> At 7:27 PM +1100 30/1/08, John Hughes wrote:
>These limitations are worth stating explictly. Among them are
>Glorantha's simplistic and unreflexive view of religion (albeit, one
>shared by many western roleplaying games), its over-reliance on an
>universalistic and discredited model of mythology (Campbell) that denies
>much of what is interesting about real mythological processes, its
>creeping essentialism, gender bias, and deeply conservative 'boys own'
>seventies masculism. All of these have both positive and negative
>aspects, of course, but all of them constraint the types of stories that
>can be imagined and told, and by whom.
I'm a big fan John, you've got the best Gloranthan website on the net but I disagree with just about everything you've said here. Except for "essentialism" because I don't know what that means, sorry. Without Campbell we wouldn't have heroquesting would we? We'd still be struggling with trying to describe a real spiritual experience by using airy stage effects and pompous language. Campbell gave us the tools to understand what myth actually does whether or not we agree with what he thinks each myth means. As a feminine antidote try Pinkola Estes (I think I got that right?)
I think the attacks made against him and others such as Robert Bly are even more reactionary than their "boys own seventies masculinism". There is a very real crisis in masculinity and attempts made by men to overcome this have been attacked as some sort of resurgent patriarchy/ brown shirts staging a putsch, when these men want to do little more than tell stories, do a bit of drumming, run about in the woods naked and grieve for lost happiness. I don't think either has been discredited because they are wrong but because it is politically necessary.
The society I live in is turning into a hellhole, the reason partially to do with the absolute decimation of masculine ceremony, story and roles.
The monomyth is, yes, a load of old rubbish but it is a useful illustration to teach people the living nature of myth. I don't use the monomyth in my game, there is no Kyger Litor in my Orlanthi myths.
> Genre fatigue is
>a challenge for us all. The current outbreak of revisionism and motif
>cloning (where details are expanded seemingly endlessly without any
>further insight or fresh ideas) are both symptoms. The danger, already
>partially realized, is that the weight of repetitive detail can outweigh
>any return on roleplaying investment in terms of enjoyment and insight.
Yes I don't think I can cope with any more identical lunar secret societies, the Spoken Word is more than enough for me.
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