Conlang: Re: What is it we are saying in our languages? (Sally Caves, Jul 3 '06, 18:51)

> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...> > > >> Sally wrote: >> << >> An inspiring story! It's something I'd love to see. Do you have a >> sample of it on your site? >> >> >> >> Hmm... You know, the whole reason I got this scanner was to >> scan stuff. I could scan it and link to it on the main page. I'll let >> you know when it's up. > > I'd love to see it! :) > >> [Groan... Just saw that I spelled "except" as "accept" in my original >> message... I should just spell them both as "xcpt", then I'll never >> have to worry again.] > > Never even noticed it. :) > >> Sally continues: >> << >> But what I like about yours are the uproarious stories behind these >> aphorisms! >> >> >> >> Hee, hee... And that's the whole point. Thanks. :) > > Someone once responded to my Welsh signature ("What makes a gem out of a > hard stone?") with the following: "Heat and pressure." The Taliesin > questions are marvelously weird (this comes from a text called "Angar > Kyfygdawt," of uncertain translation, and has lists of questions (or > statements) prefaced by "I know...": "why silver glitters, why a brook > will be dark, breath, why it is black, why liver is bloody, a cow, why it > is horned...why the puppy is drunk, why a billygoat has a beard..." etc. > etc. Each one of these could be a humorous story showing how Taliesin came > by this knowledge. "Why is the meadowsweet sweet? Why are the crows > greenish-hued?... To where is smoke dispersed?" > > "I know where the cuckoos of summer will be in winter." So do I, > Taliesin. > >> Your first invented language was only six years ago? You make me feel >> ancient! ;) >> >> >> >> Yep. You've been conlanging since I didn't know what it was > > Since you were a twinkle in your mother's eye. ;) > > --and >> before. In fact, as a member of conlang the whole time, you've >> witness my entire conlanging career, as have a few others. > > Yep! :) > > Sally: >> now I long to have the time to write historical, political, and >> philosophical texts, so that it be as Mulcaster said, defending his >> sixteenth-century English against the French, "a tongue of matter." >> >> >> >> See, that would be really neat. I would love to sit down with an >> entire book--fiction or non, verse or prose--in *any* conlang, >> along with a dictionary and grammar, and figure it out. That, I >> think, would be really neat. I as a consumer would pay for that >> privilege. > > I'll see what I can drum up, David. I need the money. > >> On the more metaphysical side of the discussion, John writes: >> << >> Conlangers simply realize that language itself can be used >> as an artistic medium, i.e., a way of recreating the world in a >> personally >> idealized subjective fashion where the nature of the creation itself >> offers >> its own aesthetic and intellectual pleasure to enjoyed and subjective >> mysteries to be analyzed and dwelt upon. >> >> >> >> Yes! That is an extremely elegant way to sum it up. Quotable, >> too (though if anyone quotes it somewhere, note that there should >> be a "be" in between the "to" and "enjoyed"). Well said, John. > > Yes, indeed! And to be frank, I put much the same sentiment into my final > chapter, which is why, of course, I'm asking this question. But maybe > hearing it from a conlanger would be better. I so regret not being able > to find Douglas Koller, or "Kou," who dwelt in Japan, who has slipped out > of sight, for whom no webpages or new email can be found, and who wrote > the most incandescently joyful response to one of my Lunatic surveys in > which I asked about the sensuality of writing in an invented language. He > said, in so many words, that he was like a delighted monk, surrounded by > his slips of paper, his coining of new words, his script, the use of the > pen, and that it was "like living in one's own rococo painting 24 hours a > day." Can't quote it. > > But the conlang as poetry concept has been expressed over the years by a > number of people in response to one or more of my surveys, and to > discussions like this. > > Sally

From:	Sally Caves <scaves@...>
Date:	Monday, July 3, 2006, 18:51