Deena Larsen: Rose, a Stealth Language
Rose was, for me, an elegant woman who was full and rich and soft as rose petals, and who yet had thorns. And then I was living on the streets in high school, with no place to put anything. –Deena Larsen
Let Me Show You a Rose Petal
- Yeah{unhappy}.
- O{negative/bad}h{unhappy}.
- K{opposite of ganbatte–give up}a{worst}y{unprotected}.
- I{personal}t{impossible}
- a{worst}i{personal}n{honesty, integrity, truth}’t{impossible}
- Yeah. Oh. Kay. It ain’t happening. I get that.
- h{unhappy}a{worst}p{angry}p{angry}e{present to distant future}ni{personal}ng{frown/unhappy}.
- I{personal}
- g{frown/pain}et{impossible}
- t{impossible}h{unhappy}a{worst}t{impossible}.
Metacritical marks
The petal is at an angle, denoting a different thought.
But it is also close to and pointing to other petal (I want {impossible} to explain that in a 2 second soundbite). Rose uses paragraph structure like English, but Rose also uses “petals” where a bit of text is set off by direction, color, etc. Petals can, but do not have to be, full sentences. These petals can be considered similar to hypertext nodes,and they are rarely sequential. Petals can also share words simply by laying next to other petals or by intertwining parts of a character. (Again, the intertwined character parts also have a semantic meaning, so this is usually a “double” play).
A second text has dots leading to this petal (Given all that, what e{subjunctive present/future}xpect{possible}ati{personal}ons can I have?). Thus, the petal has two separate meanings–the hyperacusis is not going away and the doctor is never going to listen to me explain how bad it really is to live like this.
The “p” in happening is doubled and angry, so I am really pissed off about this situation.
The tail for the honest “t” in “ain’t” nearly touches the eye of the frowning “g”, connoting that I am honestly and truly pained by this–and that I truly do “get” how bad this is and that I am giving up my pipe dreams of being cured in order to be realistic.
The downward curve on the “y” in “Kay” is bolded, emphasizing how vulnerable I am and how dependent I am on the doctors–how little control I have over the situation.