action. The initiative came from the one of the largest provinces, Ndongo.
At first, the relations between the Europeans and the people of Kongo appeared to be built on mutual curiosity and hopes to establish successful trade relations. One of the “goods” the Portuguese were particularly interested in were Africans who could be used as workforce in other colonies. Although slave trade was already strongly established in African kingdoms, as it was a part of a complicated social structure of the natives, it didn’t serve the same purpose as slavery practiced by the Europeans, whose primary goal was providing workers for their overseas plantations. When it came to the customs of the Africans, there were many conventions and strict rules that needed to be followed – something the Portuguese weren’t fond of. Their hunts for large numbers of African people soon led to a conflict between the ruler of the Kingdom, Mani Kongo Afonso I (the title “Mani Kongo” translates roughly to “the ruler of Kongo”), and the Europeans. Seeing that they continuously disrespected the established laws, the Mani Kongo requested that the Kingdom of Portugal obeys the local traditions. The Portuguese king tried to mediate the conflict and ultimately decided to appoint an ambassador who was supposed to ensure that the trade doesn’t violate the existing rules.
The Kingdom of Ndongo was ruled by Ngola Mbandi (“Ngola” was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Ndongo), who was not very popular among his people, due to his military inaptitude and somewhat weak spirit – he lacked courage and decisiveness, which are traits needed from a leader, especially in the times of war. On top of that, after assuming the power, he proceeded to murder nearly all of his political rivals. Only his sister, Nzinga, managed to run away to the neighboring Kingdom of Matamba. Once the Portuguese started to conquer more and more territories, the king was forced to contact his estranged sibling for help. Contrary to him, Nzinga was a seasoned warrior and diplomat, able to not only lead an army, but also take charge in peace negotiations with the opponents. On top of that, she could speak fluent Portuguese, so she was nominated to be Ndongo’s negotiator and try to form a treaty with the colonizers. 9
Upon reaching Luanda, she met João Correia de Sousa, a new Portuguese ambassador, who from the very first moment tried to belittle and embarrass her. He received her while sitting on what resembled a throne and presented his royal guest with a pillow laid on the floor. Our heroine, unphased by de Sousa’s provocation, ordered one of her companions to kneel on the ground and sat on her back throughout the negotiations. She presented great political drift and remained calm despite the ambassador’s patronizing attitude. She demanded that the Portuguese withdraw from Ndongo’s territory and promise not to break the peace treaty. In return, she offered to send back the Africans who fled after being captured and uphold the trade between the two sides. Although she refused to accept the Portuguese domination, Nzinga agreed to be baptized, as a proof of her commitment to the cause, and was given the name of Ana de Sousa, which was then used by the Portuguese to refer to her.
Iga Chatys
At the time of negotiations, the Kingdom of Kasanje, who showed hostility towards the Kingdom of Kongo and its vassal states for a long time, begun to take over Ndongo territories. The Portuguese refused to help Ngola Mbandi until he abandoned the beliefs of his ancestors and converted to Christianity. The Portuguese thought it important to force the ruler of the Kingdom to give up the faith of his people – it would not only be a signal to all Africans that Christianity was the right choice, but also make the king and, by extension, the ones under his rule subservient to the European conquerors. However, agreeing to this request would lead to losing the respect and support of his people, as in their view the king had to be the guardian of traditional values. He refused to fulfil the order, upon which the Portuguese immediately broke the agreement reached by Nzinga and reentered their posts on the Ndongo territory. Soon, the Ngola Mbandi lost his life in suspicious circumstances and, despite the objections of the male members of the nobility, Nzinga took over as the ruler. Thus, the King (as she demanded to be called) Nzinga was born. In order to be trusted by her people, she reverted to her birth name and African belief system.
