tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jun 28 20:51:29 1997
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Re: KLBC story: puyjaq
- From: Robyn Stewart <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC story: puyjaq
- Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 20:50:50 -0700 (PDT)
At 07:44 PM 6/28/97 -0700, SuStel wrote:
>[email protected] on behalf of Qov wrote:
>> At 10:10 AM 6/28/97 -0700, SuStel wrote:
>> >I responded to Qov's story and she wrote back:
>Now, I'm sure that Klingons DO use codes such as the one you attempted, but
>I'm also sure that we don't know anything at all about it. I mean, how do you
>pronounce such a code? Do you say a {tlh} and then a {ng}? Do they have
>names? This is not about what sort of code they'd use, but rather whether
>Klingon phonetics are used in coding at all.
I wonder if you would be more accepting of the code if I had used Klingon
sounds that are represented by a single Engish letter. Would tb-4567 be any
less improbably a designation than the made up "rIlqa' Hovtay'?"
>Yo! I wasn't criticizing! I was pointing out that your lack of detail caused
>me to misunderstand what was happening. Originally, all I read was that the
>navigator was avoiding planetoids, and suddenly somebody accidentally hit the
>warp drive. It didn't make much sense to me. Just because something makes
>perfect sense grammatically doesn't mean that it's understandable.
If it was genuinely not understandable, then I wanted to know.
>> It irritated mt when Deborah Kay was getting
>> told every chapter of her story "Klingons wouldn't do that," right along
>> with the "wrong prefix" corrections.
>
>That's funny. Deborah doesn't seem to have any complaints. In fact, she's
>been sending me her stories privately to help her with them. All I ever hear
>is praise. If she thinks I'm doing something wrong (besides my slow response
>time; I'm almost finished with part 5, Deborah!), I certainly wish she would
>tell me.
It itrritated ME. Deborah has no objections, and told me that herself. I
was giving MY reaction to the comments, trying to explain that it wasn't a
response specifically to me being criticised. I didn't intend to use her a
shield from behind which to launch an attack.
>wrong? Does everyone WANT me to be only a grammar-checker? If you say a
>sentence which is grammatical, but which doesn't make sense with the rest of
>the story, do you want me to keep quiet?
If it doesn't make sense with the rest of the story, I want to know. If it
doesn't make sense with the body of Star Trek episodes I have never seen,
(mostly everything since 1991) then it will confuse me.
>interlinked. If you believe that Klingons wear smiley-face T-shirts and sing
>"Don't Worry, Be Happy," then I can show you how to translate things like
>"Have a nice day," but that's just not how the language is used! It wasn't
>designed for that, and so you're saying grammatically correct nonsense.
In a story, Klingons can wear purple fingernail polish and go to flower
arranging classes. That's what fiction is about. But as the practice of
this forum appears to be otherwise. I will no longer write stories about
Klingons. I don't watch the shows, so I don't know what the Klingons are
supposed to do, how fast their ships are supposed to go, how they catalogue
their stars. I will write stories about Bemorians (bemornganpu'), who have
the culture, physics and society that you will see in my stories.
>> Am I being unreasonably sensitive?
>I think perhaps you are.
Then it's my problem, and I apologize for bothering you all.
>> One of my very first posts to this list was a story.
>::scratches head:: You want people to read your stories, but not to think
>about them? Not to ask you questions about them? Not to form opinions about
>them?
::shudders:: NO! I want them and me to learn tlhIngan Hol from them. I only
write my practice sentences in the form of stories for challenge and to make
them more interesting. They are meaningless fiction.
>I'm sorry, but there's no way you can stop me from voicing my opinion: I liked
>your stories, and there's nothing you can do about it! :-P
I have several options. I can stop writing them, stop posting them, stop
reading follow-up to them or post screaming offended follow-ups to any
follow-ups that take them as anything other than grammar and vocabulary
practice. I could scream abuse at you until Holtej bans me from the list. I
could wheedle Mark Shouslon to remove them from the list archives. They're
not FOR liking on literary merit. I wrote them because people specifially
asked for things to read that were not in-jokes, or part of a long thread
they hadn't followed. If someone likes them because they are easy to read
or they think they are good examples or they are interesting to read, then I
am satisfied.
>Look, Qov, I am really at a loss to understand why you're upset.
Then you must be right that I am being unreasonable. I'll try not to leave
myself open for that to happen again.
- Qov