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<b>Tongue-tied<br>
</b><font size=2>By A.J. Jacobs<br>
<i>Washington Post<br>
</i>Sunday, June 28, 2009 <br><br>
</font>{review} <i>IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES: Esperanto Rock
Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to
Build a Perfect Language</i> By Arika Okrent <br><br>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062601723.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062601723.html</a>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=263782140">
Book World Podcast: Download an Interview With Arika Okrent</a>
</ul><br>
The review is rather half-assed, as if the reviewer were too lazy to
write anything beyond a few cliches. Well, nothing better can be expected
from this cow town, anyway. The comments are not exactly brilliant,
either. I have no interest in justifying Esperanto for being anything
other than it is, and accurate reporting would be good enough for
me. One thing Esperanto is not is an attempted perfect or logical
language, akin to either Loglan or the philosophical languages of the
17th century. And only a minority of the minority of Esperantists
who are stark raving mad are daft enough to think that a common language
will lead to world peace. Zamenhof himself did not think so, so he
concocted an even more ridiculous notion of how that would happen, i.e. a
universal religion that no real religion would ever tolerate. Also,
though Esperanto does attract nerds, it is light years away from what
must be the appeal of Klingon, which is aptly summarized iun the
character of Comic Book Guy in <i>The Simpsons</i> and William Shatner's
famous put-down of Trekkies on <i>Saturday Nite Live</i>. Nevertheless,
this review, like others, is good publicity for a topic that generally
doesn't get this kind of attention. <br>
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