The Lojban Kalevala Project

[Ivan A Derzhanski <cbmvax!uunet!cogsci.ed.ac.uk!iad>]

>  Date:        Wed, 19 Aug 1992 18:20:18 +1000
>  From: nsn@AU.OZ.MU.EE.MULLIAN
>
>  the unsympathetic outsider would find our scampering for any hint
>  of cultural imagery self-conscious and flimsy,

True.  Whoever wants to write a story with Chinese, (Hindu) Indians,
or Arabs among the characters had better be _very_ familiar with the
corresponding cultures.  I wouldn't venture anything of the sort, and
therefore make the following

  _Counterproposal_.  Don't specify any national identity or cultural
background for the characters.  Make them representatives of an
abstract, undetermined, or fictitious nation.  In this case they might
be Lojbanis by birth, for example.

Otherwise you risk to end up with a story that no Arab (say) would
find plausible.

>  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.

Of course he is, and I'm similarly very much displeased to see a
reference to it in this context.  Take it out, please.

>  It's right to reject Jimbobs as a story basis; a bit too self-conscious,
>  and intended as a cliquey thing.

The problem with it is that it is already metaphoric, a story in
itself, as Bob said.

>  Do we go for equal ratios of men and women?

I say yes.  (Don't make them husbands and wives, though.)

>  Do we have any minorities
>  or "deviations" in the personas, or keep them mainstream?

Assume, for the purpose of the game, that everyone's skin is the same colour.

Ivan