The Tone of Gesture

Did anyone in your family watch the old PBS children’s show, Barney- the show with the purple dinosaur who said he loved you and you loved him? Whatever you thought of the costumed title character, few people fondly remember the children on the show. There is a good reason. They were horrible over-actors. Their behavior was exaggerated and overblown. If my children brought a friend home who acted like these children, I would have been extremely concerned about their wellbeing. When I taught theatre class, I used these Barney children as examples of overacting. 

However, in the past three years, we have all become overacting Barney kids. When I am on Zoom, I find that I am often moving my arms and head to complement my words. When I speak, I gesture even more than I normally do (and I am a very expressive and physical speaker). I use Zoom backgrounds to communicate as well. Similarly, when I am wearing a mask, I compensate with the rest of my body. I work hard to “smize” and use my eyes to convey my emotions. Again, I find that I am using broad and exaggerated arm and hand gestures. My entire body tries to complement my eyes and communicate more than the semantic definitions of my words but their emotional meaning. 

While the pandemic has not turned many of us into over-emoters like those kids on children’s television, it has also given us insight into their motives. I have been placed in this tiny box and all you can see is a piece of me. Half my face is covered and you don’t know if I am being sarcastic, simple, or mean. So I need to supplement my language with large gestures. 

Our tone of voice often communicates a layer of meaning that our words alone cannot express. A mask muffles and obscures this. Zoom shrinks this. Thus, we need physical gestures to make sure that the most important meanings, the ones that are more powerful than mere denotation, to make it through these COVID-created barriers. 

Has this turned us all into cheerleaders, spelling out each affirmation and encouragement? Not quite. Has this made us more aware of the limits of language and how easy it is to misinterpret and confuse? Certainly! 

I’ll bet that most of us aren’t even aware that we are compensating this way. Like players of Charades, we are acting out the words and ideas in order to leap the linguistic, technological, and safety barriers. We want to be understood – really understood – in a way we took for granted just a few years ago.  

Bring understood means clearly communicating through not only what we say, but also how we say it. We all know that people can say things that are complementary and positive if we read them, but can be brutal and cruel when spoken in a certain tone of voice. The reverse is also true. Some of us struggle to make sense of this kind of sarcasm. Gestures, facial expressions, and vocal tone are the keys to communicating it. 

Communication that is only typed text lacks this context. There is no gesture or voice to a text or email. We add emojis or initialized shortcuts to indicate that we are just kidding (JK), rolling on the floor laughing (ROFL), or shaking our head (SMH). We instinctively know that our written words inadequately communicate important parts of our message and our reader needs help to comprehend all the levels of our meaning. 

This is also why we can find emails or text messages so problematic when the sender fails to recognize their tone and context. People take offense at texts that the sender thought were merely informational. Emails make the recipient feel horrible when the sender thought they were just being factual. 

How we communicate is at the very least as important as what we communicate –probably it is more important. We cannot help but embed our emotions as we connect with each other, even if it is accidentally. 

I do not like wearing a mask. I prefer to share a room IRL (in real life) with people rather than be placed in a Brady Bunch box on the screen. However, over the past three years, COVID has forced us to be more thoughtful about our communication, hone our nonverbal skills, and heightened our awareness of the meanings behind the words: the tone created by the intersection of our words and the physical gestures that accompany them. 

Reading for Treasure: Banned, Burnt, Beautiful Books

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

Too many people want to control the books that are taught in classrooms or available in libraries. I saw a meme that read, “If you’re afraid that books might change someone’s thinking, you’re not afraid of books, you’re afraid of thinking.” While these challenges may also be attempts to prevent children from learning about specific issues, that is not their main objective. There is no doubt that the rise in book challenges and restrictive legislation is not about learning, protecting children, age-appropriate texts, or making kids uncomfortable. Children can find these books and ideas so easily. Banning books is political, manipulative, and a dangerous attack on our open and free society. Here are some articles about the issue, the politics, and the books. 

What do we know about banning books? Here is a list of articles from Literary Hub to help you learn about the history, purpose, and politics of trying to censor literature. “Recommended Reading for Banned Book Week.” 

In a second Literary Hub article, Deborah Applebaum explores ways that teachers can approach controversial or challenged texts in the classroom and make the questions about them part of the lesson: “Teaching Literature in the New Culture Wars: Some Alternative Approaches.” 

