Re: Promoting Lojban [was Re: Loglan still alive?]

["Steven D. Arnold" <yami@dementian.com>]

>> Our weak link remains me.  I am a parent very involved in raising my kids,
>> and don't have very organized work habits, so things get laid aside for
>> weeks at a time.
>
> Not to mention aviation, IIRC.  {zo'o} Maybe lojbab. could trail a Lojban
> banner in the skies ;-)

Not a bad idea.  Is there a flag, symbol or logo for Lojban?

Lojban itself makes me want to engage in flights of fantasy about the people
who would speak such a language -- a la Tolkien.  You could almost write a
novel inspired by the language.

Another thing that I'd love to see, and perhaps eventually write in Lojban,
is a major philosophical work.  It seems Lojban would be uniquely suited to
that.  Also, I'd like to write some Lojban poetry, and some Lojban myths --
perhaps related to a long-dead tribe that once spoke Lojban.

In a language I created, it had a non-Roman alphabet in which the letters
made up a divination system a la runes.  The letters were also related to
physical objects which facilitated a memory peg list.  Also, each letter was
related to a particular physical movement, so you could generate a "kata" --
a pre-defined set of movements a la karate -- out of any sentence.  There
were a number of other associations as well, making the alphabet something
similar in many way to the Sephira and paths of the Kabalistic Tree of Life.

These days, it seems quite possible to have a Lojban tribe -- people with a
common culture and language but with no specific territory.  A cyber-nation,
if you will...


> All the more reason for others to chip in.  What happened to those people who
> were considering reworking the textbook?  While "real" books are limited by
> the financial constraints lojbab. describes, we can stick as much stuff on the
> web as people can write.

I'd like to see a real "Teach Yourself Lojban" book.  The book that's out
there is really good, but it's a reference, not really a tutorial.  Also, of
course, a dictionary is necessary, and it should include common lujvo as
well as the gismu.  Also, tapes and CD ROMs could be created to help people
learn the words.  I don't think an "at cost" pricing model should be adopted
a priori.  It may be that some profit will help move things along a lot
better, and in that case, I'd strongly suggest taking that approach.


> As I've said before, I think it's still early days for Lojban - we need to do
> a lot more on seeing how the language works _in practice_ before getting into
> the mass market (if there ever is to be a mass market for conlangs, that is).

IMO, the way for any language to become accepted is for it to find a niche.
Once that niche is found, it builds it up and expands it.  If a couple
people start publishing interesting works in Lojban, this will pique
interest considerably -- especially if the work is still profound and
interesting when translated to other languages.  Imagine a popular novel
that was written /first/ in Lojban.  Don't you think that would pique a lot
of interest?  Imagine if Tolkien's works had been written first in Lojban?
Similarly, Klingon is big because it has a fascinating culture to go with
it.

What is needed is some great writing in Lojban which then migrates to the
larger culture and has a big impact.  What if a work a la the Tao te Ching
were written in Lojban and translated?


steve