Sign (or Sign Language) in fiction

American Sign Language

Sign is entirely visual to those using it to communicate which means that in fiction it translates not only best to visual mediums but to those that allow for movement. Stage plays, musical performances and movies are the best for Sign usage. Unfortunately, the further into the field of inert and non-visual arts you go the further away from Sign usage you get. Visual arts are static so one word could be displayed per panel, just as with comics. By doing such a thing it is easier to write the word out as writing is visual. This means that books seem to be the perfect format for imparting stories to the hearing impaired as they include more than one word and are entirely visual.


But the use of Sign in books is almost lost for the use of the written language, meaning that much of the language that is Sign, including jargon, humour and other cultural nuances, is lost. It is obscured by the written language that doesn't contain the same set of nuances. It is like swapping English for French, not even British English for American English.


As with the remaking of foreign movies, not just the subtitling, there are different ways of interpreting events, representing events and reacting to them. These differences are what is lost between the use of Sign to communicate and the use of the written language.


This means that while books seem like the perfect answer to conveying stories from one hearing impaired person to another it isn't always the case. Like many other forms of story telling there are some stories that fit certain modes of telling better than others. So too are there stories best told in Sign rather than in the written language. In which case the best method of conveying these stories shifts back to being the visual formats such as movies and stage performances.


Again though, there is an issue. Many stories need to be shortened to be performed and in most cases when made into movies they are reduced to dialogue and action as the main methods of conveying the story. Much of what needs to be imagined is portrayed in full colour and life sized displays. This means that the imagination isn't worked nearly as hard as when a person is presented with black and white scribbles that need converting into a full world. 


The upshot of all this is that there is no truly perfect medium for Sign stories other than in the story around the campfire format. Such stories pull on the imagination, can be long or short and are intensely visual. But such stories (not necessarily told around a campfire, obviously) are often unrecorded and unrecognised by the general public. So even this method of story telling is flawed.

British Sign Language

What the solution is, I'm not sure but I believe there needs to be a bit of a revolution in one or the other of the story telling mediums for Sign to truly be used on its own to convey stories. Possibly a recording of such campfire or round table stories is the way to go. Maybe a recording of white hands on a black screen or vise verse for an imitation of the black on white scribbles that make up books. This would leave much room for the imagination to take off. But then I'm sure many of the hearing impaired would also just find it easier to turn on the subtitles of a movie or show.


Which leads me to a very small point on subtitles: They really, really are bad in some cases. White on white or yellow on yellow. Incorrect interpretations of the spoken words leading to gobbledegook written on the bottom of the screen (don't get me started with YouTube's subtitles...). Subtitles that scroll past too fast or too slow or even take up more than a third of the screen. There really need to be better standards all round. These problems were especially highlighted to me when I was sitting beside my hearing impaired Pop watching the TV shows of his choice. I could hear and read so I could pick out just how many mistakes there were, how delayed the feed was and how confusing it was to have feeds running at the bottom of the screen on football news while the subtitles were reading economic news. Only I knew which the reporter was actually speaking on, leading my Pop to wonder at the Chinese economists being so interested in football.


So the visual formats aren't perfect and Sign is left almost entirely as a language for communicating person to person, directly.


You'd also think there is a possibility of conveying Sign decently in writing by describing all the movements made but such conversations would take a fair while to write, needing more than one word to represent one word. So Sign is little used in writing without the interpreter acting like a narrator and spelling the movements out to the reader, again almost defeating the purpose of Sign except in the much needed representation of the hearing impaired in our stories. You simply cannot ignore a whole section of the population just because it is hard to write Sign.

Numbers in Sign Language

Another away to approach the writing of sign is to use the actual hand symbols, complete with a translation underneath. This would likely work best in fantasy stories where there are likely to be many types of languages clashing, not all of which are for those who can hear. They may read a little like hieroglyphs to those who are unfamiliar with Sign but would probably read well to those who do know Sign and its variations (Sign often changes per country just as other languages do). But this gives those unfamiliar with Sign a chance to learn the basics and learning any language never hurt anyone.


Sign is still making headway into the world of visual media so there is likely lots of time for us all to witness how successfully it adapts and what new formats may arise. Sign isn't for every person who's hearing impaired but the vast majority of those who can learn it do. This means that Sign is here to stay and for any language that means constant change and adaptation. It will be exciting to see what happens next.




