Date: Sat, 22 Aug 92 20:29:05 -0400
From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group)
Message-Id: <9208230029.AA24055@daily.grebyn.com>
Subject: Re: Lojban coffeeshop
Content-Length: 2246
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I don't think that the people off net are necessarily locked into the 6 
cultures idea.  But they did sound very committed to the idea of these
common characters being deftned is considerable detail, IN ENGLISH, 
before people started to write in Lojban.  The desire for detail and for E
English, as well as the clear desire for people to go beyond philosophy and
into specific detailed descriptions of people and the coffeeshop itself,
is what I was trying to urge.  It was MY idea that the best way to show
Hindi cuoture is my having some Hindi-inspired Lojban stylistics, etc.  I
think the original people posing the idea were thinking more along the
lines of having the chef of the day specialize in cooking foods of his/her
native culture (for which we would need lots of lujvo and le'avla in order
to have the foods recognizable, if then).  Thus I thought that stylistics
of Lojban would be a more creative way to go, people will recognoze the
exoticness of the non-standard forms, and maybe even learn a little linguistics
about the differences in the languages based on the Lojban forms.  But I
do not see that we have to go too extreme to bona fide culture, especially if 
people don;t think they can pull it off.  And if people don;t want to use
the 6 culture labels, I suspect this will fly, but only if the characters are
defined well enough that people writing feel they 'know' the characters
either fully, or in terms of any cultural features/stereotypes/whatever
that would be most noticed by your everyday lojbo wandering in for a cup of
coffee.

I don;t think that there is a 'splintering' between the non-netters and the 
netters.  But my responsibility is to see that one doesn't come about.  I
fully feel Veijo's isolation in not being able to come to LogFest, not to 
mention your own.  And we are working ever more to find ways to minimize the
distance.  But there are plenty of people in th US who feel just as distant
as you do.  Karen Stein, who I was thinking of when I cautioned people
yesterday, lives 250 miles from here, and has no interface with other lojbo 
EXCEPT at LogFest.  250 miles is as bad as 8000 miles when you cannot
bridge the gap  (she IS by the way trying to get on net, but has not done so
yet).