Re: CHAT: Profile of a Conlanger

Joshua Shinavier wrote:

> > Anyone did a profile (psych mostly) of the "average" conlanger?
>
> Not that I know of.  It might be interesting though I don't know how accurate
> the results would be; there's an awful lot of stigma attached to this subject.
Apparently, neither of you recall my "Lunatic Survey" last fall.It wasn't really a
"psych" profile, though.  It was a survey of
experience,  privacy, taste, profession, type of conlang,
philosophy... that sort of thing.   My essay pointed out that
not much is really known about us, and the worst is often
assumed.   To make generalizations about the mental imbalance
of conlangers is about as fruitless and unfounded as making
generalizations about novelists or ministers.

Sally

> Maybe the title of that book Sally came across, "Lunatic Lovers of Language"
> is more accurate than we thought :->
>
No, it is not.  And I was at pains to challenge it.  The use of the term
"lunatic"in my survey was referential and ironic.

SC