Re: Book: Lunatic Lovers of Language

Fredrik Ekman wrote:
>
> Many years ago, I posted a question about conlangs to sci.lang. One of
> those who replied recommended the book Lunatic Lovers of Language by
> Marina Yaguello, which is supposed to be about Tolkien's languages and
> other conlangs.
Marina Yaguello never once mentions Tolkien, and gives precious little
attention to any art lang.  Her main gripe, and yes, it's a gripe, is
against auxilliary language makers, wherein she draws some pretty
insulting
generalizations.  She thinks she's being artistic, but basically she
believes
the rubric of her original French title: fous du langages: "fools for
language."
The book is mostly an examination of early IAL makers like the
seventeenth
and eighteenth-century, with special attacks made on Helene Smith and
Russian
linguist Nikolas Marr--in a chapter entitled "The Emperor's New
Clothing."
She dedicates her book to Emile Beneveniste and Roman Jakobson.

She lives in Senegal, apparently.

************************************************************************
See my critique of her book, along with my expose on CONLANG, in my
electronic
article published in Australian Journal "M/C: A Journal of Media and
Culture":

        http://english.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/languages.html
*********************************************************************

I have since tried to find this book, but with little
> success. Until now. Today I noticed that it can be ordered from Amazon at
> a price of approx. $40.
>
> Before spending that kind of money, I would like to know what you people
> think about the book. What does it contain? Is it worth the money? Is it
> mostly about grammar? Vocabulary? The creative process? Something else?
None of the above.  She calls language makers infantile, she spends a
great
deal of time (while ignoring actual artlangers) showing how auxiliary
language
makers are dilettante linguists, and she has a chapter entitled "In
Defence
of Natural Languages."  You will be disappointed.  Check it out from the
library.  I bought it, because I'm invested in writing a book that will
rebutt this stance and fill in what she left out.  The English title was
the inspiration for my "Lunatic Survey" of 1998 in which I gathered
information
about the creative process of conlanging.

Sally
--
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