Re: Reactions to the secret vice (was: Steg's wonderful sig.)

On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

>
> The reaction I got recently from an academic friend (I'm beginning to
> come out
> of the closet a little more now that I've been writing about this in
> academic circles) was:  "how ARROGANT!"
>
> Addressing the (to him) arrogant assumption that any one
> person could replicate the complexity and history of a real language.
>
Well, there's a thin line between ambition and arrogance, and whether
trying to do something impossible is arrogant or ambitious is often
in the eyes of the beholder - and depends on how ambitious they
themselves are.

> I asked him if he would have the same response to "I am building a
> miniature city."
>
> As soon as I invoked the "miniature" element, he could understand.
> See, he thought, at first, that I and all the rest of you are trying
> to build full-sized cities, all by ourselves.  <G>
>
Well... I'm trying build something that could _pass_ for a complete
city, I guess, especially in the eyes of those that don't look closely
enough. It's my ultimate ambition to be cited in some obscure new-age
journal as the person who has finally deciphered the Akhun manuscripts
;-).


Boudewijn Rempt  | http://denden.conlang.org/~bsarempt