shel

The Transsexual Chofetz Chaim

Mutant, librarian, poet, union rabble rouser, dog, Ashkenazi Jewish. Neuroweird, bodyweird, mostly sleepy.


I write about transformative justice, community, love, Judaism, Neurodivergence, mental health, Disability, geography, rivers, labor, and libraries; through poetry, opinionated essays, and short fiction.


I review Schoolhouse Rock! songs at @PropagandaRock


Website (RSS + Newsletter)
shelraphen.com/

tomotter
@tomotter

Species in this setting:
The People, from planet Dirt orbiting Star
The Us, from planet Rock orbiting Star
The People, from planet Planet orbiting Star
The Not-Animals, from planet Dirt orbiting Light
The People, from planet Dirt orbiting Star
The People, from planet Here orbiting Star
The We, from planet Ground orbiting Brightness
The Us, from planet Dirt orbiting Star


shel
@shel

It was shocking. Even people who spoke the same language were understanding each other in a deeper way. Deceit became impossible. No matter what you said, the other party understood—really understood. Your true intentions were always conveyed. The emotions you felt were deeply grokked. The Sausserian Gap was no more. Intended meaning and received meaning unified. Everyone understood each other.

Now, some people might not have cared about others—or agreed. But they understood. They'd say "I understand where you're coming from but" and really truly meant it. Everyone knew that everyone else understood. It went both ways. Yes, the rich now understood the poor, but the poor also understood the rich.

"I get it. You want to earn a bigger profit because you fear inadequacy. You were raised in a long line of successful people that you can't be the one to end. But I also see through your trickery here. My labor is worth a hell of a lot more than you're offering and you know it because that's why I know it."

The applications on Earth came to be greater than the applications in space.


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @tomotter's post:

for sure the hardest part of engineering the Universal Translator must have been getting it to figure out when people were deliberately using a couple words in their own language for flavour.

There are other languages on earth and lots of them name earth after the local variant of God/Goddess, such as Gaea, so plenty of planets would probably be named "The children from Nature's domain orbiting nature". Additionally if a planet isn't their first world they might name it like a colony: new York, New England.

>go to planet dirt
>meet the dirt people
>houses made out of baked dirt
>their food comes from dirt
>they get water from holes in the dirt
>electricity comes from burning really old compressed dirt
>multiple professions dedicated to understanding the dirt
>ask me what my home dirt is like
>fucking hate the dirt planet

in reply to @shel's post: