Wooster’s Comments on Invented Languages Book

By Martin Morse Wooster: I finished Arika Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages (Spiegel and Grau, 2009). The book mentions sf fandom in several places. She attended a Lojban conference that was held at the 2006 Philcon. She also discusses Suzette Haden Elgin’s feminist language Laadan, and discusses Wiscon’s role in promoting discussion of this language. She also says that Lojban adapted some of Laadan’s features, and did so because of Lojban founder Bob LeChevalier’s connections with fandom. Finally, there are several chapters about Klingon, and the work of Lawrence Schoen’s Klingon Language Institute is discussed.

I wouldn’t say that artificial language fandom is something that spun off of sf fandom (except for Klingon) but rather that artificial languages are something that fans are interested in.

Diana would want to know that Tolkien is discussed, including his creation of Quenya. But I thought the Tolkien discussion was rather slight.