Esperanto in popular culture
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References to Esperanto, a constructed language, have been made in a number of films and novels. Typically, this is done either to add the exoticness of a foreign language without representing any particular ethnicity, or to avoid going to the trouble of inventing a new language. In science fiction, Esperanto is often used to represent a future in which there is a more universally spoken language than exists today.
[edit] In English-language media
In Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator, the signs, posters, and so forth in the ghetto are in Esperanto. [1] Similarly, the movie Blade: Trinity (2004) is set in a generic city which writer/director David S. Goyer nevertheless wanted to represent as bilingual (as many cities are worldwide), so the second language spoken in this nameless city, and visible on most of its signage, is Esperanto. In addition, a character in Blade is seen watching Esperanto-language film Incubus.
In the 1997 movie Gattaca, announcements within the Gattaca building are given in Esperanto.
In Nickelodeon's cartoon Danny Phantom, the ghost dog Wulf is a character who speaks only Esperanto, however fractured and grammatically incorrect, in the episode. The character Tucker explains to the other main characters what Esperanto is and where it came from, but said that (presumably reflecting its reputation in America as obscure) nowadays it is mainly "a way for geeks to communicate with other geeks."
On the British television program Red Dwarf, Esperanto is officially an international language, and all signs on the walls of the ship are written in both English and Esperanto (for example, "Level 147/Nivelo 147"). People are expected to be reasonably fluent in Esperanto; while characters Kryten and Lister appear to be able to speak it (or at least understand it), Rimmer has been trying to learn it for eight years and is still "utterly useless" at it. While this part of the show was prominent in the first two series, it was dropped from series 3 onwards.
During a "Weekend Update" segment on late night comedy show Saturday Night Live, a point counterpoint debate about violent rock lyrics was held between Mick Jagger (played by Mike Myers) and Keith Richards (played by Mick Jagger). "Mick" notes that "Keith"'s drug induced rambling resembles "...Esperanto or something, or some type of language twins teach each other..."
The anime RahXephon makes use of Esperanto for the acronym of TERRA, which stands for "Tereno Empireo Rapidmova Reakcii Armeo." This can be translated as "Earth Empire Rapid Response Army," though a better Esperanto rendition of this name would be "Rapid-Reaga Armeo de la Tera Imperio".
The Stainless Steel Rat novels by Harry Harrison (an Esperanto speaker) also postulate a future where Esperanto is spoken, and a small fraction of the dialogue is in Esperanto. The language is also used in the setting of Philip José Farmer's Riverworld novels, as well as in stories by Poul Anderson, Mack Reynolds, John Brunner, John Barnes, and other science fiction writers (Harlow 1996).
In the video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Esperanto makes an appearance in the form of a book, N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!, which is written in a coded form of Esperanto. It reappears in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as The Bible of the Deep Ones, though the text is the same. It is implied that Esperanto is the language of the Sloads.
In the video game Katamari Damacy, the King of All Cosmos character briefly speaks in Esperanto. In the sequel, We ♥ Katamari, his fascination with Esperanto has expanded some.
In the video game The Simpsons Road Rage, the billboard of the First Church of Springfield reads "Services in Esperanto now cancelled".
In the video game Grand Theft Auto 3 and its sequels, the player can drive a 1970's Cadillac Eldorado nicknamed "Esperanto." It is usually found in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods.
The introductory video for the video game Final Fantasy XI features choral music with lyrics in Esperanto. According to its composer, Nobuo Uematsu, the choice of language was meant to symbolize the developers' hope that their online game could contribute to cross-cultural communication and cooperation. Unlike many similar massively-multiplayer games which dedicate individual "copies" of their virtual worlds to players of a specific area or primary language, FFXI is deliberately designed to force players in all regions to share worlds.
In one episode of the cartoon The Tick, the Tick was abducted by aliens; the interpreter on the ship spoke of its linguistic ability for languages on Earth:
- I have trained myself to speak all Earth languages…except of course for Esperanto…you could tell that one was going nowhere fast.
American composer Lou Harrison, who incorporated styles and instruments from many world cultures in his music, used Esperanto titles and/or texts in several of his works.
In the They Might Be Giants song Alienation's for the Rich, off the albums They Might Be Giants and Then: The Earlier Years, the lyrics mention that The TV's in Esperanto/You know that that's a bitch.
Sonic Youth releases their SYR releases using foreign language for titles and credits. SYR3 used Esperanto.
In the Lemony Snicket book The Penultimate Peril, Sunny's way of saying "I don't understand you" is "No habla Esperanto".
In the song Uglatto by the band Devo, the lyrics contain the line You a bad tomato, speak Esperanto, making reference to Esperanto.
[edit] References
- Harlow, Don. The Esperanto Book. Self-published on the web (1995-96).
- Brownell, Ginamme. "Speaking up for Esperanto". Newsweek, Aug. 11, 2003. p52.
