Re: "Coming out" about conlanging to people in Academia [was Re: Caryatic]

On Friday, July 20, 2001, at 06:27 AM, Kvasir - VaijskX wrote:

> Personally i haven't spoken much about my conlang publicly as there's
> always a
> fear of being seen as a nerdy type...
>
Heh--I came from a high school where the "nerds" were the elites...and
honestly, I always *was* a nerd, still am, and like being a nerd.  :-)

> The reaction from my non-linguistically-enthusiastic friends were from
> indifferent to welcoming. One guy wanted his name to be used as one of the
> characters i've created! And he loves his role of having relation with a
> Prince! ahhaha (that's another story for another time...). My roommate
> thinks
> that the whole Fyksland deal is full of bull but very funny. hahhaha
My close friends have generally been roleplayers, other writers,
worldbuilders, gamers, science fiction/fantasy buffs, etc.  Reactions
range from excited/enthusiastic to friendly disinterest (the way that my
reaction to the Babylon-5 collectible card game is friendly disinterest).

Plus, anyone who knows we well knows I have a lot of weird hobbies: sf/f
writing/reading, conlang, beaded jewellery, silk painting, mathematics,
roleplasying, anime, medieval/military history, psychopathology, etc.
After all that, conlang is just one more in the mix and it fails to be as,
  hmm, striking.  :-)  But of course, not everyone is or wants to be a
certified eccentric.

Yoon Ha Lee
going to be a teacher and proud of that, too!