Personally, I'd be somewhat happy if the concept of analogies was ditched at times. Glorantha is not so poorly drawn that we're clutching at straws to characterise it; nor is it a world devoid of pretty open and clearly-stated philosophical conflicts, that thus leaves us clueless as to what is going on (Grotarons aside).
Why?
(i) a situation is formed by its own circumstances, from the bottomup;
an analogy is usually taken because it finds some
agreement 'nearer the top', in overall form, which makes application
a necessarily careful task.
(ii) an analogy often moves from being an illuminant to a
determinant: rather than Rome's sewer system showing how Glamour's
might work, it moves to show how it must work.
(iii) if academics who devote their life to an issue in its own
context differ in spades, what price meekly gained assertions on its
applicability to Glorantha -- a further iteration of analysis -- in
a short e-mail? This means that analogies will typically be argued
subjectively until Kingdom Come.
(iv) it's generally the most-educated who, driven to distraction by
wayward analogies, write a long and eminently thoughtful essay to
set everyone's minds at rest, and then get caught by the "But that's
off-topic, moron -- take it off-list!" moment (often from one of the
people who raised the analogy in the first place, funnily enough).
We've been given the building blocks and a stack of plans... who needs to reference the Leaning Tower of Pisa? (I actually liked Ian's analogy from de la Bedoyere. But that's just my contrariness.)
So 'what', then? First principles. If people looked at what was written in the background, and thought it through from there, I can't think of you needing many analogies, to be truthful. Yet for some reason analogies are taken as a confirmation of that process. As if our world has proved it already. Right. Sure, use real world things as a muse and all (I do far too much, and do not necessarily take them from the best places), but...
If you think I'm wrong, no worries. But I would ask that you searched through the archives of all lists and found me an instance where an analogy was made that was not contested and then argued with no reference to Glorantha whatsoever. From my experiences, such instances are in the minority.
I'd perhaps like to sponsor a 'No Analogy' week, and see what comes of it; to just argue what's written, in its own context. Just say no, Zammo, just say no.
Cheerio,
Stu.
Powered by hypermail