[Rq-rules] Please download and read and tell me what you

[Nick.Middleton at wrsl.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Hibbs, Phil" <phil.hibbs at capgemini.com>

>>Just like when you are translating a novel into Arabic you might
>>replace references to "pork" with "chicken", because culture-shock is not
the
>>intent of the food reference.

> I can't help to react. Are you suggesting that when the Gilgamesh saga
> is translated into English the cultural references are to be changed to
> 2100st century western European equivalences?

I don't think that's what Phil's suggesting - but it is certainly standard
_translation_ (as opposed to transliteration) practice with works where
meaning is partly dependent on social or cultural context for the
translator to chose terms in the target language that convey the sense of
the original rather than the literal meaning. Never believe that
translation is a rigorous, exact science: it's an art, and like all arts
builds on a foundation of rigorous techniques but requires human judgement
to fully realise.

> To return on topic: You can't really just decide to "not worry" about
> stuff that stands out as going against the premises you've defined.

Speaking as one of the Design Mechanism (the group that created Gwenthia) I
can assure you that 32 hour days etc actually proceed from the premises we
defined...

Which doesn't mean there isn't an issue here, but the issue is one of
cognitive dissonance on the part of the readers - _some_ peoples
expectations and assumptions are being undercut by what they find in the
setting and they find that this doesn't work for them.

The problem of course is that _some_ people find these sorts of details
appealing - they _like_ the sense of difference it gives a setting.

We did debate these very issues in the DM, and we've _tried_ to balance
making the setting approachable with giving it a genuine "sense of wonder"
as an "alien world". So to be honest, we were expecting some people to not
like these details, and some to be happy with them. We appreciate
everyone's comments, and they will help us move forward with the project.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton




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