Zompist Bboard Again

A very simple question: when does it begin?

Instinctively I’m imagining a story like Irish (/Japanese?) ‒ i.e. book culture imported from the trappings of the big classical empire, but writing in the vernacular from a very early date. BUT still on balance most writing done in the big classical empire’s language for a good while... although the political/social motivation for that survival may not really be there for Kebri?

Or maybe no-one writes in Kebreni for a long time?

Sorry if I’m missing something!

I’ve just seen that I’ve missed something rather huge on Patreon that is likely to directly address this

sasasha wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 2:15 pm I’ve just seen that I’ve missed something rather huge on Patreon that is likely to directly address this

I thought about pointing to that, but wasn't sure how much we can refer to Patreon here.

It's not like it's a secret... what folks are referring to is a new essay on the Kebreni constitution, which includes new details on Kebreni history.

sashasa, see if it answers your questions. In general during the Dark Years Kebri, just like Verduria, mostly wrote in Caďinor. The epics mentioned are some of the earliest things written in Kebreni.

Thank you, yes it does! And it’s very, very interesting!

To go back to my original comparisons. We now know that there’s a Meťaiun/Kebreni epic written down around 1,800 years before ‘now’. (Just to check, this is in Meťaiun/Kebreni right?)

Even though it’s impossible to make a fair comparison because, well, different planets... Almean years are a bit shorter etc... if the comparison were fair, Kebreni literature would thus come out a little bit older than either Irish or Japanese.

But, as you say, most stuff was still written in Caďinor until the renaissance after the Dark Years. (Should we call it that ‒ a renaissance?)

So this, again, seems fairly comparable with both the Irish and Japanese situations (if you discount the incursions of English in the former case, that is).

sasasha wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2024 4:46 am To go back to my original comparisons. We now know that there’s a Meťaiun/Kebreni epic written down around 1,800 years before ‘now’. (Just to check, this is in Meťaiun/Kebreni right?)

On Patreon I mentioned three early writings:
* Negate Bonnezi (Story of Ancient Times), written 1800s
* Meźenate Bonnezi (Story of Meźena), written 2100s
* Negate Ceiri (Ancient Hymns), written 2100s

These would not be in (reconstructed) Meťaiun, which dates to the 1st millennium, up to 2000 years before. Rather, they'd be in Old Kebreni.

The problem of course is that I know nothing about Old Kebreni except that it's in the middle. And I expect I won't know what it looks like till I know more about Modern Kebreni (i.e. that of about 3678). So some of this (dates and other details) is subject to change when I get to it!

Excellent, it would be so cool if you ever get to Old Kebreni (and Old Verdurian and and and), that would be so amazing but I’m sure there are other priorities! I’ve been thinking about the descriptions of the epics and how much I’d love to read them...

Which all reminds me of a graduation address given by eccentric poet Jeremy Prynne ‒ which I wasn’t even present for, but heard my English major friends discussing and have never forgotten about ‒ which my impression of is roughly “literature lives in the imagination; the best thing you can do now is go forth and write literary criticism of works of literature that don’t even exist”. Apologies to Jeremy if I’ve totally got the wrong end of the stick. But it’s fascinating to me how much we can imagine complex works of literature in this complex otherworld environment and it really does much the same thing in my brain as when I hear about real world literature that I haven’t yet read.