In this fascinating NewsOne Op-ed, Helen Kapstein compares the techniques and purposes of censorship in Aparthaid South Africa to what is happening in the United States now: “When It Comes To Book Bans America Could Learn From Apartheid South Africa.”

Clarence Page, of the Chicago Tribune, writes about his love of banned books: “Here’s why I celebrate banned books.”

Are you surprised I have a third article from Literary Hub on this topic? This spot-on article addressed a key issue: “The Purpose of Book Bans Is to Make Queer Kids Scared.” There is no doubt that challenges to books that deal with BIOPOC and LGBTQ+ topics are a form of bullying. It is designed to further marginalize these communities.

A high school student in California, Sungjoo Yoon, writes about how her liberal community banned books and why she opposed it in this New York Times Op-ed: “I’m a High School Junior. Let’s Talk About ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and ‘Mockingbird.’”

Finally, not exactly banned books, but books that explore the restrictions on woman’s reproductive rights. This article from CNN has some great titles on it, “6 books beyond 'The Handmaid's Tale' that explore the loss of reproductive rights.”

I am currently reading War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. 

Cherishing the Science Fiction Fan Community at Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention

Over Labor Day weekend, I attended the Eightieth Annual World Science Fiction Convention at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago: Chicon 8. It was a spectacular and enormous celebration of the genres I adore. It also celebrated the community of fans who have been gathering this way for decades. While there was a world convention in D.C. last December and a virtual one the year before that, this was the first time this number of fans had gathered in person at this scale. I am so grateful to have been able to be a part of it – and it has made me even more appreciative of the people who did the real heavy lifting that made it happen. 

I have been to many fan conventions. If you want to explore the difference between a fan con and something like Comic Con, click here. However, This was my first time being closely involved in the planning of a convention like this. I was involved for more than three years supporting those who were doing the real work of setting up this convention. Then, about a year ago, I got a job working on the con.   

My role for this convention was to reach out to local people, groups, businesses, and others and help them get involved in the convention. I talked to libraries, museums, bookstores, game stores, fan groups, meet-up groups, businesses, magazines, other conventions, media, and anything other organization I could think of. I asked them to be presenters, bring exhibits, participate in our art show, place ads in our program book, or be involved in many other ways. This was a local special opportunity; it has been a decade since the World Convention has been in Chicago and no one knows when it will return.

I sent out reminders as various deadlines approached, “Only one week more to be a program participant, two weeks to sign up for a fan table” – and so on. This meant that, as the convention drew near, my workload decreased as these dates passed. 

So before the convention, I responded to an email calling for volunteer help. I ended up working in the program operations office and assisting with the masquerade. 

It was wonderful! Whether I was helping put up signs, letting panelists know they need to finish in a few minutes, answering questions, directing people to rooms, or shepherding costume contestants through the stages of being judged, there was one clear common detonator: shared joy. 

On Sunday night, I attended the Hugo Awards presentation. It is like the Academy Awards – only geeky! As I listened to the winners’ acceptance speeches, I gloried in the company of this remarkable fan community. We bond over ideas, words, concepts, and stories. We are interested in how science and the arts intersect. We are an inclusive, diverse, and welcoming community to anyone who wants to join us – for the most part. No community is without areas for growth. 

I attended many panels over the course of the convention weekend. These panels’ topics ranged from Star Trek to banning books to teaching science fiction and fantasy to racism and bias in the genre. I discovered new books, shows, and movies and learned new ideas about those I was already reading and viewing. I also connected to new people from whom I could learn. 

Thank you to this year’s con chair Helen Montgomery and the many people who played Atlas through the five days of the convention. Thank you to fans who traveled from all over the world to join the celebration. Thank you to the volunteers, speakers, artists, musicians, costumers, authors, creators, and everyone else who lent their energy, creativity, money, and time to this wonderful enterprise. (Yeah, I just did that). 

I have enjoyed these conventions and the people who attend them for years. Now that I have the time, volunteering has deepened my appreciation and commitment to them. 

Thank you to the entire community of Chicon 8, the World Science Fiction Society, and everyone who participated in any way. I’ll see you at a convention soon – where I intend to raise my hand and help! 

By the way, we have two wonderful local conventions in the Chicago area: Windycon is November 11 to 13, 2022 and Capricon is February 2 to 5, 2023!