Can the gods audition for MTV's "Real Life"?

From: Mark Sabalauskas <marks_at_max.tiac.net>
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 21:55:48 -0401 (EDT)


>Free Will country here: whatever the Truth is, it clearly can't be obvious
>to anyone in Glorantha (except the late, unlamented God Learners), or how'd
>you explain the way the world so patently *is*?
 

        The reason this discussion keeps coming up again isn't that isn't that the truth isn't obvious to Glorathans, but rather that the truth isn't obvious to us. In the end Gloratha *isn't* after all. Or, rather, it exists only in as much as we bring it to life through reading or writing or roleplaying. The problem with doing any of these things is that Stafford's presentation has been erratic and incoherenent. At some points and in some works the gods do seem to be real personalities that act indirectly in the world and brood anxiously over their followers. In other writings a "god" seems to be nothing other than a vague subjective focus of worship.  

>The Truth may be Out There, but Out There ain't In Here. If standardising
>each Gloranthan god into one objectively true version (per Carl) would mean
>losing anything that's been written into Glorantha (frex: Elmal; the Dara
>Happan religion; Kralorela; Pamaltela; Malkionism; the animist perspective;
 

        There would be problems trying to "fit in" aspects of the Dara Happan source material to a world of objectively true gods, but I fail to see why having "real" gods would mean that we'd have have to get rid of most of the things you've mentioned. "Real" Gloranthan gods would still be limited beings, with their own prejudices, failings, opinions and spin. Just 'cause Orlanth exists doesn't imply that a follower of the invisible god or Pamalt would or should worship him.  

        Anyway, Glorantha subjectivists don't seem to have much problems kicking stuff out of the canon. The Yelmalion cult write-up is treated as a tissue of lies. Inconvenient older sources are retroactively attributed to god-learners and dismissed.

                        Mark


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #401


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