Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct
| From: | Gerald Koenig <jlk@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, December 10, 1999, 4:14 |
|---|
>
>> nicole>>>>>>
>>: I
>> count letters, both in speech (my own and other people's) and especially
>> in print. It takes me a ridiculous amount of time to read anything
>> because I count the letters in each word, each sentence, words per
>> sentence, average letters per word, etc etc. Does that have a fun name
>> like synesthesia does?
>> <<<<<<
>> uh, that sounds more like some sort of obsessive disorder to me, for all
>> it's worth. how do you get through something as long as tolstoi's W&P doing
>> that?
>
>OCD *is* obsessive compulsive disorder, which is a big thing in my
>family and yes I do display it as well. And about War and Peace...I
>haven't gotten through it yet, but I have made it through some really
>long books with much aggravation. Usually, if I'm the slightest bit
>distracted from reading all I do is say the letters names in my head and
>count them, but if I can devote total concentration to reading, I read
>pretty quickly.
Hi, Nicole,
My wife thinks its more likely that you may have a form of dyslexia
than OCD, and the counting serves to order the words under distracting
conditions. She adds numbers skilfully when not distracted, but starts
transposing numbers when the phone rings. Dyslexia is of some concern to
to me as the vector tense system depends on a clear right/left sense.
I could easily write a variant which uses fore/aft or up/down for
past/future, but I don't know if that would help. Can anyone who knows
they are dyslexic comment? It is not essential visualize vector tense
constructs to work them, but it helps as memory support. By the way,
everyone I know who is dyslexic is very intelligent. I wonder if
dyslexia is disproportionately represented on conlang also, giving
another possible clue to our group identity. I'm coming around to And's
view that it takes some very unusual verbal sensibilities to make a
conlanger. I'm not sure about myself yet but I think it's my compulsive
need for logic in all things that marks me, although I seem to have the
music-image phenomonon to some degree. Probably a I'm a subclass of the
Boars. I'd like to hear from the Mockingbirds and Hound Dogs as well.
And I think conlang has its Accountants, and more.
Jerry
Honesty is such a lonely word---Billy Joel