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Message: <blockquote data-quote="transmission89" data-source="post: 8324190" data-attributes="member: 6688441">I have not criticised others personally, nor would I have the arrogance to claim my readings more considered than others and would expect the same courtesy. When Ive Discussed critical literature as subjective and intellectual masturbation, I have and continue to apply that to my own readings of the text and discussion as it comes to literature. You mistake my meaning of the term as to be insulting.  Far from it. As I’ve stated previously, I enjoy various readings of texts and different interpretations, in fact, were this thread serious about that specific aspect, I’m sure the discourse would range much further along it. My position has been clear and consistent from the off. That discourse is fine when discussing texts, and the various interpretations and levels of subjectivity. It serves its own purpose and reward. But that to me, it’s less relevant to the game we play as is and is a poor foundation to build a case to change the game upon.My original statement that brought us on this wonderful Tolkien diversion was a rebuttal to the original claim that Tolkien’s Orcs were a stand in for East Asian people.You will note, being the astute, considered reader that you are, that I have agreed with you on many points around the fact that context and society do impact on what we write, communicate and perceive. These two positions are not contradictory.The reference to the mongol hordes and sacking of Rome was to the notion of ”barbarians at the gates”, specifically around real world context. The memetic legacy of that is part of the informing context. But still, a wonderful attempt to conflate the two.Now, were we to examine this idea of orcs “evoking” this memetic legacy as a fictional idea (outside of Tolkien), we say that orcs are just orcs, they are not stand ins for any real world group or ethnicity, I do not see that as a bad thing. If you want that in your fiction/game, the warmachine, man (in general, not a specific group) at his worst during war, a literal monster, the orc would serve well at this. You are free from unintentional parallels with your fantasy human kingdoms and cultures.</blockquote>

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