From: Mike Dickison (Mike.Dickison@vuw.ac.nz)
Date: Mon 02 May 1994 - 03:25:45 EEST
(Could you forward this please Henk)
Ducks with breasts???
Trolls as insects???
There is a tendency (which I suffer from too) to try and logically extrapolate the organising power of the Runes far beyond common sense, and then try to salvage your absurdities with biological/mythological ad hoc handwaving.
Insects are Darkness creatures
Trolls have the Darkness rune
Therefore all trolls are insects
Female humans have breasts
Humans have the Man rune
Ducks and elves have the Man rune
Therefore female ducks and elves have breasts
Spot the flaws here?
Not all Darkness creatures are insects (eg; bats). Not all Earth creatures are reptiles (eg: pigs). Not all Fire/Sky creatures are birds (eg: horses). Orlanthi (and trolls) ARE allowed to keep chickens. Esrolians (and Yelmalions) ARE allowed to raise cattle. Lunars can be coppersmiths, ducks can worship storm gods, Dara Happans can beat a drum, and Mermen can wear red. I think Glorantha gets less interesting and believeable, not more, when societies become paint-by-numbers expressions of a few Runes.
I think the Man rune means two-arms-two-legs-and-a-brainy-head - Sapience plus a humanoid shape. But the underlying stock should show through. Humans and trolls have mammary glands because they're mammals (that's what the word *means*). Ducks and elves don't because they're not. All four are bipedal, with grasping hands, big brains, etc. And so what if this contradicts all the pictures of busty female elves (let alone Elder Secrets)? I'd rather shatter this soft-porn fantasy stereotype and make male and female elves indistinguishable, alien and as ugly as sin :)
Mike Dickison
====an adzebill is a big, extinct New Zealand bird that....oh never mind====
Mike Dickison adzebill@matai.vuw.ac.nz Science writer/editor +64 (4) 384-1982 22 Devon St, Wellington, NZ===="No biologically meaningful unit includes both Dickison and Presley"====
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:34:06 EEST