Re: meeting of minds

Sally Caves wrote:

<snip>
and how does one get in touch with them?  and why would "others" who are =
imagined to think those who indulge are "mental" fear such explorations?

> > Guess this is a hot topic for me!
> > diana
>
> And yet Diana, by your own account, you have begun doing this so recent=
ly!  Many of us feel
> the way we do because we've had years of hiding this from peers, profes=
sors, parents.  But
> from what I gather about your conlanging and Glide, and correct me if I=
'm wrong, you started
> your amazing language project this summer, and soon after joined the gr=
oup where it is licit to
> admit to doing this.  So have you been indulging in conlanging projects=
 or world building much
> earlier and haven't told us?  ;-)   I should really slip you the Lunati=
c Survey.
>
> Sally
> scaves@frontiernet.net
> http://www.frontiernet.net/~teonaht.html
  sally,
world-building is lifelong.  from the 'invisible palymate' i had from the=
 time i started to talk, through make-believe games and then into verbal =
expressions, writing fiction.  language-making--only the lifelong sense t=
hat i have always been learning others languages, never speaking my own. =
 together with a sense of a place called 'home' that was just out of reac=
h, like an image dropped into a mirror long since shattered. (wrote novel=
la on that called 'the lost'--another story).  but somehow the world-buil=
ding and language- constructing activities seem inextricably linked.  and=
 somehow in this activity that conlangers are involved in lies some deep =
insights into the nature and source of language in general, IMHO.
regarding academia and responses:  before i found y'all, when i came back=
 this summer, started talking about making a language, visual language, m=
odel language, and showing the profs and fellow students what i was up to=
, beginning to announce that somewhere in here i was going to find my gra=
duate studies interest.  i am breaking so many rules, and moving so fast =
i guess that i'm running between the bullets which have already started t=
o fly.  but there are more puzzled looks and interested questions than bu=
llets.  my three zones of difference (innovation?  rule-breaking?  perver=
sity?) are 1) the subject matter--visual language and conlanging 2) narra=
tive thought--that i consider world-building epistemic, that that is how =
--per Kristian's description, and the meeting of minds thread--i am gaini=
ng/making/sorting out knowledge about the language-making and 3) that i a=
m beginning to express, even in this initial gathering, not only in words=
 but in image and sound and that this
is intrinsic to the process.  the fun is just beginning.  first attack ca=
me in the form of 'what's the different between this (the glyphs) and a p=
ile of pebbles and bottlecaps?"
i guess i have a lifetime of being an oblique line to whatever geometry i=
s local.
diana