1997 - 12/1997 Meeting

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HOLIDAY PARTY / POT LUCK DINNER

MARK SHOULSON

Among other duties, Mark Shoulson maintains the website of The Klingon Language Institute: http://www.kli.org/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: December 13, 1997.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 43.

Meeting Program: Talk by Editor from the Klingon Language Institutue.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The Association's final meeting of the year was held on Saturday, December 13, 1997 at the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. For the first time in several years we presented a formal program to go with the Pot Luck Dinner. Those who came had a very good time. We wish more of you could have been there.

Philip De Parto, Charles Garofalo, Greg Roman, Carol Smith, and Pamela Webber arrived a few minutes after 6:00 PM to begin setting up. A number of other people arrived shortly afterward to lend a hand and create order out of chaos. Thanks to all who pitched in.

There was a very nice mixture of main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. Among the offerings were Spanish Rice by James La Barre, Mexican Chicken by Pamela Webber, Garlic Salad by Charles Garofalo, One Alarm Chili by Patricia Nash, Cinnamon Rolls by John Upton, Chicken, Rice and Spinach Bake by Philip De Parto, Meatballs by Michael Piazza, Breaded Chicken by Sharon Archer, Fruit Salad by Roy Greenberg, Barbecued Chicken by Paul Dellechiaie, Bakery Cookies by William Molendyk, Tea, Hot Chocolate, and Cider by Carol Smith, and Bejoran Curry by Adrian and Thomas Pope. Items that we had enjoyed in the past that were not brought this year were a Garden Salad and Coffee Service.

We had our second meeting of the year to draw over 40 people. Many were making either their first or second general S F A B C meeting. One of our regulars was overheard saying, "Who are all these people? I make almost every meeting and I don't recognize half the people here." Someone else told him that Philip De Parto had probably imported a batch of ringers for the occasion.

Mark Shoulson of the Klingon Language Institute was the featured speaker. The KLI is a non profit organization whose charter is to promote the study and use of the Klingon Language. It is licensed by Paramount to conduct activities to further these objectives.

Mr Shoulson explained that the Klingon Language was invented by linguist Mark Okrand. Mr Okrand was brought in to help with the spoken Vulcan in the second STAR TREK movie. The movie had already been filmed with the actors speaking their lines in English when the Powers-That-Be decided that they should be speaking Vulcan. Mark Okrand was at the right place at the right time when Paramount was looking for someone to produce some "Vulcan" words which could be unobtrusively dubbed on the sound master. The movie people were pleased with the results, and he was asked to develop a language for the Klingon Race.

The first official Klingon words were used in the opening scenes of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. They were uttered by Marc Leonard and penned by James Doohan. Or, as Mr Shoulson put it, they were "spoken by a Romulan and written by a Federation Officer."

One if the activities sponsored by the Institutue is a Postal Correspondence Course. Someone in the audience asked if this could cause problems with the Postal Service. Someone else wondered what it would be like to be a Klingon Postal Worker. Mark revealed that little-known fact that one third of the Gross National Product of the Klingon homeworld, Qo'noS, is allocated to keeping its Postal Employees gruntled.

The KLI is perhaps best known for its translation projects. The group has translated the Book of Job, the shortest of the books of the Bible, into Klingon and plans to continue with the rest of the Sacred Texts. Mr Shoulson oversees the Hebrew Studies translation of the Old Testament.

Christopher Plumber's casual mention that HAMLET reads much better in the original Klingon in STAR TREK 6: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY served as the impetus for the group's Shakespeare Restoration Project. Their goal is to return Shakespeare back to his roots.

Okrand began the process in ST6. Since he had already established that the language did not contain the verb "to be," it was not the simple task one might imagine. Okrand decided upon "To continue, or not to continue." But "to continue" in Klingon is pronounced "yin." When Okrand went to coach Plumber on his lines (Plumber's greeting was "I understand that you are going to teach me how to do Shakespeare"), the actor objected that it did not sound properly Klingon. Okrand went back to the drawing board, settling on "to endure, or not to endure" as the more authentically Klingon.

When you consider HAMLET in its native tongue, whole new subtexts emerge. Sections which are renowned in English are considered trivial in Klingon, and other lines gain great power. The grave digger's scene is done as comic relief in English. In Klingon, it is a key scene which demonstrates how rotten things are in Denmak.

This is because the proper interpretation of HAMLET is as a scathing social commentary. The vacillatory Prince illustrates the corruptive influences of human behavior upon the Klingon ruling class.

Mr Shoulson did a dramatic reading of the famous soliloquy from the stage. He is quite confident that there will be a full dress production of the Klingon HAMLET at some point in the future. Certain scenes have already been produced at conventions.

One of the funniest moments of the evening occurred as he was reading one of Shakespeare's sonnets to the group. (Incidentally, the opus is done in the proper rhyme scheme and meter). He paused partway through the recital and commented aloud that a particular verb conjugation had not been done properly. From the back of the room came Mike Straniere's voice agreeing, "That's what I thought, too."

There were some serious moments as well. Mr Shoulson explained that the problems presented by translating English into Klingon are really not very different from translating English into Chinese, Navaho, or Basque. There was a lot of discussion about language and learning and how they develop.

Among the humorous highlights were his discussion of doing the "Who's on First?" routine in Klingon at a Klingon language conference and that one of the KLI members speaks only Klingon to his son.

This was one of our best meetings of the year.