CHAT: (Very OT Indeed) Re: CHAT: Back on the list; Anti-conlanging bigots

(Hey!  Something I can comment on intelligently.)

Welcome back, Tom...

I think anti-conlang bigotry is, largely, a symptom of a greater malady: The
desire among many (I call them "Anti-Hobbyists" or "Mom") to value things only
insofar as they improve society or are otherwise "useful." Hell, my whole life
is trivial: I'm trying to be a PhD candidate in Medieval Literature, I collect
board games, and am considering getting heavily involved in Lego trains.

(Sidebar:  You can't be serious about conculturing if you don't break out the Legos.)

Basically my whole life has consisted of hobbies that provide very little to very few
(designers and publishers of boardgames and the Lego Corporation excluded). I'm
only unhappy when I take them too seriously. And by "seriously" I don't mean it
like most do--spending a lot of time and money on them. By "seriously" I mean
trying to justify it as a "serious" activity. Nowadays if I get impertinent
questions about my hobbies I just go existential on their, um, butts and tell
them that all our earthly strivings are pointless anyway so why bother? If that
doesn't work I cover my ears and hop around singing loudly. They usually leave
then.

ANYWAY my point is that it is the anti-Conlanging, anti-hobby,
anti-frivolous-activity folks who have the mental complex, and we shouldn't
worry overmuch about their condition (or our esteem in their eyes).

I should probably get back to work on my language, which has been languishing
for weeks. (It's faring better than my first train set, which hasn't seen
anything but dust for...twelve years?) It's fairly prosaic, as they go, but as
a first reasonably fleshed-out language it's not too bad, I think. Future
bulletins as events warrant.

Alfred

PS:  Why Lego trains?

http://www.gmltc.org/gallery_main.asp

---
Last Good Book Read:  The Last Dream-O-Rama:  The Cars Detroit Forgot to Build, by Bruce McCall

AIM screen name:  alfredhw


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