The Sixth Conversation Thread

[sangi39]

Well, whatever the reason behind Sal getting banned from the ZBB, let's keep it, and the discussion/context surrounding it, on the ZBB where it started if we can help it.

[sangi39]

For anyone on the Board who celebrates it, I hope you have had or are having a merry Christmas

I always wish it would snow more in December (we've have none so far this winter), so my friend in Canada is making me jealous by sending photos of him and his family out in the snow

[Sequor]

مرگ بر برف
marg bar barf
DOWN WITH SNOW

There has been zero snow here in Vancouver so far, and I'm more than happy with this.

[Xonen]

So it seems. It's kind of difficult to tell, though (at least as an occasional lurker), just what logic that place operates on these days... Although I guess one rule that fairly consistently gets enforced on pretty much any platform on the net is "don't talk back to the admin when they're clearly having a bad day".

I think a better rule of thumb is, don't write arguments that attack something the admin likes, or defend something he hates. And Sal unfortunately is exactly the kind of guy that likes to philosophize around the controversial, searching for the good in what he thinks is bad, and the bad in what he thinks is good. Sigh, philosophers.

Be that as it may: I don't know about the ZBB, but at least here on the CBB, the rules explicitly tell you to avoid posting controversial value judgements and speculation about other people's motives.

I probably shouldn't have posted on this subject at all myself; I was mildly bemused by the situation, but I really didn't mean to ask for anyone else's opinions on it, so sorry if it came across that way. In any case, as sangi39 says: let's try to keep the politics (ZBB, US, or otherwise) to the ZBB from now on, please.

[KaiTheHomoSapien]

Random thoughts: I seem to do my best thinking in the shower. This morning I ended up taking a shower twice as long as I intended because I was so busy thinking about the Lihmelinyan verb system. I was even writing out verb forms in the condensation on the shower door: étan, étes, étet (I came, you came, he came). I think I had a breakthrough The Lihmelinyan verb system is actually simpler than the newer Arculese system I'm coming up with.

I often fill the silences with thoughts of conlanging.

[Birdlang]

I saw people speaking a European language that sounded like a mix of German, Dutch, and Slavic, I wonder what it was? It makes me glad that so many people in the US speak so many languages, especially in the DC/Maryland/NOVA Metropolitan area where I live currently.

Edit: anyways, how was all of your holidays? I hope you all have a happy new year and new decade to come!

[zyma]

Random thoughts: I seem to do my best thinking in the shower. This morning I ended up taking a shower twice as long as I intended because I was so busy thinking about the Lihmelinyan verb system. I was even writing out verb forms in the condensation on the shower door: étan, étes, étet (I came, you came, he came). I think I had a breakthrough The Lihmelinyan verb system is actually simpler than the newer Arculese system I'm coming up with.

I often fill the silences with thoughts of conlanging.

Congratulations!

I, too, often find myself suddenly having big ideas while showering.

[Xonen]

Random thoughts: I seem to do my best thinking in the shower. This morning I ended up taking a shower twice as long as I intended because I was so busy thinking about the Lihmelinyan verb system. I was even writing out verb forms in the condensation on the shower door: étan, étes, étet (I came, you came, he came). I think I had a breakthrough The Lihmelinyan verb system is actually simpler than the newer Arculese system I'm coming up with.

I often fill the silences with thoughts of conlanging.

Congratulations!

I, too, often find myself suddenly having big ideas while showering.

It kind of makes sense; it's pretty much the only place left where one's mind is free (or forced) to work on its own without being constantly bombarded by potential distractions. But I'm quite sure someone's already figured out the secret of waterproof internet cat videos, and it's just a matter of time now before those start hitting the market big time, robbing our brains of their last refuge.

[DesEsseintes]

I was even writing out verb forms in the condensation on the shower door...

Lol, yeah, I do that.

[zyma]

Happy New Year!

[qwed117]

Happy New Year! To the best year ahead

[DesEsseintes]

Happy new decade!

[Xonen]

Leklvaž ođđ eeʹjj!

[Birdlang]

Happy new decade! I’d like to thank everyone, especially the frequent posters, and the mods and admin that keep us safe from spambots and trolling.

[KaiTheHomoSapien]

Grr, another dumb joke in a TV show suggesting that a name ending in "-ovich" had to be Romanian because "Romanian is a Slavic language" according to dumb pop culture.

[Salmoneus]

A long shot, but maybe somebody here can answer my question... actually, two questions...


Some fiction (particularly but not exclusively postmodern) presents itself as containing both an "original" text and a "commentary" (editorial notes, analysis, explanation of how the text was discovered, etc).

Question 1: what is this called? It's obviously a type of 'metafiction', but I'm hoping for something more specific than that, since that's a very broad term.

Question 2: what examples do you know of of this, dating from before, say, 1970?


I have a feeling that if there's an answer to 1, the answer to 2 may become more straightforward...

I keep thinking of things that are almost an example, but not quite. Specifically, there are lots and lots of works where the entire work is presented as being a discovered text, or the 'commentary' is relegated to an opening or closing chapter or one or two ironic footnotes. And of course there are nearly as many examples of the opposite, where only small fragments of allegedly discovered texts are presented within a much larger narrative. But I'm looking for cases where the two sides are both significant in size...


EDIT: other than Borges!

[Backstroke_Italics]

I guess quite a few Vonnegut novels fit that description... but so does Dinotopia? It feels like way too vague a description to really be a named genre.

[sangi39]

Was Lord of the Rings not a bit like this? It's presented as a translation of sections of the Red Book, I think, and then things like the Appendices, from what I can remember, are extended notes on the world gained through translation of other works. Or is that not it?

EDIT: Actually, no, would that not count because the commentary comes from the actual author in our world, not a character?

[brblues]

Grr, another dumb joke in a TV show suggesting that a name ending in "-ovich" had to be Romanian because "Romanian is a Slavic language" according to dumb pop culture.

Weirdly, the people from Romania I know all speak Hungarian

[Ahzoh]

Question 2: what examples do you know of of this, dating from before, say, 1970?

I’d say The Iron Heel by Jack London, published in 1901 or 1904. An althist fiction wherein some historian from the future reads the diary of some woman who was married to what the historian’s society considers a hero with all the attendant commentary, added details, and explanations of how the diary was found and what happened to the people mentioned in it.