Brian Caswell's Deucalion
The novel Deucalion by Brian Caswell is an interesting example of the science fiction genre. Caswell makes clever references to the past and present. He plays with language, uses stereotypes and the common experiences of the readers, to show alternative perspectives while encouraging the reader to reflect on life in their own time.
Brian Caswell has used many insinuations to precedent occurrences to enhance his writing. Some of these mentions include allusions and allegory, icons and symbols from the past and historical happenings. These are used to allow the reader’s mind to relate and identify with happenings throughout the story, and contemplate and consider future predictions the author has made.
There are strong suggestions of Australian history – the invasion of Europeans upon Indigenous Australians, beginning at the end of the 18th century …show more content…
Neologisms – newly manufactured words/expressions – are one of the major alterations, as they allow for intellectual and technical sounding speech. Caswell has used the power of neologisms to his hefty advantage in the writing of Deucalion. A small assortment of neologisms he has used include ‘microlite’, ‘Elokoi’, ‘offworlder’, ‘M.A.B.L.E.’, ‘mindspeech’, ‘Yorum’ and ‘Ocra’. The exact definitions of these words are often unclear when used independently, however, when they are used in sentences, we can make educated guesses as to what they may mean. For example, when ‘Yorum’ is mentioned in the phrase, “she had never heard of an offworlder swallowing more than one bite of the flesh of the Yorum”, is becomes apparent that ‘Yorum’ is a type of foul tasting Deucalion fauna. This statement also carries another piece of information, since Saebi, an Elokoi (the most intelligent and human-like form of life on Deucalion) says it: ‘offworlder’ is most likely a term used by the Elokoi to describe the humans that have arrived on
Brian Caswell has used many insinuations to precedent occurrences to enhance his writing. Some of these mentions include allusions and allegory, icons and symbols from the past and historical happenings. These are used to allow the reader’s mind to relate and identify with happenings throughout the story, and contemplate and consider future predictions the author has made.
There are strong suggestions of Australian history – the invasion of Europeans upon Indigenous Australians, beginning at the end of the 18th century …show more content…
Neologisms – newly manufactured words/expressions – are one of the major alterations, as they allow for intellectual and technical sounding speech. Caswell has used the power of neologisms to his hefty advantage in the writing of Deucalion. A small assortment of neologisms he has used include ‘microlite’, ‘Elokoi’, ‘offworlder’, ‘M.A.B.L.E.’, ‘mindspeech’, ‘Yorum’ and ‘Ocra’. The exact definitions of these words are often unclear when used independently, however, when they are used in sentences, we can make educated guesses as to what they may mean. For example, when ‘Yorum’ is mentioned in the phrase, “she had never heard of an offworlder swallowing more than one bite of the flesh of the Yorum”, is becomes apparent that ‘Yorum’ is a type of foul tasting Deucalion fauna. This statement also carries another piece of information, since Saebi, an Elokoi (the most intelligent and human-like form of life on Deucalion) says it: ‘offworlder’ is most likely a term used by the Elokoi to describe the humans that have arrived on