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

On Sun, 7 Nov 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> Okay.  That in itself is a little harsh.  Some of our fiercest critics
> come from the "fantasy crowd," Dan.  I told everybody the story
> of my trip to Albacon where a fellow writer calmly denounced the
> whole obsession of language invention as completely uninteresting
> and wasteful.  Why invent languages down to the very participle when
> you could be spending that time writing about your fantasy worlds in
> exquisite novels that millions of people could understand and would
> earn you money?  YOu know, she's got a point.  I've pondered it.
Because it brings me joy to invent a word that means "not entirely
unpleasant sadness, with a connotation of thoughtfulness".  I also write
poetry, which millions of people will never read (I'm lucky if a hundred
people read one of my poems!), and which have never earned me money and
never will.

> But I would hope that the rest of us can also be open-minded of our
> skeptics and our critics.  My friend thinks "language" and, like me,
> he is immediately put in mind of years and years of learning how proto-
> Germanic turned into Old English, Old High German, Old Norse, etc. etc.
> And all that ghastly Latin!  (pace, Ray.  I never liked it!!!  Never!
> Individual passages in Latin, individual authors, but never in toto)
> He is hyper-aware of the building blocks of language and language
> change.  And language dimension.  I don't fault him at all.  I think
> I would find myself a little silly if I heard me confiding in me about
> this.  <G>  Not everybody has to drop to their knees in amazement and
> joy when they hear we are doing something like this.  At the same time,
> it galls me when I hear criticism of it.  Arm chair psychologists
> indeed!
Never liked Latin?  Mmm.  Suddenly, your taste is suspect.  ;)  J/k.

Strangely, in the academic community in which I find myself (surrounded by
English grad students and linguists, mostly MA, but a couple PhD
candidates thrown in, including one woman who is learning Thai as part of
a study of second language acquisitions), I've never actually had a
negative response to my language.  The woman learning Thai, in fact, is
very interested in it, so much so that she's started asking me questions
about Thai -- as if I know anything about Thai at all!  Someone in my
communal office writes a quote on the board every so often, usually from
Blake, and I translate it into Hatasoe and write the translation
underneath.  I've also written long poems on the board -- under my
translation of the relay is now written, in Thai: "I would like to buy ten
bananas".  Everyone takes it as a happy joke; no one has ever ridiculed me
openly.  Okay, one guy called it a waste of time, but my displeasure was
so evident that he quickly shut up.

Even my freshman comp classes know about my hobby and urge me to tell them
about it -- of course, they're just trying to waste time, but I'm willing
to oblige.  ;)

My point is, maybe you're right that your reputation would be harmed by
"coming out of the conlang closet," as it were, but then, maybe you're
not.  Of course, I have no academic reputation to speak of -- maybe that's
why it isn't ruined.  After all, we academic types are supposed to be
quirky and eccentric.  Wouldn't want to disappoint expectations, would we?

--Patrick