Re: Lighting Some Flames: Towards conlang artistry

    With all the discussion about the mechanics of conlang
criticsm (BTW, much of which I am in agreement with),
it seems to me that a very important aspect of conlanging
is in danger of being lost --- and that is the feeling of
_fellowship_ among conlangers!
    When I joined this list, I was extremely pleased to note
that one of the fundamental rules here was civility, and
another big one was encouragement of creativity.
I have heard that these virtues were hard-won and that much
flaming had to be endured before the heat-seeking people
moved off to another list.
    I am thus very disturbed by the fact that Jesse,
while advocating a position regarding the artistic aspect of
conlanging, could even think about publicly stating that he
might tell someone that their creation "sucks".
    Constructive criticsm is, IMHO, in line with the purpose
of this list. But saying that someone's creation sucks is not
criticsm --- it's an attack! And it's very easy to go from there
to "You suck!" and from there to "You should be removed
immediately" and from there --- well, let's not go any further!
When I used to attend linguistics lectures, I used to see this
progression, sadly, all too often. I thought that I was well rid
of it on this list!
    Not everyone who "shows off" is asking for criticsm!
Sometimes they are merely saying: "Hey, look at me; look
at what I can do!" (even if it is reinventing a linguistic
wheel that some of us have known about for a long time)
or "I'm so pleased with what I just did
that I just _have_ to share it with somebody!" And who
better to share with than fellow conlangers?
In cases like these, I think that a non-critical
"Hey, that's great!" is totally appropriate.
    If someone is devotedly working towards some
conlang goal and asks for criticsm, then IMHO, they
should by all means receive a serious critique --- but
from the point of view of the goal they're working
towards.
    I don't see anything wrong in proclaiming and
defining a "school" of conlang criticsm. But, if so,
its adherents, IMHO, should restrict themselves
to judging conlangs that are created  from the start
according to that school's rules. To do otherwise would
be judging apples by orange standards and would
be opening the door to "my school is better than
your school" and from there to "mine is the _only_
school" .
    Been there, done that, and don't care to go back!


Dan Sulani
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 likehsna  rtem  zuv  tikuhnuh  auag  inuvuz  vaka'a.

 A  word  is  an  awesome  thing.