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

From:Joe Hill <joe@...>
Date:Friday, December 14, 2001, 21:55
----- 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.