Note: I apologise for any rambling, I've a Doctor's certificate to prove I have an allowance for it but no, you can't see it. You'll just have to trust me.

Reading and watching subtitled movies

Ever heard anyone say subtitled movies are boring or hard to follow? I have many times and I often wonder why such a reaction to a subtitled movie occurs when the subtitled movie is exactly to the tastes of the person who said just that. But of further consideration I can see why.

The mostly likely reason why someone says subtitled movies are boring or hard to follow is because they're focusing almost entirely on the words flashing on the screen and hardly picking up any of the action, colour or sound that's otherwise involved. In other words, they're forced to read a book on screen and not even at their own pace. They're forced to read onscreen at the pace set by the movie and that can often be faster than liked, leading to the action of reading being done under pressure. And as you know, many things done under pressure are chores more then entertainment. Such a chore as reading a movie script as fast as possible is made even harder when the text is intermittently cut due to the layering of white on white or yellow on anything yellow toned.

I can completely understand why a subtitled movie can be boring or hard to follow if the above is the case. Saying it is boring or hard to follow for any other reason, I'm not so understanding.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if you're turning away from subtitled movies due to a difficulty in reading the subtitles then a little practice is probably in order. There are far, far too many fantastic movies made in other languages to give up on foreign language movies altogether. And believe me, most remakes loose a lot in translation - of quality, of language, of acting skills and of originality amongst other things. I cannot tell you how many times I've been disappointed by remakes. There are very, very few gems in the mix.

So here's what I'd suggest. Start by learning to scan the subtitles with a quick glance while taking in the pictures and sounds. Not every clue as to what is going on is set only in the text so flick your eyes off it and then back again - repeat. Picking up that there is an argument going on is more often indicated by facial expressions and tone of voice than the words actually said. And sometimes you only need to know the topic of the argument to get the gist of the change in plot development.

If you practice scanning and flicking your eyes about you'll be able to gradually increase your ability to take in the whole movie. It might be like gaining a general impression at the beginning but it really only will take a few movies for you get acquainted enough with the process of flicking your eyes about and dividing your focus to pick up more text and more action. Essentially what you're doing is learning a new way to read and watch a story so don't give up at one subtitled movie. That's just a waste. You never gave up at just one book or just one movie so why do so for this?

If you manage not to give up and pick up the skill you'll be able to watch foreign language movies in their original glory.

These will get you interested:

Amelie

I want strawberries now.

Island Of Lost Children

Recognise him?

The Delicatessen

One of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen in a movie.

Taxi

Chock full of car chases.

Let The Right One In

About as spooky as they come.

Nosferatu

Beauty meets beastliness. You'll understand this only by watching Nosferatu move.

Immortal

Odd but intriguing sci-fi/fantasy mix.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Awesome action scenes and a strange plot.

Hero

Brilliant colours, great action and a fun plot.

Kwaidan

Strange and eerie.

Nightwatch and Daywatch

Complex, brilliant scenes, fast paced and beautiful. More than a little different.

Oldboy 

Brutal.

Zatoichi

Brilliant swords play, beautiful sounds, highly comedic and brutal in parts.

Plenty more where these came from!

Some are from books but all of the book to movie adaptations listed are a case of at least see these as well as read the books.

Fiction in translation

This time I'd like to write on something from a wholly personal perspective (not that I haven't inserted the personal perspective before - I definitely have - but this time I'm not just making idle side comments).

I've wanted to say something on the Anglocentric or rather English-writing-centric nature of my blog so far. I feel like there is much left to be explored when it comes to literature or anything fictional but I'm bound by the need for translation and will remain so unless I learn multiple languages. And the way my life seems to be going, I'm only likely to end up with a smattering of each that I'm constantly coming into contact with (Japanese, German, French and the like), but no real fluency in any but English. One day I might get the spare time or chance to travel that is needed to learn a language properly.

The whole situation honestly makes me wish I could live multiple lives. I can really see why people are drawn in by the idea of immortality despite its complete impracticality for the world and our own minds. The desire to know is great but the flesh is weak and will not last long enough.

