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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: languages & happiness!!
Message-ID: <elnaE4w99x.6EG@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <853605030.2652@dejanews.com> <32EA0F8C.1A57@sn.nono> <elnaE4uML1.G9M@netcom.com> <32F1A26E.7174@sn.nono>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 22:32:21 GMT
Lines: 70
Sender: elna@netcom16.netcom.com

ablehr@sn.nono writes in a recent posting (reference <32F1A26E.7174@sn.nono>):
>Esperanto League N America wrote:
>
>> You are distracted by your own metaphor.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> How is history like a scent? If you compared it to the root, I would
>> be happy to agree!
>
>I'm not going to start discussing whether my metaphor is right or wrong,
>or whether using "root" instead of "scent" would have made it more
>understandable.  I tried to explain how I feel about constructed vs.
>non-constructed languages, and I don't think I'll be able to come up
>with a better explanation.  Go back and reread it, and if you still
>don't understand what I mean, then you and I don't speak the same
>language (FYI: you don't have to *agree* with what I say to *understand*
>what I say).
>
Of course. I understand well what you wrote. I was commenting on the 
influence of the metaphor (or another more general one behind it) on
your overall evaluation of Esperanto. As Gary Grady pointed out, this is 
a common phenomenon: people alltoo often assume that since Esperanto is
an *artificial* language, it must have many characteristics often shared
by artificial things. 

I suggested a revision of your metaphor to help clarify the actual status
of the language: although it has short history (roots), it has lovely
flowers (literature) and delightful aroma (the inherent "music" of the
tone structure; or the grammatical "feel").

You have expressed your fondness for the *history* of languages: to be 
sure, the short life of Esperanto will not provide nearly as much delight
for you than would Gaelic.  But there is more poetry (much of it superb!)
in this language than can be read in a lifetime. And many of us who have
learned the language take great delight in its flexibility and clean
lines. It lends itself to playfulness and poetry. These ethereal
characteristics strike me as the parallels to scent.  

>> >This is, of course, my very own, very subjective opinion.
>>
>> Of course, you are welcome to opinion; but I suggest that some aspects of
>> this opinion are based in prejudice-- opinion requires experience. 
>
>So you have experienced everything you have an opinion about, have you?
>
Of course not. But I appreciate it when somebody points out to me
that I am forming opinions based on prejudices, especially when they
also lead me to direct experience. I remember not liking "Punk" music
until a friend made me listen well to Jello Biafra with the Dead
Kennedys. I thought that a movement whose participants stuck pins through
their noses and dressed that badly could have no poetic sensibility in
its song lyrics. This was a wrong grouping of phenomena.  

>> [...] How much of you opinion is based on
>> extrapolation from your experience of plastic flowers?
>
>Plastic flowers was a metaphor I came up with on the fly, and have had
>no influence whatsoever on my opinion.  I'm astonished that you're even
>thinking it.
>
As I stated above, there is a subtext based on the notion "artificial"
which influences opinions, as Gary Grady already claimed, and Claude 
Piron wrote about at some length in his pamphlet "Psychological
Reactions to Esperanto".
-- 
Miko SLOPER              elna@netcom.com              USA  (510) 653 0998
Direktoro de la          ftp.netcom.com:/pub/el/elna   fax (510) 653 1468 
Centra Oficejo de la     Learn Esperanto! Free lessons: e-mail/snail-mail
Esperanto-Ligo de N.A.   Write to above address or call:  1-800-ESPERANTO
