Stranger in a Strange Land

«I thought you had left. Send him in anyhow; Dr. Nelson wants to examine him.»

«No hurry,» put in the ship's surgeon. «Jubal, this is excellent Scotch — but what was the toast?»

«Sorry. Polynesian. “May our friendship be everlasting”. Call it a footnote to the water ceremony. By the way, gentlemen, Larry and Duke are water brothers to Mike, too, but don't let it fret you. They can't cook … but they're the sort to have at your back in a dark alley.»

«If you vouch for them, Jubal,» van Tromp assured him, «admit them and tyle the door. But let's drink to the girls. Sven, what's that toast to the flickas?»

«The one to pretty girls everywhere? Let's drink to the four who are here.Skaal!» They drank to their female water brothers and Nelson continued, «Jubal, where do you find them?»

«Raise 'em in my own cellar. Then when I've got 'em trained, some city slicker comes along and marries them. It's a losing game.»

«I see how you suffer,» Nelson said sympathetically.

«I do. I trust all you gentlemen are married?»

Two were, Mahmoud was not. Jubal looked at him bleakly. «Would you have the grace to discorporate? After lunch — I wouldn't want you to do it on an empty stomach.»

«I'm no threat, I'm a permanent bachelor.»

«Come, sir! I saw Dorcas making eyes at you … and you were purring.»

«I'm safe, I assure you.» Mahmoud thought of telling Jubal that he would never marry out of his faith, decided that a gentile would take it amiss. «But, Jubal, don't make a suggestion like that to Mike. He wouldn't grok that you were joking — and you might have a corpse on your hands. I don't know that Mike can think himself dead. But he would try.»

«I'm sure he can,» Nelson said firmly. «Doctor — “Jubal” I mean — have you noticed anything odd about Mike's metabolism?»

«Uh, let me put it this way. I haven't noticed anything about his metabolism that is not odd.»

«Exactly.»

Jubal turned to Mahmoud. «Don't worry that I might invite Mike to suicide. I grok that he doesn't grok joking.» Jubal blinked. «But I don't grok “grok”. Stinky, you speak Martian.»

«A little.»

«You speak it fluently, I heard you. Do you grok “grok”?»

Mahmoud looked thoughtful. «No. “Grok” is the most important word in the language — and I expect to spend years trying to understand it. But I don't expect to be successful. You need to think in Martian to grok the word “grok”. Perhaps you have noticed that Mike takes a veering approach to some ideas?»

«Have I! My throbbing head!»

«Mine, too.»

«Food,» announced Jubal. «Lunch, and about time! Girls, put it where we can reach it and maintain a respectful silence. Go on, Doctor. Or does Mike's presence make it better to postpone it?»

«Not at all.» Mahmoud spoke in Martian to Mike. Mike answered, smiled sunnily; his expression became blank again and he applied himself to food. «I told him what I was trying to do and he told me that I would speak rightly; this was not opinion but a fact, a necessity. I hope that if I fail to, he will notice and tell me. But I doubt if he will. Mike thinks in Martian — and this gives him a different “map”. You follow me?»

«I grok it,» agreed Jubal. «Language itself shapes a man's basic ideas.»

«Yes, but — Doctor, you speak Arabic?»

«Eh? Badly,» admitted Jubal. «Put in a while as an army surgeon in North Africa. I still read it because I prefer the words of the Prophet in the original.»

«Proper. The Koran cannot be translated — the “map” changes no matter how one tries. You understand, then, how difficult I found English. It was not alone that my native language has simpler inflections; the “map” changed. English is the largest human tongue; its variety, subtlety, and irrational idiomatic complexity make it possible to say things in English which cannot be said in any other language. It almost drove me crazy … until I learned to think in it — and that put a new “map” of the world on top of the one I grew up with. A better one, perhaps — certainly a more detailed one.

«But there are things which can be said in Arabic that cannot be said in English.»

Jubal nodded. «That's why I've kept up my reading.»

«Yes. But Martian is so much more complex than is English — and so wildly different in how it abstracts its picture of the universe — that English and Arabic might as well be one language. An Englishman and an Arab can learn to think each other's language. But I'm not certain that it will ever be possible for us to think in Martian (other than the way Mike learned it) — oh, we can learn “pidgin” Martian — that is what I speak.

«Take this word: “grok”. Its literal meaning, one which I suspect goes back to the origin of the Martian race as thinking creatures — and which throws light on their whole “map” — is easy. “Grok” means “to drink”.»

«Huh?» said Jubal. «Mike never says “grok” when he's just talking about drinking. He — »

«Just a moment.» Mahmoud spoke to Mike in Martian.

Mike looked faintly surprised. «“Grok” is drink.»