Return-Path: Message-Id: <9208190822.AA25592@relay1.UU.NET> Date: Wed Aug 19 07:58:23 1992 Reply-To: cbmvax!uunet!mullian.ee.mu.oz.au!nsn Sender: Lojban list From: cbmvax!uunet!mullian.ee.mu.oz.au!nsn Subject: Re: The Lojban Kalevala Project X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 19 Aug 92 01:30:42 -0400." Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Wed Aug 19 07:58:23 1992 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!cuvmb.bitnet!LOJBAN This is a most capital suggestion. I'm for it full throttle. I mean, sure, the unsympathetic outsider would find our scampering for any hint of cultural imagery self-conscious and flimsy, and I'm sure old Hristo Smirnenski is turning in his grave to see his very proletarian ladder (er, staircase actually, big and marble, white with pink veins, leading up veeeeery high) ripped out of context and into Lojban Cafe. But this project is just perfect for us. We can get cosy in it; we can *all* write like Twery :) , in that detached, detail-seeking chain of sumti I find so endearing; we can concentrate on the tiniest details (Lojban is ideally suited for that tutorial application Veijo mentioned --- start writing about a town by writing about a single brick in a building in the town). We should not be afraid to put into the story that which we are, either. No need to exoticise or aggrandise our late20thcentury mundaness and splinter interests (the exotic is not unwelcome, of course). The unsympathetic outsider might also scoff at our attention to detail (the colour of the carpet?!) --- but no, this all matters. It's right to reject Jimbobs as a story basis; a bit too self-conscious, and intended as a cliquey thing. Still, veiled references to current pit- -work wouldn't help, and would allow a lot of therapeutic mutual ego massaging :) What with the allegory really being Don Harlow's brainchild, I wonder what reference we make to the Esperantists going up the mountain -- and in general, how much we let the outside world (including merko) impinge on the Cafe goings on. I have a couple of thoughts on the Cafe personnel and the decor; I'll get back to you. My jimbobism makes me go for #2, with #3 as an alternative. Do we go for equal ratios of men and women? Do we have any minorities or "deviations" in the personas, or keep them mainstream? Hm. We shall see. Dang, this WILL be fun :) nick.