Looking for Story
Larisa Migachyov
I apologize if this is very vague, but this is a story I read a very
long time ago. I remember that it was in an anthology of foreign SF, and
was by a Japanese author. It was set in a small Japanese village, and
described a woman who was considered crazy by the entire village. This
woman later gives birth to a child who is, I think, exceptional in some
way. It turns out later that she is an alien or is descended from
aliens, I can't remember now. I recall that the story quotes little
children's songs in Japanese, and shows how with a small transposition of
syllables, these songs can be discovered to be a rocket pilot's check
list of things that need to be done before liftoff, or something like
that. I know this is not much; I read this story a long time ago, when
my English was not too good, which is why I don't recall it. It is
driving me nuts. Can someone tell me what it is and where I can find it?
Larisa
Matt McIrvin
In article <5e0rmf$m...@epx.cis.umn.edu>, miga...@maroon.tc.umn.edu
(Larisa Migachyov) wrote:
> I recall that the story quotes little
> children's songs in Japanese, and shows how with a small transposition of
> syllables, these songs can be discovered to be a rocket pilot's check
> list of things that need to be done before liftoff, or something like
> that.
This isn't the story you're looking for, since it isn't Japanese and the
rest of the plot is different, but the same idea shows up in "The Silk and
the Song" by Charles R. Fontenay, which was printed in F&SF in 1955 or
'56. I found it in _The Best from F&SF: Sixth Series_. It's about a group
of humans who are enslaved by aliens, generations after a disastrous
landing on their planet. They teach their kids a song to the tune of
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" which turns out to contain instructions
for operating the dormant rocket.
--
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Sci.physics FAQ: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/faq.html
Dorothy J Heydt
In article <5e0rmf$m...@epx.cis.umn.edu>,
Larisa Migachyov <miga...@maroon.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
>... this is a story I read a very
>long time ago. ....
>....I recall that the story quotes little
>children's songs in Japanese, and shows how with a small transposition of
>syllables, these songs can be discovered to be a rocket pilot's check
>list of things that need to be done before liftoff, or something like
>that....
Deleting some of your details that don't match my recollection,
I wonder if you could possibly be remembering Fritz Leiber's
"Nice Girl with Five Husbands." The viewpoint character visits,
not Japan, but the future, and one of the children of the group
marriage goes around chanting "Yik-lo, Jizz-o," etc., or
something, which turns out to be a phoneticization of some
important field equations.
Morgoth
Sort of like one of the stories of how the Black Death is
remembered.
Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posie, ashes ashes all fall
down or some such.
Supposedly has something to how the disease is seen, faith cure,
and real end/cure.
SPC Mike Adams, AK ARNG
ISECCO Space Net Surfer
Fr. Morgoth, Cyberabbey of St. Cyril
LtCmdr Morgoth Gusiq, Chief Medical Officer USS Taliesin
So you want kids? Please fill out this 200 page form in triplicate.
Cally Soukup
Jeff Suzuki (je...@bu.edu) wrote:
: The _claim_ is the following;
: "Ring around the rosie" -- supposedly a description of the buboes that
: accompany the plague.
: "Pocket full of posie" -- from the belief that a good odor drove out a
: bad one (q.v. "malaria")
: "Ashes ashes" -- see previous, though from a different medical belief.
: "All fall down" -- drop dead.
: However, the claim is tenuous. The problem is that no one can
: definitively trace the children's song back to a time when the bubonic
: plague _was_ a problem; I think it's only been traced back to the 19th
: century, in fact.
According to my copy of Cecil Adams' _More of the Straight Dope_, Charles
Poor notes in his _New York Times_ review of _The Plague and the Fire_ [no
author given]:
Actually -- surprising in a rhyme that has become the accompaniment to one
of our most popular nursery games -- ['Ring-around-the-rosy'] first appeared
in print as late as 1881.
Adams goes on at greater length, but concludes with the statement that
"[...] we learn that three out of four experts agree: the correct answer is
[...] the rhyme signifies nothing in particular."
Jeff Suzuki
Morgoth (mor...@nome.net) wrote:
: Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posie, ashes ashes all fall
: down or some such.
The _claim_ is the following;
"Ring around the rosie" -- supposedly a description of the buboes that
accompany the plague.
