I like this! Got any more of this waiting in the wings?
>Hunger is the loss of Substance, the stuff of being and of life, and so
>Hunger, which consumes you from the inside, is a herald of nonexistence.
>Thus the anticipation of Hunger is the anticipation of dissipating into
>oblivion of the Void, which the Uz know only too well, which is why they
>Fear it. It is not a fear of death, but of not-being
Hmmm. Couple questions.
Could you thus say that trollish, er, procreation is linked closely to eating, thus linking what Trollpak calls the big two motivations of all uz? Ergo, since eating fills a troll and prevents non-existence, having healthy children fills the world and prevents non-existence of the race? Hunger is thus the desire for both food and to have children, and Fullness is both a full bell and a full home?
Are "Substance" and "Fullness" close in nature, or is Fullness actually the ability to put Substance to the proper (urp) use?
Does Hunger = Death, or the loss of Wonderhome? If so, might Sun/Pain come before Hunger (it flows better IMO where you have it placed now, though). Just curious.
And I second the notion that it's nice to see some uz threads running!
***
Guns: Not just for us Yanks, anymore:
Stephen Martin sez:
>I would say you are showing a "politically correct", Euro-centric bias >here. Aren't there people on earth for whom violence, not humor, is the >defining quality? Don't we venerate warriors more than comedians? >Howmany more people collect guns than joke books?And MOB replies:
Having lived in the Balkans, I can assure you that there _are_ other cultures that like guns, too. Even in Europe! <grin> Not being flippant -- since the Turks banned the Christians from owning weapons, gun collecting after independence became popular (although, oddly enough, not with everyone: I don't think the Roma or the Macos collect. I'm sure the Serbs do, and I think the Montenegrans and rural Bulgarians, as well. Needless to say, the post-WWII regimes helped put the boot to _this_ little cultural pratice...). Okay. Enough useless history.
Maybe, because the major trollish cultures we know a lot about (Guhan, Halikiv & Dakori Inkarth) were all based on conquest, violence plays a bigger role in trollish affairs in these areas (just as in the Balkans guns were used by bandits who opposed Ottoman rule, and thus became status symbols)? Of course, just about every Surface trollish realm would be based on conquest, it makes it hard to make comparisons... (I'm not sure how nonviolent the Blue Moon Plateau is, since they kill anyone who goes to find out. Er. There's the Trolls in Jrustrela and Pamalta, but I'm not up to speed on them, I fear...)
Also maybe, the source material given portrays the trolls as violent because Joe Human is far more likely to meet Ned the Zorak Zorani rather than Bob the Boat Troll. We don't get to see their tender side: the wives beating their husbands, culling the trollkin herds... er. <g>
Based on Michael Raaterova's prose, and going back to Peter Michaels comments in GD-V4-71:
>I have been considering how the trolls, as a race, are described as "the
>Eaters" who are "preeminently devourers" in the world. Taking a bite of
>something and chewing it, especially for a race that doesn't particularly
>care whether the food is dead or not, is an inherently violent act. So,
>comedy can grasp the essence of humanity, it is _violence_ that can grasp
>the essence of the Uz.
Maybe "hunger" lies more at the essence of uzness. (uzanity? uzability?). A troll who deals with their hunger in the best possible way might not be violent because "violence in eating" is a reaction to fear of Hunger (essentially overreacting to it, and thus gorging)? A well-balanced troll is not afraid of Hunger, and can eat without such fear -- violence is ergo a sign of an unbalanced troll? (Argh. No doubt the White Moonies and the illuminates will be preaching this as soon as they hear of it...)
Or maybe we could think of "violence" as being just one reaction to hunger, and just the one non-trolls see the most ("Hey! Don't eat me! Aieee!") as opposed to the other "non-violent" forms. Not sure who the other representatives of this would be.
But all this might work for ZZ being a trickster -- he brings Hunger(?) to the Darkness by bringing Death (?), and is simultaneously the best able to deal with it (by becoming a killing machine) and the worst (by becoming overwhelmingly violent).
Hmmm. I'm having to think harder about the Uz than I have had to in a long time. Thanks to those that are helping this along! <g>
James Frusetta gerakkag_at_wam.umd.edu Department of History University of Maryland, College Park http://www.wam.umd.edu/~gerakkag ========================================================================== ------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #90
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