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Despite all her sacrifices and hard work, they accused her of using witchcraft and her time as a ruler was riddled with threats human sacrifices to ensure victories against and challenges. As the conflict between the the European soldiers. Only because they Ndongo and Portugal deepened, internal believed that a woman, especially a black tensions in the Kingdom also grew. While one, could not possibly be able to defeat a Nzinga called upon the enslaved African strong, well-equipped European army. people who were forced to work for the King Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba Portuguese to flee and join her army, de and the Portuguese governor needed 30 Sousa tried to undermine the new Ngola years of constant fights and unsuccessful by supporting the members of Ndongo royalty who revolted against their new king. diplomatic campaigns to sign a peace treaty. Once the peace was fully established, They refused to be ruled over by a woman Nzinga could focus on bettering the and would rather side with the conqueror situation of her people. She introduced than accept Nzinga’s command. These mutual efforts led to a war between the two a series of reforms and reconverted to Christianity. Till this day the warrior Kingsides. At first, Nzinga experienced a series Queen of Angola is regarded as the national of defeats, which greatly diminished her hero, as her military and political aptitude, army, and was expelled from her kingdom unbreakable spirit, and resilience in the by a puppet ruler aided by the Portuguese. Despite this, she quickly began to form new face of a much more powerful opponent led her people to freedom. alliances – she married the king named Kasanje and took over the Kingdom of All this would not be possible without Matamba, creating a strong and highly the difficult dialogue she engaged in with skilled army. Later on, she also formed her opponents. It was often unpleasant, as a successful relationship against the the Portuguese didn’t view her as an equal Portuguese with the Dutch (the two nations – she was a woman, she was black, she was were rivals, both hoping to gain as much “a savage”. Despite all this, Nzinga knew her as possible from their colonial conquests), strength and power, and was able to act which only reinforced her significance both as a diplomat and as a warrior, when it in the region. Interestingly enough, her was needed. Her unapologetic attitude and opponents refused to recognize her military strong voice allowed her to finally prevail and political expertise, which she gained after three decades of constant struggle. as the daughter of the king of Ndongo, as well as through years of experience. Instead
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A Dialogue with the Devil Magdalena Sikora Encountering the devil sounds like a pretty horrifying experience, doesn’t it? He’s cruel, deceitful, constantly on a quest to corrupt people, and overall evil to the bone. But what about an encounter with a devil who is actually not so devilish? This is the case in James Robertson’s book The Testament of Gideon Mack, where the devil is not the typical master of all that is evil. Don’t get me wrong, he is still responsible for much of what is bad in the world. However, in this book he is going through a professional burn-out, which makes him appear more human. If we ignore his minor outbursts of anger, he even seems almost likeable. Our particular devil comes across Gideon Mack, a faithless minister of the Church of Scotland, and they engage in an intriguing dialogue. It’s a conversation that doesn’t fall short of topics touching upon existential as well as religious matters.
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In their seemingly casual conversation, they bring up the notion of evil as it lies at the core of the Devil’s activity. Gideon has never really believed in the existence of either God or the devil, and his understanding of the latter is rather stereotypical, so to be sure he asks the devil what it is that the fiend actually does. He answers that he doesn’t really do much nowadays, suggesting that there is no need for him to do his usual stuff because people are “going to hell on a handcart” without any help. With this statement, the devil challenges the traditional religious conviction about evil and thus encourages Gideon to reflect on his own beliefs. As readers, we are also provoked to think about such things. Since the one considered responsible for evil just sits in his cave in Scotland jobless and hopeless, we must be the bad guys, right?
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After three days Gideon emerges, as if resurrected, from the depths of the cave and he is ready to preach to people about his newly acquired knowledge. Of course, nobody believes him. We also get a hint about Gideon possibly being an unreliable narrator, which makes us question his story. It doesn’t matter though. What counts is the fact that, as Gideon was made to look back on his life and faith, we are also invited to take a closer look at our own beliefs.
I suppose you could reread the book a million times but the answers as to what happened in that cave or whether something happened there at all will remain a mystery. Thanks to James Robertson, who was careful enough not to tip the scale towards one specific interpretation, the book can be interpreted in countless ways. Perhaps there simply is no rational explanation for some of the questions which gives the book an unmatchable sense of mystery and otherworldliness. However, what is certain is that the experience of reading The Testament of Gideon Mack doesn’t end with the last page read. The character of Gideon Mack is sure to linger in the reader’s mind long after the book is finished. You’d be sure to retrace his life story and focus on the themes which are at the heart of the book but also human existence in general: life, death, love, faith, evil, and truth.
Although the meeting between Gideon and the Devil is definitely the climax of the book, what is equally vital is the previous 250 pages which describe Gideon’s journey to realising that he built his life on lies and pretending to be somebody he isn’t. The Testament of Gideon Mack is a story of duality, internal conflict, and searching for something that would end one’s struggle. Fortunately, all of the lies, doubts, or problems Gideon’s gathered along the way seem to have all been resolved with just a short conversation. His whole life led up to that moment of “epiphany” when he finally faced up to his life.
