SOURCE: "A Lesson in Xenolinguistics: Congruence, Empathy, and Computers in Joan Vinge's Eyes of Amber," in The Fantastic in World Literature and the Arts, edited by Donald E. Morse, Greenwood Press, 1987, pp. 21-9.

In the following essay, Shreve examines the themes of language and understanding in Eyes of Amber.

The great difficulty with using language to communicate is, simply, that one does not always know whether one has communicated effectively. Between the word as it is meant and the word as it is understood lies a universe of difference. The "semantic gap" between speaker and hearer is a very real aspect of human communication; even as speakers of the same language, we are accustomed to a constant and familiar drizzle of misunderstandings and miscommunications. Problems of meaning and understanding are only compounded when the communicative act is complicated by crosscultural aspects and bilingualism. Speakers of the same language...