> I get the distinct impression that most of the people on this
> digest are in the 30-35 year age group (with some notable
> distinctions). Is this true? If so where are all the young
> players? The ones with more money than brains?
Hahahahahahaaaa! I'm Young, I tell you, Young! (1968: a good year).
> The argument rests on the belief that RW analogies would be
> accurate in a fantasy world. It's very dangerous to rely too
> heavily on analogies as any anthropologist can tell you. Real
> fantasy results from an examination of a world that is truly
> different from that which we know.
(1) Glorantha is "truly different" from the world we know. Surely. Nobody has said that it isn't.
(2) As Loren succinctly said many moons ago, we should emphasise what=
's
different about Glorantha, but should *not* simply impose change for the
sake of change. Otherwise it's impossible for us to understand what a
Gloranthan human might do, based on knowledge of the real world. Our
ability to identify with our characters (and comprehend their societies)
goes out the window, and we might as well be playing SimGlorantha.
(3) Arguments for objectively real deities and demonstrably correct
myths lead us down the garden path towards fanatical, will-less, "inhuman=
"
worshippers, entire cultures and societies of misled individuals followin=
g
demonstrably false myths, and the destruction of established Gloranthan
cultural diversity and history. These seem undesirable to me.
> If two cultures are clashing or someone's investigating their
> cultural beliefs ... it's nice to know the basis of their belief.
Genuine mythic experience, in all cases. It ain't disprovable.
> I suspect that actual "recorded" instances of myths being changed
> are rarer than most people think.
Seconded. It's always possible to retrofit the "old" evidence into the
"new" paradigm. Western culture isn't based on a continuous tradition of
Tammuz-worship stretching back to the Bronze Age, despite the evidence th=
at
Christian mysteries derive from earlier mystery-cults of the Eastern Med
and Asia Minor.
> I also think that culture wide instances of HQ'd changes are a
> hell of a lot rarer than some people would lead us to believe.
Thirded. Which is why I hate myth-fucking HQs ("Yelmalio on Fire! Humakt Returns from the Grave!").
Now, if only Oliver had laid into "time-travelling HeroQuests," I could have fourthed him too. Never mind, here comes Paul...
> Michael Cule's analysis of his encounter with a bird was great.
Fourthed. Also, interestingly, it was prefigured in the Venomous Bead, an=
d
interpreted there by a similarly saintly figure.
BTW, I greatly enjoyed Peter's Clanking City and environs, too.
::::
Nick
::::
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