Re: CHAT: models and miniatures

Matt wrote:

> Somehow I fail to find the term "model" at all pejorative.  A
> model ship is not a toy, or a counterfeit, or a fraud.  It's a
> depiction (or "imitation", in the Aristotelean sense) of a real
> ship--just as a painting of a house is a depiction of a house.
> Similarly with model languages.  Far from being belittling, I
> find that this point of view ennobles conlanging, placing it
> firmly within the sphere of Art.
I take your point... I guess it's a matter of shades of implication and
meaning of certain words. Like I said, I'd be offended *if I was [OK, were -
subjunctive, is that?] a nadge more touchy*. But I'm not <g>.

The 'art' angle is the one I prefer, as it neatly sidesteps suggestions of
scale, realness or imitation*: a 300-word short story can be just as much a
work of art as a 3-volume novel; Heron's Horizontal Stripe Painting or a
dark, abstract Rothko can be seen to have just as much artistic merit as an
utterly representative Constable... but here taste comes in, and that's
important too in a conlang, to me anyway. The look and feel of Jameld is
more important to me than any sort of scientific criterion.

[* It also sorts out the perennial question of 'Why do you do it?' Because
it is art, and why does any artist create his/her/its works?]

James

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james@zolid.com  James Campbell  Zeugma--Our Life Is Design  www.zolid.com

When I arrive in Memphis, I'll put a sign out on the door:
"It's OK to disturb me, that's what I came here for."
                               Chuck Cuminale (Colorblind James) 1952-2001
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