CHAT: Synesthesia and conlanging (was Re: The Conlang

Instinct)
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 12:38:06 -0600
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Well, you can look at it both ways.  In "The Monsters And The Critics"
Tolkien is very hesitant about calling artlang verse "poetry."  The
assumption is, I believe, that working with a "given" material, the
words and constructions of an existing language, is an essential part
of what poetry is.

If I may analogize, in this Tolkienian view, artlang poetry would be
equivalent to doing architecture with imaginary materials that have
properties which no material on earth has.  The objection to it would
be that the whole skill of architecture is working with the
limitations of real materials.

I'm not sure whether Tolkien took these reservations seriously, or
whether he was only being careful to forestall possible criticisms.
It surely didn't stop him form doing artlang verse!

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                       edheil@postmark.net
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Bryan Maloney wrote:

> On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Gerald Koenig wrote:
>
> > software, one can also write artistically.  Conlangers are the
> > toolmakers of language, they do not simply work with the given, they
> > create a new given. The art of toolmaking leads to a higher art. Some
>
> Hog riders are the true artists of the road.  The art of riding a Harley
> leads to a higher art.
>
> This sounds a lot like yet another minority with an odd pastime doing
> some ego stroking.