"Pocket full of posie" -- from the belief that a good odor drove out a
bad one (q.v. "malaria")
"Ashes ashes" -- see previous, though from a different medical belief.
"All fall down" -- drop dead.
However, the claim is tenuous. The problem is that no one can
definitively trace the children's song back to a time when the bubonic
plague _was_ a problem; I think it's only been traced back to the 19th
century, in fact.
Jeffs
Rebecca Ore
And when did children start living in numbers great enough to pay
attention to their culture?
--
Rebecca Ore
Jeff Suzuki <je...@bu.edu> wrote in article <5i6pjq$b...@news.bu.edu>...
James D. Keeline
First point of reference for queries of this type would be THE ANNOTATED
MOTHER GOOSE by Barring-Gould, published by Clarkson Potter.
James
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David Kennedy
In article <5i6pjq$b...@news.bu.edu>,
je...@bu.edu (Jeff Suzuki) writes:
> Morgoth (mor...@nome.net) wrote:
>
>: Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posie, ashes ashes all fall
>: down or some such.
>
> The _claim_ is the following;
> "Ring around the rosie" -- supposedly a description of the buboes that
> accompany the plague.
> "Pocket full of posie" -- from the belief that a good odor drove out a
> bad one (q.v. "malaria")
> "Ashes ashes" -- see previous, though from a different medical belief.
> "All fall down" -- drop dead.
> However, the claim is tenuous. The problem is that no one can
> definitively trace the children's song back to a time when the bubonic
> plague _was_ a problem; I think it's only been traced back to the 19th
> century, in fact.
Er, this will be embarassing but...
"Ring a'ring of rosies,
a pocket full of posies,
atisho! atisho! <-- Sneeze noise
we all fall down"
Line 1: Refers to buboes appearing
Line 2: Refers to posies to drive away bad odours which cause disease
Line 3: Sneezing was an early symptom
Line 4: And then you die. :-)
Nice little rhyme isn't it?
--
David Kennedy, Dept. of Pure & Applied Physics, Queen's University of Belfast
Email: D.Ke...@Queens-Belfast.ac.uk | URL: http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/~dcjk/
Hi! I'm a .signature virus! Copy me into yours and join the fun!
Mark Stephen
In article <5i6pjq$b...@news.bu.edu>, je...@bu.edu (Jeff Suzuki) wrote:
>Morgoth (mor...@nome.net) wrote:
>The _claim_ is the following;
>
>"Ring around the rosie" -- supposedly a description of the buboes that
>accompany the plague.
>
>"Ashes ashes" -- see previous, though from a different medical belief.
In London in the 50's this was "atishoo, atishoo", which I think was
the usual form in England.
>However, the claim is tenuous. The problem is that no one can
>definitively trace the children's song back to a time when the bubonic
>plague _was_ a problem; I think it's only been traced back to the 19th
>century, in fact.
I thought I had got the plague "fact" from the Opie's _Lore and
Language of School Children_, which was a well-respected book published
in the early 60's. Of course, my memory may be faulty, or the Opies may
have been mistaken.
best wishes, mark s.
Nancy Lebovitz
In article <334780...@adnc.com>, James D. Keeline <kee...@adnc.com> wrote:
>Rebecca Ore wrote:
>>
>> And when did children start living in numbers great enough to pay
>> attention to their culture?
>> --
whether adults write down anything about their culture--my bet is that
it's more a matter of books becoming cheaper.
--
Nancy Lebovitz (nan...@universe.digex.net)
October '96 calligraphic button catalogue available by email!
Liz
In article <5ilarm$l...@universe.digex.net>, Nancy Lebovitz
<nan...@universe.digex.net> writes
>In article <334780...@adnc.com>, James D. Keeline <kee...@adnc.com> wrote:
>>Rebecca Ore wrote:
>>>
>>> And when did children start living in numbers great enough to pay
>>> attention to their culture?
>>> --
>Well, I doubt that the survival rate of children has much to do with
>whether adults write down anything about their culture--my bet is that
>it's more a matter of books becoming cheaper.
I would think it might have to do with the changing place of children in
society - it's really only in the twentieth century that anyone has paid
very much attention to them as anything other than miniature adults:
either to exploit as cheap labour, or to shove them away with a servant
and bring them out occasionally for display purposes.
Liz
--
Liz