Re: The Lojban Kalevala Project

[cbmvax!uunet!mullian.ee.mu.oz.au!nsn]

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.