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Howards End: The Edwardian Lesson on Dialogue Dorota Osińska
When you open E. M. Forster’s Edwardian novel Howards End, what you immediately notice is a short epigraph ‘...only connect’ which is as relevant today as it was at the beginning of the twentieth century. Simple, straightforward, and suggestive, especially in the modern age of social divisions, political polarities, and constantly growing discrepancies in all aspects of life. What Forster proposes is the vision of human connection that is based on a profound exchange of experiences and mutual acknowledgement of these feelings. However, throughout the novel, he shows that the art of dialogue, though precious and desired, may be difficult to master.
the book can be labelled as a ‘Condition of England’ novel and it neatly shows tensions between the old and the new; between the traditional and the unconventional. In Forster’s view, modernity is not only related to rapid economic progress, the expansion of capitalism, and the turmoil in British colonies. For him, the core of the problem lies in the rift between the working and the upper-middle class; it is about estrangement from beauty, art, and one’s own roots. To investigate these hostilities and divisions, Forster explores the lives of three families: the intellectual, adventurous, idealistic, and art-loving Schlegels; the pragmatic, down-to-earth, new money Wilcoxes; and the impoverished Basts who desperately view literature as salvation from misery and social exclusion. Forster’s attitude towards these families is odd. At first, he contrasts them, compares them, and emphasises the differences in social rank. However, the lives of these families gradually become intertwined and tightly linked to one another in strange and unexpected ways. As the plot develops, Forster connects the fates and struggles of the families in a powerfully evocative way, dismantling the readers’ expectations about the heroes and the villains of the story.
My fascination with Howards End started with the 2017 TV series that was released by BBC One and Starz TV. I thought – the cast is amazing, the storyline seems great, and the novel was adapted by the phenomenal Kenneth Lonergan (he was awarded the Oscar for his subtle and poignant writing style in the heart-wrenching Manchester by the Sea) so I needed to see it. Truly, the series was full of tension, witty dialogues, and exceptionally great acting. Funnily enough, because at that time, I considered myself a serious literature student who should know all the classics (I guess not anymore), I decided it was time for the book. Admittedly, despite its slow pace, the novel is even better than its TV adaptation. Howards End is Forster’s exploration into the social, economic, and ideological forces that operated in England during the early years of the 20th century. On the surface,
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The narrative cleverly represents the repeated attempts to talk, discuss, and come into dialogue. In the early episode of the novel, Forster’s female characters dive deep into the question of women’s emancipation and franchise, showing a deep disjunction among women and how that disjunction is tightly lined by the difference in age. Although the scene could be interpreted as a moment of hostility, both protagonists involved in the discussion cherished these moments of conflict and mutual misunderstanding. Moreover, Forster paints various pictures of marital dialogues and sometimes a complete lack of relations in the marriage. Either there are no disputes between the spouses and that turns out to be a fertile ground for maintaining dark secrets and years of living in a lie; or the conversations between the husband and the wife boil down to the deluge of nagging questions and convoluted answers. Still, there are also moments of profound connection between characters that escape the linguistic forms of a dialogue – the protagonists have a deeper understanding of each other and they communicate without language. It is replaced by furtive glances, gentle touches or surprised stares. Also, the familial dialogue appears strange but compelling to read – the relationship between the father and the son is presented as full of fights but each argument fosters an odd camaraderie between the men; the bond between the Schlegels is marked by mutual trust, humour, innocent teasing, but, more importantly, tough conversations about love, capitalism, art, and future. Despite the permeating roles of forgiveness and sympathy, Howards End primarily notes the complexities of forming sincere bonds with others.
