The Evolution of a Language in Hopkinson's Midnight Robber

As a Linguistics major, what stood out to me, and interested me most, about Nalo Hopkinson's novel, Midnight Robber, was the language used both by her characters, and her narrator. The grammar was a little bit jarring at first, but eventually, it becomes easy to follow along, as your mind settles in to the jaunty flow of the the writing.

I was really curious to see if the language she wrote in was a real creole, or one that Hopkinson invented for her narrative, and so I did a bit of searching. There is not a vast amount of information out there about the language used in her novel, but I did find her response to this question on a website called sfsite.com. The whole interview can be find here (it is the same interview Professor Jerng referenced in class).

Why did you write this novel in Creole? What Creole is it? Are you worried that some readers will find it too difficult?

 I grew up in a Caribbean literary community. It is perfectly acceptable there to write narrative and dialogue in the vernacular. It's not that difficult to understand. I was interested in the way that Creoles can be accorded the full status of languages. The Creoles in this novel are the formal, written form of the language of the people in it. And the language shapes thought. If I had writtenMidnight Robber completely in English Standard, it would have had a very different feel and rhythm. I could say "Carnival revelry," but it wouldn't convey movement, sound, joy the same way that "ring-bang ruction" does. What I have done differently is created a hybrid Creole, since the people in the novel have formed hybrid Caribbean communities. It's largely a blend of Jamaican and Trinidadian, the two vernaculars I know best. And whenever I worry that some readers may find the language to be too much work, I remember A Clockwork Orange and Riddley Walker, two classics in the genre that were both written in invented dialects.

I love Hopkinson's response for a number of reasons. First, the way she addresses the question of whether or not she worries that she might drive readers away because of the language is precisely how I have viewed the topic. Mark Twain received criticism for writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a southern dialect, but as an author, he recognized the necessity of bringing to his work a particular narrative voice, and now the work is regarded as a classic rarely criticized for the way it is written. Hopkinson's novel must be approached in the same way -- it would not be the same story, nor would it do justice to the story if Hopkinson had written her narrative in standard English. So much is gained from writing in her invented creole, that any initial confusion is negligible by comparison.

The second thing I loved about her answer was the sociolinguistic aspects of the language she uses. I love the idea that the language she uses is some hybrid of two caribbean creoles, themselves hybrids of the english language. It meshes well with the idea that this planet is inhabited by the mixing  of various cultural groups, who have blended both cultural and, subsequently, language. I find most interesting the idea that these creole languages, these offshoots of an "actual" accepted language have emerged in the dominant position, and have become an official language all their own, rendering standard English obsolete in this world. Language is so often a reflection of greater social change, and Hopkinson renders the speech of her characters skillfully in this novel, in ways that represent the growth and evolution of this new Caribbean colonized planet.