tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 14 20:27:12 2003
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Re: In Conclusion: "Is the language too bound...?"
- From: "Lawrence M. Schoen, Ph.D." <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: In Conclusion: "Is the language too bound...?"
- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 21:22:42 -0400
- User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/10.1.1.2418
>This list is to promote, train, encourage, and enhance the Honorable
>Language...not to put-down the opinions of others or even argue in such a nasty
>manner that one feels...well, defensive.
If you, or anyone else, was put on the defensive, let me suggest a possible
perspective. Rather than assume that others misread the intent behind your
posts, you should also be considering what was in those posts that caused so
many to react as they did? Perhaps the intent, clear to the poster, did not
come through to the rest of the list.
What I read, from you and others, was both implication and statement that
people were not doing things in Klingon. For those of us who have been at
this a long while, who have gone to great lengths for the language and to
bring others to it as well, this is going to evoke strong response.
>Lawrence - you are my hero. And believe me when I say it, if you or someone
>else did not start the KLI, I eventually would have. I look up to you and
>admire your work for what I think of as the greatest gift to Earth.
It's not my desire to be a hero. At most, a mentor, or an example, of what
someone can accomplish with the power and support of a language community
behind him. I'm just the face of the KLI, I am not the power of it.
>And yet you, as did others, tell me and the few who agreed with some of my
>ideas that we needed to stop wining, "bIvIng 'e' yImev?" and actually do
>something!?! Do you know anything about what I have done for
>Klingon?
How could I? How should I? I know what is done for the KLI, both in the US
and throughout the world, but I'm not omniscient. So, in the absence of
evidence, all I have is the posting of a young man, full of idealism,
telling me what must be done. If you think you've been dealt with harshly
(which I don't believe is the case -- most posts responded to the arguments
presented, and not to the posters) then consider that your posts lacked
credibility.
Had your posts been sent by someone such as d'Armond Speers or Will Martin,
they would have had a very different weight to them. As you should know from
reading the list, there have been some major disagreements among the most
influential of Grammarians, but they're disagreements of ideas, not
(usually) intended or taken on a personal level.
>I am 18; I do not have recourses that even a poor adult would have.
Pah! Age is irrelevant. I began my work in Elvish at 13. Andrew Strader was
translating HAMLET while still in High School. In some ways, you have
greater resources than older adults: you have more TIME. And, from the sound
of it, you've been using that time to promote Klingon. majQa'!
>I have said time and time again that I want more than anything to
>join my Brethren at the qep'a', but I am 18...and not much I can do.
Did you ever say it on this list? I admit, I don't read most of the posts,
but there are people who have covered the expense of the qep'a' for worthy
individuals in the past, and would doubtless have done so again. There's a
reason I continue to refer to us as a "community." We're not a club, not a
professional society. We share a deeper bond, one of communication. Use it.
Had you done so, you might be packing for the qep'a' at this moment.
>most of you completely mistook what it was that some of us were trying to say.
And again, my reply is simply, if so many people mistook what you were
"trying to say" maybe you didn't say it clearly. Go back and look at your
own posts. They don't read the way you describe them. That's why you got the
reaction you did.
But even with all of the defensive posturing your posts and their responses
may have caused, I'm glad for it. It certainly riled some people up, and it
made others blink a bit to see them riled. Good. I for one, plan to use this
energy at the end of the month when I see some of our members at the qep'a'.
Lawrence