Re: relative weirdness (was Re: signal and noise ...)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jörg Rhiemeier" <joerg.rhiemeier@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 9:02 PM
Subject: Re: relative weirdness (was Re: signal and noise ...)


> BP Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:
>
> > At 10:35 2001-12-10 +0000, James Campbell wrote:
> >
> > >... which is why I found it so comforting to find Conlang in '96 when I
got
> > >online: "Wow, so many conlangers!" You don't feel quite so weird when
you're
> > >surrounded by equally-weird (or at least, weird for the same reason)
people.
> >
> > Until your kids tell you what a nut you are who wastes time with
fairy-tale
> > languages...
> >
> > That one really shot me down, and I'm still trying to recover.  Not that
> > I'll stop conlanging, but I must find a way to convince them it is
> > worthwhile. :-(
>
> Well, I have no children to tell me that I waste time with conlangs,
> but my (elder) brother does the job.  When I recently made the mistake
> mentioning the Conlang Translation Relay in a conversation about
> translation problems, he thrusted Wittgenstein's infamous argumentation
> against "private languages" at me, stating that the translations were
> inevitably meaningless and thus the whole thing a waste of time.
> When I said, "Well, it is just a game", he said nothing anymore.
> But then, he always considered me an impractical daydreamer.
>
> My parents, however, know nothing about my conlanging.  I have learned
> not to tell anything about my bizarre worldbuilding and related projects
> quite early, when all I got was utter indifference from my father and
> sharp disapproval from my mother.  (One ought to mention that my
> mother's
> parents were protestant fundamentalists, though she herself was not,
> only unbearably conservative in some respects.)
>
> Well, I know that I am somewhat weird - one can tell that from the fact
> that I like swimming fully clothed (something no-one in my family
> ever understood either).
>
I've tried to talk my friends in school into conlanging, to no avail.  I
suppose I'm the only one who finds lanaguage remotely interesting.

But nonetheless, It's an outlet to pour my language skills and creativity
into, and I really enjoy it.   I find it amazing so many people are into it.