Originally posted Nov 16, 2008
Reviewed for Front Street Reviews
T.H.E. Hill is a veteran of Field Station Berlin and of Herzo Base. As such, he is perfectly attuned to the subject of his novel. Hill’s novel is set in the early days of the Cold War. The CIA and the U.S. military intelligence linguists are in fact involved in the planning and construction of the tunnel and also handling of processed data. From this point on, this review will refer only to the novel. The book is very entertaining, irreverent and humorous throughout. The story is told from both the Russian side via tapes and land-line calls and the U.S. side from the transcriptions by the ‘lingies” in the tunnel under Berlin. The characters are a mix of fun or stereotypical in order to bounce off each other like the straight man and the funny man. Through the tapes we come to know the characters you never get to “see”, but learn the personalities of, through the transcriptions.
There is a feeling of being a part of the cloistered community, especially once the wiretaps are in full operation. In a boring and inactive area, a lot of the action comes from the transcription of the tapes and calls. There is so much game-playing to alleviate the boredom that some characters suspect the head transcriber, Kevin, is playing jokes with the transcriptions and making things up. Some of the transcribers are unable todiscern the underlying information and make serious errors in judgment that Kevin just barely has time to correct before the reports go out. He has read the manuals, he knows the lingo, knows how to distinguish what is important and what is not. When he is questioned about where he finds certain words in the transcriptions, he can point out what was hidden that led him to know place or person, what clues to watch for.
Underlying the daily goings on is the content of some of the tapes talking about a spy who is dating a U.S. soldier, who the Russians suspect is involved in a U.S. operation in the area where the warehouse is (the warehouse is over the tunnel entrance). The concern rises as some tidbit of information is inadvertently dropped to the Russian spy, and the main characters in the tunnel each have a different idea of who the GI might be, but when they identify the spy, they will know. I do not want to include any spoilers, so I will step away from the mystery. Needless to say, the more I think about this book, the more I enjoy recalling it.
There is a “Guide to the Jargon” in the front of the book that’s very helpful. There is also a paragraph on “How the Russians Address Each Other”. A quick search by me on the internet for my own curiosity brought up several sites about the Berlin Tunnel, declassified in 2007.
I would definitely recommend this book to those who like Cold War humor, history, and entertaining reading.
Article “The Cold War Museum - the Berlin Tunnel by T.H.E. Hill
Showing posts with label linguistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linguistics. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English by Mark Abley
Originally posted Thursday, October 15, 2009
Well-written and surprisingly up to date, this Canadian author has introduced how the dictionary is an ongoing work, never to be finished, as the English language appears to take handsprings of changes at any given mini-decade to produce new words and change those of the past. He smoothly takes us through the many adaptations of English as determined by countries around the world.
I found the historic asides of the many languages around the globe to be exceptionally interesting, especially the history of the Japanese language. I particularly enjoyed one of the comments about a current phrase in Japanese/English: "a new Japanese phrase meaning 'to visit Tokyo Disneyland,' nezumi shibaku, literally means 'to flog the mouse.'" Now, isn't that a logical translation? What else is Disneyland and the Disney empire doing but "flogging the mouse". Wonderful.
This is not only a book about the "takeover" of the English language but also delves into how we perceive other cultures in the world of today. Very differently from the past, I learned. The new English as spoken in other countries is often based on the music lyrics, computer technology, texting, slang, and many other cultural symbology. Yet, each country adds some part of its own language either as a tag-on or mixed in one sentence. Books and movies presenting the imagined future of the earth also come into play. Some from science-fiction, some from today's outlook on a probable future. The reader would not find it difficult to think of many words that were not in use as recently as 10 years ago, and this changes almost daily in our rapid communication of internet, blogs, texting, email, et al.
On the other hand, within the past 50 years many words have gone out of style or taken on entirely different meanings. Just try watching an old 1940s/50s movie! Even in this new century the same could be said. Some words stick, others just disappear or remain localized.
Personally, I found this book enjoyable and informative. It was entirely readable, not dry or academic. This book was written for anyone with an interest in how even language can change at home and abroad, and how much impact the English language now has globally.
Well-written and surprisingly up to date, this Canadian author has introduced how the dictionary is an ongoing work, never to be finished, as the English language appears to take handsprings of changes at any given mini-decade to produce new words and change those of the past. He smoothly takes us through the many adaptations of English as determined by countries around the world.
I found the historic asides of the many languages around the globe to be exceptionally interesting, especially the history of the Japanese language. I particularly enjoyed one of the comments about a current phrase in Japanese/English: "a new Japanese phrase meaning 'to visit Tokyo Disneyland,' nezumi shibaku, literally means 'to flog the mouse.'" Now, isn't that a logical translation? What else is Disneyland and the Disney empire doing but "flogging the mouse". Wonderful.
This is not only a book about the "takeover" of the English language but also delves into how we perceive other cultures in the world of today. Very differently from the past, I learned. The new English as spoken in other countries is often based on the music lyrics, computer technology, texting, slang, and many other cultural symbology. Yet, each country adds some part of its own language either as a tag-on or mixed in one sentence. Books and movies presenting the imagined future of the earth also come into play. Some from science-fiction, some from today's outlook on a probable future. The reader would not find it difficult to think of many words that were not in use as recently as 10 years ago, and this changes almost daily in our rapid communication of internet, blogs, texting, email, et al.
On the other hand, within the past 50 years many words have gone out of style or taken on entirely different meanings. Just try watching an old 1940s/50s movie! Even in this new century the same could be said. Some words stick, others just disappear or remain localized.
Personally, I found this book enjoyable and informative. It was entirely readable, not dry or academic. This book was written for anyone with an interest in how even language can change at home and abroad, and how much impact the English language now has globally.
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