[Torg] Fiction and Reality (Genre and Being Real, 2 of 6)

[Travis James Hall]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com 
> [mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of 
> Jasyn Jones
> Sent: Monday, 15 February 2010 4:05 AM
> To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
> Subject: Re: [Torg] Fiction and Reality (Genre and Being Real, 2 of 6)
> 
> On Feb 13, 2010, at 11:25 PM, Travis James Hall wrote:
> 
> >> Jasyn Jones
> 
> > I don't recall anyone finding it a stumbling block.
> 
> Then I beg to differ on this point. Eric Gibson, for example, 
> created an entirely new metaphysic- posted on the List- in an 
> attempt to address the issue. He was frustrated when I 
> disagreed with it (it was, in essence, the "other people" 
> solution, A3), because he refused to believe that Core Earth 
> was the center of existence, that it created all the other cosms.

I've ignored an awful lot of Eric's posts over the years. He's gotten overly
frustrated about quite a few things that were non-issues.

> Then there's the times (many, many times) when I've clashed 
> with people because I insisted that cosms are genres, which 
> they flat out denied could be the case.

Aye, well, I'd be another one. Other cosms aren't genres, they are worlds
that may or may not implement genre tropes (and almost always do in the
published material).

Nor is a work of fiction a genre, generally.

And the simple logic that follows on from the simple argument I already
presented would go: Works of fiction reflect other possible realities, hence
other cosms. Works of fiction may implement genre tropes, but are not genres
in and of themselves. Therefore other cosms may implement genre tropes, but
are not genres in and of themselves.

> > I do suspect
> > that this is largely what was always intended by the writers
> 
> Also, I wasn't sure that it's what they intended, and I 
> didn't want to claim "This is my idea and the people who 
> created the game agree with me." I try to clearly separate my 
> opinions from the game's official declarations.

I did limit myself to a declaration of suspicion, not of fact.

> The reason I wasn't sure is that "The Chekov Solution" (from 
> the Torg anthologies) posits the exact opposite situation: Wu 
> Han is troubled because his behavior was caused by CE 
> fiction, and racist fiction at that. This story may be where 
> people gleaned the "CE created realities", and because it's 
> by Greg Gorden (IIRC), the chief designer of Torg, it seems 
> as official as nearly anything else.

It is important to remember that characters in fiction do not always fully
understand the universes they inhabit. Wu Han may have been bothered by this
notion, but that still doesn't make it something worth being bothered about.

Travis Hall