(idealistic, progressive, and of German origin), the Schlegel siblings (upper-middle class) get to know Mr Bast (working class), Mr Wilcox (representing British Empire) knows Mrs Bast (probably a person of colour, but that is only subtly implied in the text). Indeed, that recognition of the otherness and the attempts to come into dialogue with it appear to be the most striking part of Howards End as they do not assume that connection equals understanding. At one point in the book, Margaret Schlegel explains her sister the decision to marry one of the characters, noting that ‘[t]here are heaps of things in me that he doesn’t, and shall never, understand.’ In this way, Forster further complicates the intersection between dialogue, understanding, and connection. Howards End is slow, the plot lacks obvious twists and turns, and there is no apparent resolution. I assume that this piece is not a good advertisement for the book. But if we give it a try, we end up discovering how the issues portrayed in Forster’s novel shed new light on modern problems. We find ourselves in the intricate web of economic systems that create numerous irreversible social tensions, and we try to navigate them as skilfully as we can. Similarly to Forster’s text, contemporary art, poetry, literature, and the concepts of beauty and goodness have to compete with the functionality and optimisation of the systems of modern corporations. Like in Forster’s Edwardian times, nowadays there are still deeply rooted anxieties concerning the questions of forgiveness, nationality, and identity. I believe that Forster’s novel encourages us to notice that the art of dialogue remains a skill to learn and practise regularly. Ultimately, it is an act. Above all, what Forster continuously suggests in Howards End is that we should try to connect, even though it may bring us a sense of confusion or even disappointment with other people. Yet, that dialogue should be characterised by the willingness to listen and the recognition of the other person’s experience.
With the dialogue between characters, there is also a thoughtprovoking commentary on the otherness. Throughout the book, Forster’s characters cross the boundaries of their social standings, preconceptions, and beliefs – Mrs Wilcox (conservative, traditional, and English) befriends Margaret Schlegel 15
Sanaz Nouri
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The Broad Chit Chat: How Do Rumors Spread? Lena Przybłowska
Imagine your coworker just sat down with you for lunch and they are dying to talk about the new employee and how likely they will fail their training. Or maybe the author of the book you have been reading has had their private DMs posted on the internet in which they say their fanbase is annoying. We have all been a part of such situations present in daily life, but have you ever wondered how is it that the rumours actually spread? And is there any way we can benefit from such an exchange of information?
mouths and gossip about anything they hear; and the stiflers - the people who put a stop to the spread of rumors. Scientists have established that the spread of rumors is similar to the contamination process. Different behaviors and environments influence the process of rumor spreading and the forgetting rate - the time it takes us to forget the information we were given. To put it simply, there are three types of people based on how they react to rumors. Some people do not hear rumors in the first place and therefore don’t react to them at all. Others will gladly pass them on, and then there are those who do not care enough to tell others. We’re generally aware that rumors are not exactly the most credible and trustworthy source of information. This fact, combined with the different types of rumor responders, suggests that there might exist personality types of radical believers in rumors, and those who will be more reluctant to do so.
Over the years scientists have proposed multiple models representing the spread of hearsay. Let’s go over a more simplified one and, in my opinion, the most interesting one - the epidemic model - in a less scientific sense. The epidemic model concerns the spread of rumors in the same way as an epidemic may spread. The crowd is divided into the following: the ignorants – those who do not hear the rumors at all; the spreaders - those who like to open their
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What you need to remember is that we all often use stories to communicate and it’s absolutely nothing bad to be a participant in rumor spreading as long as you don’t hurt others. Let’s not forget the unlikely benefits of rumors. Some consider gossip to be one of the main beneficial forms of information as it is a so-called, feelgood type of communication and it can release hormones such as oxytocin and serotonin. In such a way we are able to form closer relations that could further result in much more promising relationships. It is also a means of spreading beneficial information throughout the community we are part of. After all, who knows, maybe hearing some specific information gets passed along will save you from drama or get you a new friend.
Iga Chatys
You might ask, “How does personality fit into all this?”. Individuals who are steady and calm are believed to be contemplative by nature, therefore seeking some underlying meaning behind the rumor. In that process of overthinking, they analyze whether the rumor is true, whether it is relevant to their life, and whether it is worth passing along. It is crucial to information spreading since studies show that facts applicable to a person’s life are more likely to be passed on. For example, as the exam session is approaching, rumors about the schedule of exams have been forming around my faculty. Some have theorized that the whole plan will be presented as a gift for Children’s Day on the 1st of June. Of course, since the exam session applies to all students at the faculty, as the rumor started to spread, the office itself had to debunk it before it could begin to be considered true. They have become, as Piquera calls them in his article the stiflers and stopped the spread of misinformation regarding the exam session.
