Can't you simply state this "up-front" as one of "the facts of life" that have been taken for granted since "they" came down from the trees?Noisy Rhysling said:men can read women's minds, but not other men, and vice-versa.
My character isn't from that planet. They make gender determination by whether they can "read" a person or not. Neither gender can read Our Hero. Scientists are excited by him because not everybody is crazy about the telepathy.Bystander said:Can't you simply state this "up-front" as one of "the facts of life" that have been taken for granted since "they" came down from the trees?
"He's abnormal," not them, which makes "him" a "neuter."Noisy Rhysling said:gender determination by whether they can "read" a person or not.
No, he's just an alien there. Picked up drifting by one of their military patrols. They're enough like us that he wouldn't be considered "neuter", just "silent". Those occur there, but only under extreme circumstances.Bystander said:"He's abnormal," not them, which makes "him" a "neuter."
Noisy Rhysling said:I want to build a world where men can read women's minds, but not other men, and vice-versa. I need to have them show the gender of the person doing the telepathy. Any suggestions? I have considered just having two words that show this, but I'm not really happy with that, which means it doesn't work or I'm not good enough to come up with two good ones.
Noisy Rhysling said:My character isn't from that planet. They make gender determination by whether they can "read" a person or not. Neither gender can read Our Hero. Scientists are excited by him because not everybody is crazy about the telepathy.
Noisy Rhysling said:Our Hero is trying to sort out the culture of this planet, and being who he is he wants something better than "hepathy" and "shepathy".
Our Hero wants to convey the gender specific nature of the telepathy clearly in his report back to the University that sent him out.Drakkith said:What's wrong with just using plain old "telepathy"? It's not confusing, it doesn't require your readers to learn any new words, and it seems to apply just fine to this situation. I guess I'm just trying to understand your motivation behind wanting new words for this.
There's a bit of backstory to this character that makes it necessary for him to do it this way. And I've noted that men can only read women's minds and vice versa. The ability they have to read minds is completely gender specific.Drakkith said:"Male-based telepathy"?
"Female-based telepathy"?
If it's a serious report he's sending back then I think some kind of technical term would be appropriate, even though I think "telepathy" is still easier and more natural to use. I mean, as far as I can tell, there is no functional difference between the telepathic abilities of men and women, so having a distinction between the two feels odd. But that's just my opinion.
I was wondering if someone could suggest names for male and female telepathy, not the phenomenon in general.Vanadium 50 said:Heterolepathy?
Noisy Rhysling said:And I've noted that men can only read women's minds and vice versa. The ability they have to read minds is completely gender specific.
Noisy Rhysling said:I was wondering if someone could suggest names for male and female telepathy, not the phenomenon in general.
I did mention that men could read women's minds and women could read men's minds, but neither gender could read their own gender's minds. The plot revolves around this.Drakkith said:Yes, but there's no real difference in the two. It's like pheromones. Males and females of many species emit pheromones to attract the other or do other kinds of communicating, but we don't have separate names for them. However, if there's an in-story reason that necessitates this, then I suppose I it's fine.
Other than the gender specific telepathy, there's no obvious difference. The planet's residents haven't been DNA tested yet, Our Hero is the first outsider to visit. They might be a "lost colony".Hmmm. Not sure. It's a little difficult without knowing something about this species. Are there any differences in the way it "feels" or "sounds" to each gender? Or are there any significant gender differences in this species? Perhaps some sociological differences that might come into play here? That might be a good way to start brainstorming for names.
Noisy Rhysling said:Other than the gender specific telepathy, there's no obvious difference. The planet's residents haven't been DNA tested yet, Our Hero is the first outsider to visit. They might be a "lost colony".
Highly humanoid. Our Hero was diverted from another assignment because of the TV signals a probe had picked up. The time is about 1,000 years post-collapse of the previous Empire, and the new Coalition is looking to collect the lost colonies. The problem for Our Hero is that if this gender specific telepathy gets off the planet chaos might result.Drakkith said:Oh, they're humans or human-like?
Noisy Rhysling said:someone could suggest names for male and female telepathy
Our Hero would like those. I don't know about the readers. Sounds a bit Potterverse, which isn't bad in my book.Vanadium 50 said:Androlepathy and Gynolepathy?
Vanadium 50 said:Androlepathy and Gynolepathy?
He-path ("hep-ath), She-path (shep-ath)? I need a casual/conversational term for each as well as Our Hero's phrasing.Vanadium 50 said:How about telepath-HE and telepath-SHE then?
How about heterotextual intercommunication?Vanadium 50 said:Heterolepathy?
The "textual" part wouldn't be misleading?Hercuflea said:How about heterotextual intercommunication?
Noisy Rhysling said:I need a casual/conversational term for each as well as Our Hero's phrasing.
Well, to start with, there's nothing written down yet.Vanadium 50 said:Why don't you post all the constraints at once instead of dribbling it out a little at a time to knock down answers from people trying to help?
Just need a good word for it at this point. The major issue will be the Coalition's attitude toward "contamination of the human race" and their draconian methods of dealing with any dangers.Ryan_m_b said:I'd say you have it backwards: gender would be defined by this telepathic ability, not the other way round. Given that gender is a social construct and biological sex isn't black-or-white membership to group A or B for this species would be defined on the basis of who you can and can't read.
Because that's what Our Hero routinely does.Ryan_m_b said:I still don't quite get why you need new words that are gender specific given that it's the exact same ability. "He read her mind while she read his" is surely better than "he andread her mind while she gynosensed his". As others have said all you need to do is explain it earlier in text:
"So you're all mind readers?" the astronaut asked
"Not exactly" the alien explained. "Egg carriers (you call them "females" correct?) can read the minds of sperm producers and vice versa. But, bar rare cases of intesexuality, none can read their own sex"
Noisy Rhysling said:Because that's what Our Hero routinely does.
I'm expressing myself poorly, I guess.Ryan_m_b said:The hero routinely makes up needless words?
It's a characteristic of the character that he does things like this. "Signature move" if you will. And as I said above, nothing is on paper yet. When I start writing the story down it will be because it is complete.Ryan_m_b said:Why don't you outline all of the criteria you are trying to satisfy? I get that the protagonist is a visitor or to the planet and is looking to describe the natives to his colleagues back home. Why can't he simply say "the people of this planet exhibit hetero-telepathy; they are capable of reading the minds of the opposite gender"? Why does he need to say "the women have the power of man-reading and the men the power of women-reading"?
It would be particularly helpful if you could post a sample extract from this story.