But this then begs the question, what is the primary purpose of the stones? is there an underlying design for infiltration? Not that Rush's impromtu plan is a good example of a well thought out attemp at it
Speaking of buffer a thought just occured to me, that when Young was a guest in the aliens body he had no trouble walking, which I would have thought you would have given the structure of their legs? So this in itself could be evidence to the fact that the devices do buffer requests from the guest to the host, I can't remember if he tried to speak(i'll have to go back and have a look).
Anyway my to cents.
As for the whole accent thing...
Your accent is "set" by the time you're around 5 years old (+/- a year or two). This explains why you can have a family come over from the UK and the 10 year old girl will have an accent, but the 3 year old boy will grow up speaking English with an "American" accent. This is more evident in foreign languages.
It has to do with muscle memory and development of facial and throat structures as the child ages. Those physical changes and links in the brain are for the most part set after a particular age and their anatomy is geared up to speak a certain way.
So it doesn't really make sense that just because Rush is in Telford's body, that Telford would have an accent. When Rush speaks, he isn't trying to talk with a Scottish accent. He's just speaking. Its automatic. It is being filtered through Telford's body.
Its not like Rush can will himself to digest a particular way when he's in Telford. He'll just digest food as per Telford's anatomy.
Reference (just a random one from tons of literature on the subject):
Munro M, Mann V. "Age of immersion as predictor of foreign accent" Applied Psycholinguistics (2005), 26 : 311-341 Cambridge University Press
Your right, but its a show...its more interesting if people can't tell someone is using the stones, so for sake of the show the individual sounds like the person they are in and people can't tell the difference.
So, I could imagine, that Rush faked an American accent, cos he lived some years over there, and he knows how to do this. To speak directly with the wrong accent would mean, write a big sign on your breast "I'm not the person, I pretend to be".
And also, I didn't hear Telford using a Scottish accent, cos he's never learned to speak this way, or lived in an environment, where he'd heard for years nothing but Scots talk to each other.
The writers of the show told us in different cases, that with the body swapping the intellectual abilities of the other person is completely transferred into the swapped body. Why should this be different with accents.
Also, if Rush was trying to mask his accent, then wouldn't have have given it up during the torture scene where he stated he was Rush? We never saw Rush in Telford with the LA, so we don't know, but I'm guessing it would be difficult to keep up with the act while being tortured and there'd be no reason to keep it up after he comes out.
Maybe we should pose this question to Josephmallozzi's blog.
I don't thing this special memory is necessary. Rush had heard Telford speaking since some years by now, cos they work together in the same project. And of course Telford will speak with an American accent while in his own body, Rush remembered Telford's meeting with the LA people.Two things here... One, Rush was already in Telford's body before and probably knew that he was "defaulted" to his standard accent. He's also seen others use the comm stones. Two, he saw the dream and I'm asuming that Telford was speaking in his American accent.
Self-control? He's able to endure the torture a while, since he's assuming that Kiva will kill him once she knows who he is, he just don't want to die.Also, if Rush was trying to mask his accent, then wouldn't have have given it up during the torture scene where he stated he was Rush? We never saw Rush in Telford with the LA, so we don't know, but I'm guessing it would be difficult to keep up with the act while being tortured and there'd be no reason to keep it up after he comes out.
That was the same with Rush in Telford's body. We always saw Rush's POV, with a very few exceptions.The time when Telford was in Rush, it was mostly Telford's POV. The few times they cut to Rush he looked scared/confused/bloodied.
Rush was never inside a Blue, that was Young. And Young simply couldn't speak the Blues language, cos he's never learned it, same with the Blue in Young's body, the Blues never learned English, that would be an intellectual ability, both don't have. To fake, or not to fake an special accent has also something to do with intellect. If you have very good ears, and the perfect organs to speak any sound humans can produce, that would be very helpful, I think, but not the only premise.And I said that one's accent isn't "intellectual." Its the person's body. More evidence of this is when Rush was one of the smurfs. He couldn't will himself to speak English. Probably because smurfs lack the anatomical ability to speak English.
Yeah, I'd like to read his answer.Maybe we should pose this question to Josephmallozzi's blog.
Last edited by Gollumpus; May 23rd, 2010 at 07:55 PM. Reason: typo
I think it's just disappointing given that Carlyle is a vocal chameleon that Rush didn't try an American accent when he's 'Telford'.
"Most people who are watching TV are semi-catatonic. They're not fully alive." - U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Batten Sr.
Ronald Greer is also a medic. Your argument is invalid.
Sandcastle Builder: The game of XKCD: Time
The way I've seen the whole accent situation is this. And please, if I'm wrong, someone correct me.
I never considered, when two people use the stones, as swapping bodies. I know that's what it is, but I believe it's more of the minds of the two individuals swap, as opposed to bodies. So you have Rush's mind in Telford's body, but everything else is Telford. So Rush is speaking as he normally would, but because it is Telford's body (and vocal cords, throat muscles, etc) it sounds just like Telford, and without an accent. Also, I honestly believe in the situation Rush was in during Subversion, the least of his problems would be trying to hide or show an accent. He is just speaking normally, and the signals from his mind going to Telford is simply just normal speech. There isn't anything hindered or added to.
But like I said, I could be wrong. I always thought of it more that the 2 people swap minds, as opposed to bodies.
Also, since Telford's mind is in Rush's body, Telford could hold his own against Young, because of the combat training he's had. But the blows are being done to Rush (ultimately), and when Rush returns to his body, he won't be feeling so hot. So Telford in Rush's body, can hold up in a fight. But if he gets his butt kicked, it'll be Rush feeling the hurt later on. But I suppose Telford will be feeling some hurt from all that torture that was done to his body by the LA.
Regardless of whether there would be any clues from speech patterns, just the body language of the two men would be different. Their respective postures would change. How one sees and interacts with the world is different if you are suddenly a few inches taller. There'd be clues.
This could all be avoided if they used the secret handshake technique. Tried and proven to be effective time again and again.
Yeah it's the visitor's mind and the host's body that others see and hear in their normal voices.
The only example we get of anything different is when Wray visits her girlfriend for the first time, and proves she's Wray by speaking Chinese.
The only time we get any hint of people having trouble adapting to a host body is Lieutenant James who couldn't deal with Amanda's disabilities, and then later Wray who could. I just wonder how Lt James managed to cut the connection to get back into her own...