Writing the thoughts and speech of a Neanderthal child

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Brigid, Jul 10, 2020.

  1. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    Yes, indeed, Helen Keller was a very interesting example. Completely wild and uneducated in the beginning but smart. Thanks also for the link!
     
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  2. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    Maybe I just should listen to drunks a while to get it right? Just kidding. Found "liguophile" in a Neanderthal dictionary, btw. ;)
     
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  3. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    I also wondered if she would have been not that intelligent as she was, how much she would have learned from her teacher.
     
  4. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    Neanderthal are bad daddys? Maybe deadbeats? That is food for thought, Wreybies. Science says that many people have some Neanderthal genes, suggesting that humans went to bed with them. But what the bedding was involuntary? What if it was RAPE?
     
  5. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    I think the Neanderthals were conscious. I mainly had a problem with how to write their thought process. Broken like their speech if they had to speak English or fluent.
     
  6. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Oh, of course they were conscious. They would have no language if they weren't. I don't know how much of the conscious apparatus they had in their brains (the necessary hardware) compared to Cro-Magnon (I'm using the term), but they made tools and spoke, so they were definitely conscious. The only question is to what degree?
     
  7. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    Their thinking like that of children. This is a good pointer, Xoic. However, I have contact to children just starting middle grade. They are amazingly good in expressing themselves. Maybe younger kids talking would work paired with superstitions and magical beliefs.

    Have you ever watched a soap opera? Their characters constantly talk to themselves.

    Have you seen All is Lost with Robert Redford? It is a good movie but I found it so unnatural that he never talked to himself. Not even "damn!" Tom Hanks, on the other side, in Cast Away, screamed: I made fire! despite there was nobody around. Except "Wilson".

    And my sister says that she read somewhere that intelligent people are talking to themselves. But I assume in private and not on the bus. :) As more intelligent they are, as more they talk to themselves. Maybe because others can't follow their intelligent thoughts. ;) But nevertheless...
     
  8. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    I don't feel that you have de-railed my thread, Making Tracks. Your input is interesting. And yes, my Neanderthal is experiencing exactly the issues that you described.
     
  9. Brigid

    Brigid Active Member

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    There is a difference between brain and mind. Brain is the flesh, mind is not flesh. We apparently use the brain as an instrumental panel to do things with our bodies but the mind is superior and is even independent from the brain, imo.
     
  10. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here? Of course middle-grade kids talk, they've been learning how since they were like 2 or 3. When I said young children are entirely unconscious I was referring to babies. Acquiring a full adult level of conscious awareness takes until you're in your 20's though. but it is constantly rising all along the way.

    As for why people talk to themselves, the standard idea is that it's the 'first sign of insanity', and the second is hearing an answer! :p But I've learned that in fact it's to keep the vocal apparatus from getting too rusty, because if you don't speak for a long period of time, it will not function well. Wait, did I already say this on this thread? I don't remember. I know I said it somewhere on this forum. ...And I just realized, maybe it's what you're responding to? I need to go back and check.

    Ok, I clicked the little up arrow to see my post you were referring to. It seems you were talking (writing) about people speaking to inanimate objects. I was mostly just making a joke about the crazy people on busses who talk to themselves or to objects. Yes, of course people will speak to objects, just as they speak to a pet. But if they really think the objects or pets understand and can answer, unless they're very young (very low in adult conscious awareness) then they're partially in the realm of the unconscious, because in dreams and other unconscious manifestations, objects are fully capable of speech and thought.

    Another reason people talk to pets or themselves (or their car etc) is to focus a thought more clearly, ie to drag it into the full light of conscious awareness, because that's the only way to really fully articulate a thought. Unconscious thought-streams are vague and indefinite. In order to develop them you must bring them into linguistic form, either through speaking or writing. People also sometimes feel the need to speak because of some neurosis making their thoughts obsessive, and when thoughts become too forceful you feel the need to express them. Or, as in the case of Tom Hanks, because they're extremely excited and feel the need to share it externally, even just with your volleyball! :supergrin:

    Ah ok, if you don't believe the mind arises from the mechanisms of the brain, then all my talk about the brain growing in is pointless to your story.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2020

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