The Glide language, or simply Glide, is a highly-abstract visual constructed language created by Diana Reed Slattery and features prominently in her science fiction novel The Maze Game. It exists in both the novel and the real world as a written form and as a gestured language. Due to its use in a work of fiction it exhibits qualities of a fictional language, but also has a strong aesthetic component, so an argument could be made for it being an artistic language as well. At its heart, Glide consists of only three discrete symbols: the top and bottom halves of a circle and a curving line. These are combined into 27 three-symbol basic glyphs, which can then be combined into ever-larger and more complicated ones, generating layers of meaning. Since each of the basic glyphs can be read with multiple meanings, and combining glyphs furthers the multiplicity, Glide has an immense subjective quality not usually seen in language, constructed or otherwise. There is no vocal form, though the symbols have been used by Glide users to compose music. The development of the language, both in the real world and in its fictional setting, reflects Slattery's own theories on the role of consciousness and the origin of language (and vice versa) as well as the theories of Terence McKenna regarding the link between entheogenic plants and the roots of language (see psychedelic glossolalia hypothesis). In the novel, the Glide language was originally taught to human slaves by a hallucinogenic species of lily as a gestured language, allowing them to communicate secrets that would not be known by their masters. Later on, a dynamic written form was created based on the original hand-signals: a cupped hand, an upturned hand, and a wave of water. The language was eventually used as a way of defining game areas and rules for a form of ritual sport. The line is further blurred as in the novel, Glide is the name of the language, the people who use it, and their physical movements. The interactive areas on the Glide Project website allow real world use of the Glide language through an editor called the Collabyrinth, a "performance" area where the Glide symbols can be manipulated in real-time as three-dimensional objects, and an oracle program that uses Glide symbols in a similar fashion to the trigrams of the I-Ching.
Further reading
- "From Interface to Interspace: LiveGlide and the 3rd Dimension" by Diana R. Slattery, William Brubaker, Charles R. Mathis & Robert E. Dunie
- The Maze Game by Diana Reed Slattery (2003; Deep Listening Publications; ISBN 1-889471-10-0)
