Great piece, Uthara! Fascinating trivia about languages, and how they can shape culture. And hard relate to the bit about the English steamrolling other languages.
I think the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the premise of the movie Arrival, too? (I never miss a chance to talk about that movie - it's so good.)
Oh man. I LOVED Arrival. Same zipcode as Interstellar in that it challenges the whole time/space paradigm. I'm going to rewatch tonight, so thank you for the reminder! <3
Such a strange coincidence, this conversation. I rewatched Arrival a couple of weeks ago and it led me back to Ted Chiang’s novella that it’s based on. Have you both read that? The story and the movie together have so many great rabbit holes.
the badge of enigma thing is so real... i have a fairly uncommon surname so my entire life i've had my peers ask me if i'm maharashtrian or not (i'm from mumbai for the record), and i have never known the answer to that, because i come from a konkani-speaking family, but grew up speaking marathi for some reason 😭 so i just say i'm like an honorary mahrashtrian and leave it at that lmao
Great piece, Uthara! Fascinating trivia about languages, and how they can shape culture. And hard relate to the bit about the English steamrolling other languages.
I think the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is the premise of the movie Arrival, too? (I never miss a chance to talk about that movie - it's so good.)
Oh man. I LOVED Arrival. Same zipcode as Interstellar in that it challenges the whole time/space paradigm. I'm going to rewatch tonight, so thank you for the reminder! <3
SO GOOD!
Such a strange coincidence, this conversation. I rewatched Arrival a couple of weeks ago and it led me back to Ted Chiang’s novella that it’s based on. Have you both read that? The story and the movie together have so many great rabbit holes.
Ooh I have not. But I will look it up this weekend.
the badge of enigma thing is so real... i have a fairly uncommon surname so my entire life i've had my peers ask me if i'm maharashtrian or not (i'm from mumbai for the record), and i have never known the answer to that, because i come from a konkani-speaking family, but grew up speaking marathi for some reason 😭 so i just say i'm like an honorary mahrashtrian and leave it at that lmao
haha that's a very succinct and accurate way to address the question imo. :)
Fascinating take on language and identity. I loved the gender, Color etc bit so much
Thanks Sanket! <3
This is brilliant! I feel you, I have a draft on how the question "where are you from?" is such a thing for me. Thanks for sharing yourself with us <3
Thank you, Nadia! <3 I'd love to read your reflection too.
Hi again Uthara, :) thank you for inspiring me to finish my draft, take a look at it here if you like: https://quepaseelproximo.substack.com/p/de-donde-eres
uff! from transcending by unplacing the self to transcending by being oneself.. This is inspiring, and affirming. ♥️
Thanks, Raju! high praise! <3
Such a lovely piece on identity through language. I love “it turns out that I can’t even place myself”.