As usual, this chapter was wonderful and engrossing!
“I spent years running a planet, chief. It shouldn't be that hard to help you run the Planet.”
I love that bit of humour! And I wish Clark the best of luck.
Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
She crooned softly.
Rac, do you know that I read an essay today which claimed that "motherese" may be the roots of human languae - that and the babies' crying? Just like ape babies, human babies feel the need to be in physical contact with their mothers all the time. But unlike ape babies, human babies can't hold on to their mother by grabbing hold of her fur, partly because she hasn't got any and partly because human babies don't have the required physical maturity and strength to cling to their mother if she doesn't support them.
But sometimes the human mothers needed to put their babies down as they were digging for edible roots etcetera. The deserted baby responded by crying loudly, and the author of the essay claimed that the crying is a "language" in itself and that the crying is modulated, too. And how did the mothers respond to their children's distress signal? Why, by speaking "motherese" to them, in which soft singing is an important part. It was from this crying and this soft singing that the human language developed, according to to the essay I read!
It was awful to know that his little boy couldn't come to Mommy and Daddy's room at night when he had a nightmare because his father was practically a loaded weapon when he slept.
That's awful, awful, awful. I so hope Clark can get rid of his nightmares. But that may be impossible, and then Jon and any sibling he may have must stay out of their parents' room when their father is asleep there.
“So I'm not an awful wife if I have a good, long, hard cry?”
Somebody give Lois a hug, okay? I think that may also be part of the language motherese.
And speaking of mothers...
If it started to get dangerous, they would have to get Jon and his parents, and her parents, too, out of town.
Ellen may be in danger because of Lois and Clark's journalistic digging! And Sam too! And Jon! And Martha and Jonathan!
I guess Clark thought that people wouldn't be in danger because of him when he came back from Krypton. No such luck. But I, too, look forward to the investigation, but I do hope that it will not prove too horrible.
I loved this:
“Daddy, is a penguin a bird or a duck?” he'd asked.
Clark had smiled to himself and suppressed a laugh. “What do you mean?” he'd asked his little boy.
“They swim like ducks, but they look like birds,” Jon had declared.
That's just wonderful. It says so much about children and language and our not-always-logical way of classifying things.
It's interesting, too, that when Jon gets older, he may stop wondering about the amazing creatures that are penguins. Because by then language will have put them in a box for him.
Looking forward to more!
Ann
Whoa!!