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Intercultural Communication, or Anchors of Understanding Aleksandra Niedziewicz
When I was a child, my family went on a holiday and befriended a Jewish family from Israel. Not only had they two daughters, exactly the same age as me and my sister, but also both Polish and Jewish mothers were teachers. We didn’t speak any common language, but that didn’t stop us from partying together in the garden. This led to our parents communicating with a strange mixture of Hebrew and Polish, augmented by a few English words that we all knew. My sister and I played all day in the garden with our new friends, with whom we had a dialogue without words.
One day, as usual, my sister wanted to play in the garden with one of our friends. After breakfast, she excitedly ran out of the house to ask her friend if she had time to meet. She quickly returned, perplexed and puzzled. With fear in her voice, she announced that the whole family couldn’t go out, because they were sitting in silence with a tablecloth over their heads. After a moment, she added that they were probably praying.
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My sister’s experience shows some interesting dependency. When my sister saw our Jewish friends, she immediately understood why they couldn’t go out to play. She realized that they were praying thanks to the knowledge from her religion classes. In this case, two cultural codes, Catholic and Jewish, overlapped. She knew what folded hands, bent head and kneeling could mean. What shocked her was the cloth, called a tallit as we later found out, on their heads.
hypothesis states that the used language influences the thinking process to some extent. It is true that there are significant syntactic differences between languages that can stand in the way of full understanding. The question is, however, do we need full understanding in everyday communication? Perhaps mere contact with another culture is enriching enough for the individual. It helps develop empathy. Although laughing, crying or praying may be expressed differently according to a culture’s existing pragmatics, some specific gestures are widespread enough across many cultures to serve as a touchstone or an anchor.
It is particularly interesting that we can find cultural parallels despite linguistic boundaries, which is aided not only by our individual experience but also by being able to refer to the knowledge of other members of our cultural circle. As stated by semiotician Yuri Lotman, culture is a system of signs, just like language. He presented culture as a secondary system of signs, super-structured on top of language. This secondary system is comprehensible to all its native speakers and it creates a sense of community between them. To put it briefly: culture makes it easier to understand others.
The anecdote I started the text with perfectly illustrates that despite the differences between them, we can find certain anchors of understanding between cultures. They help us conceptualize ideas that are specific to a foreign culture. Even if the way of praying or the purpose of it is different from what we may be used to, we are able to understand the activity itself by reference to the system of meaning in our culture. Parallels to other cultures are evident in almost every aspect and level of sociocultural life, from ideas uniting people to word cognates.
Unknowingly following this example, my sister and I managed to understand new religious principles in a very short time. Our mother’s translation was absolutely enough. On the basis of the knowledge she offered, we were able to deduce the meaning of specific terms. Certainly, the similarity of our cultures and our childlike openness to the world, unencumbered by constraints, also played their role. Paradoxically, it was the lack of knowledge that helped us speak the same language and treat each other with openness.
When you need to communicate with someone from another culture, it may seem obvious to download a translating app, take up a language course or ask somebody who will act as a translator. The mere thought of trying to understand an unknown culture without this kind of help can be bonechilling and stressful. Maybe that is why we forget that we have much more potential for apprehension than we think. Language is but one means to an end. Intercultural communication is first and foremost an attempt at understanding.
Although one may think our method of communicating is entirely free of conventional usage of language, there are theories that can contradict this statement. The famous Saphir-Whorf
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The Secret Language of Trees Dominika Front
You’re walking in a lush forest, admiring the spreading branches of tall trees. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining through the leaves, painting golden stripes on the forest floor. Yet while enjoying such a walk, few people would think that anything exciting is happening under the layer of branches, dead leaves, and ferns. You’d be quite surprised. Down below, a vast web of fungal hyphae stretches out, penetrating each square centimetre of soil and forming a channel for trees to communicate.
Fungi branch out their hyphae so that they collectively make up the mycelium – the fungus’s body. Not only does this complex root system allow the tree and fungus to get what they need, but it also connects the tree roots together forming mycorrhizal networks, such as the common mycelial network (CMN). According to a global project by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN): “A single gram of soil can contain up to 90 meters of mycelium. The total length of mycorrhizal mycelium in the top ten centimeters of soil is around 450 quadrillion kilometers: around half the width of our galaxy.”
The fungal network grows around tree roots and penetrates them, absorbing the excess sugars that the tree obtained during photosynthesis. The sugars are indispensable for the survival of the fungi. In turn, the fungi provide the tree with nutrients from the soil, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. In other words – a win-win type of situation. This process is called mycorrhizas, a symbiosis between a plant and a fungus.