Similarly, and I've been known to say this as a joke on occasion but this is honest and true, I and going to be massively pissed when I kick the bucket half way through a book because I'll never know what happened in the end. Argh! The frustration of not being able to live long enough to read all the works I'd like has me gnashing my teeth but this, this is the worst scenario. So yes, I've requested the hubby - if he lives longer than me - read the end of the story to me anyway. He's requested things related to heavy metal music so fair's fair in morbid city.

My bucket list:

Read everything.

Watch everything.

Discover lots and lots.

Know.

Anyway, I'm a fan of manga and anime although I need them translated, foreign films of all sorts (except probably romance - again) from everywhere but I need subtitles to completely understand - I have been known to sit and watch ones without subtitles just to see how much I can comprehend from action alone - and the odd translated book that makes it to the shelves of my bookstores.

Perfume being a good example, which was originally published in German as Das Parfum. I've loved the story in Perfume since I first picked it up when I was in year 11 or year 12 (the end of high school for those not Australian). It had been written in 1985 but I don't know when it was translated or originally appeared in bookstores around here. Suffice it to say that the cover scored me a lot of certain types of looks as it was this one: 

Patrick Suskind

I ended up reading it 3-4 times in quick succession (for me anyway, which means I read other books in between and this was read 3-4 times over two or so years - I remember stories too well so rereading before I've forgotten something is a bit boring) and during one read I managed to make a prospective love interest do the double take over the cover. Hehe, if you can't handle a cover like this then you're in trouble for close-mindedness as far as I'm concerned. But then, maybe it was that he thought I wasn't the type to read something with a cover like this. See? You do get judged by the covers of the books you're reading. They do make people see you in a whole different light.

Oh, and speaking of German writers, try reading these: 

Walter Moers: One of my favourite authors ever.

Oh, I wish I could, I wish I might... ah, it sucks I don't have this imaginary world as my own to play with. Oh well, I have my own little worlds in the making.

My last few crazes were and are Asian horror and westerns (plenty come out of Japan, China and Korea), anime and manga (I prefer Japanese styles but have read other similar styles). Enough that I'm running out of translated or subtitled works in manga that I'm interested in and enough that about 2 years back I exhausted the resources for Asian horror too. There are only one or two left on the shelf I haven't gotten to because the sheer volume of violence means that they are for viewing when you're in the right mood. I don't mind watching slayage any day but the extended and rather graphic torture scenes do require you to have a certain amount of mental fortitude about you when you first press play. Don't worry though, I'll watch them soon enough. And I am still searching for that Japanese horror where the little girl is super freaky. I just haven't found it yet. Though I am having fun re-watching so many along the way.

So, the original point I wanted to say: in posts such as listings of comics made into films, the comics in question are English-writing-centric. Besides, most manga fanatics wouldn't like me lumping manga in with comics. They are distinct in certain ways even if they are of the same art form. Like wood sculptures and brass moulding. You end up with a sculpture but the way you got there and what is used to construct it is different.

So for fun and a bit of blood and slaughter give this manga-to-movie a whirl. No, there aren't any slinky costumed girls prancing about so if you were dying for that then you'll just have to handle bloodshed instead (I have to say, in manga and anime the violence is not nearly as censored as in comics or cartoons. In most comics or cartoons there is violence but so many characters pop back up from the dead or near dead without issue that it hardly counts. And those slain are more often than not the baddies. Not so here.)

The Chasing World

Oh, and if you are dying for a girl prancing about in a slinky costume where the plot actually is enjoyable (yes, I realise this is a side issue at times) then try this one. It is actually very fun to watch even if you aren't just watching it for seeing her run about wearing mere (and I do mean mere) garbage bags: white, size small. They may as well be sandwich bags... Anyway, this one is great for a laugh.

As it says: Cutie Honey

So, at times and when I can I will add in a few bits and bobs to do with works in other languages, at least originally, because I just plain love them.

So forgive me for my English-writing-centric blog posts and try these fantastic comic/anime-to-movies for a bit of fun:

Death Note and Death Note II

Forgive me yet? No? Then I'll just have to keep adding things as I find them... There is another in the Death Note series called L: Change The World.

Ken'ichi Matsuyama who plays L is such a good actor. Oooh and there's this one he acted in. You'll love this one:

Any fan of heavy metal will get a laugh out of Detroit Metal City. And those you're with. Especially if you're like most heavy metal fans and have that inner teddy bear personality. I'm not knocking it! I swear! I love the inner teddy bear. I married one.