The Lojban Kalevala Project

["Mark E. Shoulson" <cbmvax!uunet!ctr.columbia.edu!shoulson>]

I'm going to be repeating myself a lot in these responses.  Cope.

>Date:         Wed, 19 Aug 1992 20:57:37 +1000
>From: nsn%MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU
>X-To:         lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu

>>  _Counterproposal_.  Don't specify any national identity or cultural
>>background for the characters.  Make them representatives of an
>>abstract, undetermined, or fictitious nation.

>Bingo. I like this better, a lot. I think we should still keep the one
>manager and five rotating staff, though. The names will have to be native
>Lojban (rafsi): I propose

Yeah, keep them neutral.  I don't think you have to go out of your way to
try to convince me they're native lojbananas, and I always feel funny about
overusing the rafsi-as-name bit; you just can't trust it.  I *like* the
idea of giving them distinct, but distinctly lojbanic, speaking styles, BUT
perhaps it would be better not to go too carefully this route, and play
with that in one of your own stories with a few patrons you bring in (if
you think you can do it and still make the story work, which Ivan fears
wouldn't happen).  Remember:  If you want something in a character, it can
walk in the door.  The *patrons*, over which each writer has more or less
complete control, are the ones which make the stories click.  The staff is
background.

>>>  Do we go for equal ratios of men and women?
>>I say yes.  (Don't make them husbands and wives, though.)

>Absolutely.

>>>  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.

>Actually, I was thinking sexual minorities. I expect we can also assume
>homophobia to have been eradicated in Lojbanistan.

Tell me, when was the last time you could tell at a glance the sexual
orientation of your waiter?  Um, badly put. (wedding rings are a giveaway).
I mean, that's not something anyone would notice or care about unless it
chanced to become important in a story.  If you want someone with
orientation X, have him/her/it/them walk in the front door, under the
climbing axes.  If you feel a need to attach that kind of info to a staff
member, make sure nobody has beaten you to it, and then think twice before
doing it.

>Veijo writes:

>>As a quick first comment I support these opinions. It's better to make
>>these 'background' characters as neutral as possible so that the
>>writers don't get into unnecessary problems.

>Neutral, yes, but not characterless. Exploring stylistic stereotypes (the
>sledgehammer JL15 I'm prone to) should be fun. I already had in mind
>a tanruist, an attitudinalist, an anaphorist and an SVOist, as well as
>the obligatory Prolog speaker :)

Veijo made a lot of good points in his letter, actually.  You plan might be
a good idea, Nick, but it may make writing a real challenge for normal
folk.  Remember, the staff are characters that everyone has to live with.
If you want a few characters that you can deal with that have such speech
styles, the door's right over there, and here they come.  It's unfair to
ask a beginning speaker to incorporate such clevernesses into his writings
by making characters common to all the stories have these traits.

>>I don't think it's even quite necessary
>>to have absolutely the same cafe in every story.

>I do. I think the monomania of exploring every facet of familiar objects
>in a familiar surrounding (the old brick thing) is highly pertinent to
>this do. Plots and tales aren't essential; a laid-back, look-at-what-
>everyone-else-is-doing-and-how-that-crack-on-the-wall-runs attitude is
>just as appropriate here.

Personally, I think the detail *is* going a little too far (color of the
carpet?  Please), but if that turns you on, have fun.  Remember, though,
that when you tweak the background or the staff, you're messing with
something that *all* the writers have to live with.  Don't build your world
and force everyone else to live in it; bring your world into everyone
else's.  In fact, if you really need the waiter to be a certain way, you
might even consider having a replacement waiter that day, just to be on the
safe side.

~mark