Re: CHAT: Profile of a Conlanger

On Fri, 14 May 1999, dunn patrick w wrote:

> On Fri, 14 May 1999, Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> > Peculiar is as peculiar does: your children will develop knowing you do
> > conlang (as Irina's children do) and will see it as normal as whatever
> > else you do (shopping, church going, reading, etc.)  They will probably be
> > amazed when they learn that their friends' parents _don't_ conlang (and,
> > of course, be heartbroken when their friends call them "gay" because you
> > do conlang, and like as not because they do as well).
> >
> > Padraic.
>
> I've never been called gay for conlanging.  Why ever would someone come to
> that conclusion?  *looks puzzled*
>
> Of course, I *am* gay, but I should think going out with men would make
> that more obvious than inventing a language for fictional trolls.
>
I think I understand what Padraic says. People who are in any way
deviant from the norm (and any form of creativity is deviant) will be
called 'gay' or 'queer', at least in the Netherlands. I've even been so
deviant that my teacher at university was surprised he couldn't seduce
me.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt