Detailed Hyper-realities: The Conlang Instinct

Gerald Koenig wrote:
>
> >From: Sally Caves' <scaves@...>'
> >Subject:      Re: The Conlang Instinct
> >
>
> >
> >As for synaesthesia:  I display it, too, with colors and personalities
> (thoughtful post deleted)
> >
> >As for whether any of these creative and burdensome gifts are components
> >in conlanging, I simply don't know, but it's an interesting question.
>
> Well, since these creative and burdensome gifts seem so prevalent on
> Conlang, way beyond their incidence in the general population, why
> don't you collect some data and include it in your work with the
> Lunatic Survey? No one else seems to be championing our cause, and one
> thing seems clear, being synesthetic or dyslexic or hyperlogical or a
> collector of words and languages doesn't make one crazy. In fact we may
> just be in touch with some hidden realities.
Hi Jerry... an interesting thought, but I'd want to steer clear of those
kinds of generalizations.  There are over two hundred people on conlang,
and only a handful... seven or eight?... who've contributed to this
thread.
How can I possibly surmise about the incidence of these quirks even in
the list itself?  Much less the general population.  I think it's
a mistake to declare that the general population as a whole does not
exhibit many of these traits.  My mother isn't a conlanger, but she has
a lot of "synaesthesia."  So do my sisters.  Besides, my study is
bent on explaining the normalcy of this pursuit, its place in any
artistic endeavor, and it argues against lunacy or madness or the USUAL
tags we've been burdened with by outsiders.  I do agree with you about
hidden realities, but I want to steer clear of using terms like
dyslexia,
hyperlogicality, obsessive compulsive disorder, or the like.  I'm doing
a linguistics and cultural studies report, and I do mention issues
surrounding gender that have been raised on the list.  But some of these
other issues are just too personal to raise, and don't prove anything
substantial.  Your observation would make an interesting footnote,
though,
and I thank you.  Yes, there are all sorts of interesting
conceptualizations
surrounding our experience with words, reading, speaking, music.  What
would interest me is how many of you are also involved in music, either
playing an instrument, composing, sampling.  I know Herman and Irina
are,
and And.  And the world building is crucial, too.  Detailed
hyper-realities.
I've been reading your Conlang Instinct threads with interest, since it
replicates a lot of the discussion  I was trying to raise last year in
my
Lunatic Survey.

Sally

Is it true that Paul Auster in _New York Trilogy_ has a character who
goes mad making up a language?  I'm reading it in snatches, but I
haven't
run across this yet.  If it's there, it's one more example of popular
conceptions about language inventors.  I don't know where I came across
this bit of news.  Probably the IAFA listserv (International Association
for the Fantastic in the Arts).  Anybody ever read _Lampiere's
Dictionary_?
A novel set in the seventeenth century, I think.
=======================================================
SALLY CAVES
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves (bragpage)
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http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html (all else)
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Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an.
"The gods have retractible claws."
                                from _The Gospel of Bastet_
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