Re: Are conlangs fictional?

=?iso-8859-1?q?Jan=20van=20Steenbergen?= scripsit:

> (is there "fictional" music?)
Sure.  In Thomas Mann's novel _Doktor Faustus_, we have the
fictional composer Adrian Leverkuehn and his fictional
compositions.  Mann did not write a note of these, yet he does
refer to them within the novel, so they are as fictional as
Adrian himself.

What's more, fictional Adrian also invents the system of 12-tone
composition, which in the Real World was invented by Arnold
Schoenberg.  (S. made a fuss about this, and Mann inserted a note
into the preface.)

Note that if I published musical compositions by Leverkuehn, I
would be at best committing another fiction, or at worst deceiving
the public.  Those works would be by someone else altogether
(me, perhaps, or even Mann, but not Leverkuehn).

Douglas Hofstadter discusses the case of A, who is writing a novel
in which appears the fictional character B, who is writing a novel
in which appears the fictional character C, who is writing a novel
in which appears the fictional character A!  Is this possible?
Why, yes; all three characters are mere fictions in the novel
written by D.

> or parrots.
Parrots???

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_