TnT: Conlangs

[pipisafoat]

The first order of business today is a signal-boost. We're about writing, but we're also about caring about people. So let's try to do that some. (On a related note, if there's a humanitarian effort you ever want us to spread the word about, feel free to let any mod know.)
help_japan and help_japan are both charity auctions to, unsurprisingly, benefit Japan. Please investigate these communities and see if you can help at all.

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In our regular news, a final congratulations to 1stmate for winning the previous contest! All writers are reminded that contest 26 [premise: one morning, the sun doesn't rise] is open for entries until Monday at 10 pm GMT (5 pm EST).

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I think quite a few of us write science fiction and/or fantasy around here. I'm sure even more of us read those genres. Every now and then, I see authors constructing languages for a particular race or species in their books. Many many many years ago, I even started building a language of my own. For no particular reason, and not very well, but hey, I tried it! Have you? Perhaps more importantly, how do you feel about someone (yourself included) using an invented language in a book?

Conlangs: What's your opinion?

Comments

[silverflight8]

I used to really love it. (weaned on Tolkien etc etc) Now I don't know if it's just reading a lot more fiction that's not sf/f, but it comes of as very irritating sometimes. Almost juvenile, I suppose; this is a completely irrational feeling, but I wonder if it's because I created worlds and languages and so slapping on names randomly is not hard. I really need confidence in the author before I can actually move past all the made-up languages (and omg, do not get me started on portraying accents) and take the book seriously.

Or maybe it's just snobbery, IDK.

ps the random icon thing is really neat ;)