Re: Yaguello's stereotype: response to Roger

Dan Sulani scripsit:

> On 21 May, Sally Caves  wrote (quoting Yaguello):
>
> >  " Here we enter
> > the doman of 'private languages' which borders, at the far end of the
> > continuum, on language pathology (the invention of languages by people
> with
> > psychiatric disorders).  If consideration is restricted to viable
> > projects... "
>
>     Language pathology, huh? OK. You've got my attention! :-)
[interesting story snipped]

JRRT, master of our art, potted Yaguello long ago in "On Fairy-Stories".
True, he is talking of fantasy rather than conlanging, but as we know,
for him fantasy grew out of conlanging:

# Fantasy, of course, starts out with an advantage: arresting
# strangeness.  But that advantage has been turned against it, and has
# contributed to its disrepute.  Many people dislike being "arrested."  They
# dislike any meddling with the Primary World, or such small glimpses
# of it as are familiar to them.  They, therefore, stupidly and even
# maliciously confound Fantasy with Dreaming, in which there is no Art;
# and with mental disorders, in which there is not even control: with
# delusion and hallucination.
#
# But the error or malice, engendered by disquiet and consequent dislike,
# is not the only cause of this confusion.  Fantasy has also an essential
# drawback: it is difficult to achieve.  [...]
# Anyone inheriting the fantastic device of human language
# can say _the green sun_.  Many can then imagine or picture it.  But that
# is not enough--though it may already be a more potent thing than many a
# "thumbnail sketch" or "transcript of life" that receives literary praise.
#
# To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible,
# commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought,
# and will certainly demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft.  Few
# attempt such difficult tasks.  But when they are attempted and in any
# degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: indeed
# narrative art, story-making in its primary and most potent mode.

> The question, IMHO, is one of deliberate control of the tools!
Indeed.

--
John Cowan                                jcowan@reutershealth.com
At times of peril or dubitation,          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Perform swift circular ambulation,        http://www.reutershealth.com
With loud and high-pitched ululation.