Re: Distaste and hostility was Re: a 12th century conlang

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> Hear hear, Patrick.  And I'm in the process of writing it.  It seems to be
> something that mostly ladeda academics engage in; I mean, there are
> many many studies of Tolkien's languages in less prestigious journals
> than _Exemplaria_.  It's the damned theorists of language or of literary
> criticism that you've got to watch out for.  Neither Schnapp nor Yaguello
> can bring themselves to mention Quenya or Klingon... and yet they seem
> so content to apply these absolutes to their observations:  ALWAYS
> a bricolage; ALWAYS infantile, ALWAYS amateur.   I wish all of you
> could have come to my talk.  I played some Olaetyan soundbytes, Herman.
I minored in psychology, but unfortunately that field actually expects you
to do *studies*, unlike the field I've got my degree in, in which I can
just pontificate.  And do.  (The trick is just to add "an Analysis" to the
title of the paper)

> It's as if...well... serious attention paid to linguistic treatment of Tolkien is
>
> for those "other" "lesser" critics.  The Trekkers and Tolkienites.  We
> language theorists are going to talk about Helene Smith, and how her
> Martian language is representative of what all those goofy conlangers
> are doing.   Phroka!
I don't know about Helene Smith's martial language.  Is it at all
interesting?  Site on the web?

--Patrick