The complexity of the CMN does not end there. There are hundreds of species of mycorrhizal fungi; there are roughly 3 trillion trees on our planet and each tree can cooperate with dozens of fungi. These results in unique connections between individual trees and their own set of fungi. Together, they make up the CMN or, as it was dubbed by Nature in 1997, the Wood Wide Web. This name is a perfect fit for two reasons. First, it coincided with the dissemination of the Internet; second, there is a parallel between the CMN and the Internet (but more or that later).
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In the 1980s, the CMN was tested in vitro but it was not until a decade later that a Canadian scholar, Suzanne Simard, started to work on her PhD which would investigate the CMN (which, if you’re interested, you can read here). When she was a student, it had only just been discovered in lab tests that one prime root could transmit carbon to another prime seedling root, so in her thesis she decided to investigate whether the same transfer takes place in forests as well. After some funding problems – the part and parcel of academia – she conducted an experiment by means of which she found out that paper birch and Douglas fir trees use the mycelial network to send carbon to each other. Her further work revealed that the trees and other plants communicate on a far deeper level, sharing not only carbon, but also the nutrients and information crucial to their survival. Now, Suzanne Simard is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia. She also started The Mother Tree Project – a research project “investigating forest renewal practices that will protect biodiversity, carbon storage and forest regeneration as climate changes” (to learn more about the project, visit its website). Alongside other scholars, she was able to create a DNA map of the mycorrhizal network of Douglas fir trees in a Douglas fir forest. It was a huge breakthrough for the world of science. However, it was nothing compared to the discoveries by Crowtherlab, which does research on ecosystems, their structure and their global variety. They were able to build on Simard’s findings and use machine learning to create the world map of the Wood Wide Web. This impressive feat allowed for a better understanding of how ecosystems work. But more importantly, this development can help us understand how ecosystems work. This, in turn, will allow the scientists to research and, hopefully, find ways of mitigating the effects of logging on climate. How? As described, mycorrhizal network transports carbon, among all other things.
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We know how the trees are interconnected. But why would the fungi transport the nutrients to neighbouring trees, send information, and pose as a channel of communication for the plants? Are the fungi being blackmailed by their mycorrhizal partners? Or maybe quite the opposite, does it benefit the fungi somehow? We don’t know the answer. What we do know, however, is the complexity of the CMN. Trees can tell where the nutrients came from; what’s more, they can even tell if the substances were sent by their close relative! They also share information on such dangers as droughts or insects, causing their neighbours to strengthen their security systems. And the most touching element of their cooperation is that a dying tree sends food to other trees so that the nutrients won’t be wasted but will nurture others. And now something amazing – the mother tree recognises its offspring and envelops it with a bigger mycorrhizal mesh, sending more carbon and nutrients; they give up on their own roots so as to provide space to their seedlings. Thanks to that, these seedlings become stronger and less susceptible to diseases that could overcome the mother tree.
When a tree dies – be it naturally or not – gigantic amounts of carbon from this
network get released into the atmosphere. Simard and other Mother Tree Project researchers are now able to use that knowledge and translate it into guidelines on how to conserve what they call mother trees, which play a vital role in protecting fungal networks that store millions of tonnes of carbon.
Why mother trees, though? It turned out that there is a pattern in the bonds between trees. The network consists of nodes and links – and it’s mind-blowing since it is comparable to neural networks on which the brain – or the Internet – is based. The nodes in the network are called hubs, or more tenderly, mothers, who use the Wood Wide Web to sustain younger trees by dispatching nutrients. They are usually connected with hundreds of other trees, as a result increasing the seedlings’ survival. Of course, this is just a metaphor used to help us picture the complexity of the connections, not to anthropomorphise plants and fungi. It’s a pretty accurate metaphor though because one can’t help but notice the parallels.
The Wood Wide Web, just like the Internet, has its grim side, too. Some plants plug into the Wood Wide Web by force, using the Wood Wide Web as a darknet, really. By doing so, they can steal resources from the neighbouring trees and plants, or, like alders and walnuts, spread toxins to finish off their foes. Next time you’re in a forest, look out for mother trees. Think not only about what you see before your eyes, but instead envisage the galaxy of connections under your feet. And maybe, if you’re pertinacious enough, you’ll discern the secret conversations of trees.
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Second Thoughts wishes you Merry Christmas and all the best in 2024
