- Chev, our rogue knight, wonders out loud in twitter after viewing a Caledonian island covenant.
- Helpful Pfanderson steps up to guide the knight with some information.
- I follow-up via e-mail and ask three questions of Mr. Drinkwater, esteemed and humble resident of Caledon. Carried to him via the helpful Lady Anderson.
- Later this pm, after many e-mails, Tweets, Skypes, etc from folks, and judging by unique visitors on my steampunk’o'meter I find it thrilling to say Caledonians enjoy reading long windy posts. That does not excuse my poor writing, only that I believe that Caledonians will read anything with a vigor that is not quite human.
I received a letter from Mr. JJ Drinkwater. I have not replied back to Mr. Drinkwater, although I shall, and it is not for being at a loss for words, but because after reading it…I felt intruding would be like- well- interrupting a very nice play.
These were brokered to Mr. Drinkwater through the quill of Ms. Anderson and I report below. Enjoy and savor fair reader, to use a word from Mr. Drinkwater, the “zest” in this reply. I have made small edits to links for purpose of aesthetics and other slight changes, otherwise this is the text as sent from the good fellow. I shall attempt commentary later, for now my hope is that more Caledonians send me letters so that I may digest them first, then share them. It is rather selfish, but I am a rogue and it is a stingy pleasure.
My Dear Sir.
You raise some extraordinarily interesting questions, indeed….some of which I cannot even presented to answer, but can query in their turn. Before I begin, however, I should like to say that, devoted as the Caledon Library is to our fair nation, we cannot pretend to stand in for Caledon’s sundry Founders, Historians, and Pundits, many of whom, I am entirely convinced, will make themselves heard on ths matter, either at this estimable table, or from their own Podia.
1) Does the Caledonian citizen’s interests in literature influence how well curated the history of the build seems to be?
That is a dangerous question to ask a Librarian, sir, as we are apt to place literature at the centre of all things, and to see all things by its light. However, since you have asked…
Caledon was created to be a 19th-century environment—but Caledon is very far from being a historical re-creation. I like to say that when one comes to Caledon, rather than entering the 19th century, one enters the 19th century imagination. The world of Caledon has as much in it of Ivanhoe and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as it does of *The Mayor of Casterbridge*, *Hard Times*, or even *The Pickwick Papers*. This means that Caledon draws on a very large body of literature and history, instead of (like many other RP regions) a single created world, or body of mythology. Moreover, although it is nowhere stated, the implicit story is (arguably) that Caledon is British, or is Britain, as seen through some appropriate looking-glass.This means that the flourishing of the English-language novel in the 19th century gives Caledon—and its library—a rich source of material to draw on.
During a most edifying conversation, on Orange, this week, the following was said (with much edited out inbetween)
[12:40] Sin Trenton: When “pure” Victorians meet “pure” Steampunkers. In other groups in the past, there is alienation.. In Caledon forums, people promptly decided they wanted to learn more about the other side
(snip)
[12:40] Ordinal Malaprop: Yes, actually, I did want to mention stylistic divisions - not in terms of drama necessarily
(snip)
[12:42] JJ Drinkwater has it categorized into the imaginary 19th century of….. Dickens/Hardy/Thackeray, Verne/Wells, and Scott/Rackham
I suppose I should have said the Imaginary 19th *centuries*, for each of those groups of authors deals in a particular genre of imagination. In Caledon, indeed, the Masters of Technology are not on Mars, they are flying overhead in something brass-riveted and steam-powered, and Fairies are not at the bottom of the garden, they are next door throwing a rout and waltzing for dear life. But what *is* a literature, if it is not how a group of persons…a community, a nation, or what have you…conceives of itself and its surrounds, and pases that conception between themselves, and so on to the larger world, and perhaps to the world that is removed from what they limn, in time as well as space?
I must confess my brain (known for its inelasticity, it is true) will not stretch to encompass the idea of Caledon as a build, unless you are using “build” as a shorthand for “the constructed evidence of a community”? In which case, there is indeed a great consonance between the sundry literacies of Caledon-the-c0mmunity (and how Caledonians read such literatures as inspire them) and manner in which they have depicted, and commemorated, what has struck them about Caledon-the-place
2) Are there any specialized tools or processes that a community can use to “keep its identity”. Regain its identity?
Here I am beyond my depth, as I am but poorly acquainted with the thinking of Archivists, who ( if I am not mistaken, which I may well be) ask us to conceive that what a culture creates, and preserves, is the stuff it will use to understand its own nature, or identity, or, if you like, its geist or spirit or soul.
However, from my own little experience, I can say that what Caledon seems to use are tools that are scarcely specializied, but to use them in a manner which is informed by the will and desire to be a community, indeed, perhapse even to be a People.
The Caledon Forums, and the Caledon Aethero-blogo-sphere, to which Sir Edward has graciously pointed us, uses blogs and wikis and discussion threads and suchlike, it seems to me, to instantiate the vast fluctuating wonder that is the identity of Caledon. They do this by sustaining, and making available, over time, a conversation posessing a thousand topics, but through which runs a submerged thread of “Is this Caledon?” “How is this Caledon” “How is this important to Caledon?” “How is this useful to Caledon?” &c. We speak of many matters, but they are all, somehow, matters of Caledon, and it is through this long and multfaceted conversation that the identity of Caledon comes forward to meet the eye.
I consulted long-time Caledon Steward Serra Anansi on this point, and she put in neatly into the following nutshell: “Every joy, trial, cause or flame war links us all for better or worse…”
I would add that it is not only Caledon’s numerous accomplished builders, but also its cultural institutions….its galleries and theatre and musical venues, perhaps even its library…that feed the delight we all take in this. Every time Radio Riel gives us another day of music from Miss Austen’s era or dances us gaily through a Burns Night Supper (http://radioriel.blogspot.com/2008/01/robbie-burns-and-music-of-scotland.html), every time we see our own images reflected in an exhibit of portraits we enrich our sense of community, and its pleasures.
3) How has having a “history” helped the overall community at Caledon?
This, I believe, is a question for the Historians of Caledon, among which honoured company I dare not place myself.
However, I will speculate that it is as something in the nature of a shared narrative, a set of stories we may tell and retell one another, and by our actions extend indefinitely, that Caledon’s “history” has helped us bond into a community.
We are, of course, making it up as we go along, when we perform the daily duties and pleasures that make up the life of Caledon….only, we are not making it up out of whole cloth. Rather, we are elaborating, each of us in our own way, the stories we already know. We have, as it were, a body of images and devices and motifs, and therefore both our stock of Caledon Characters and our skeleton bits of business ready to hand, and, like the players in the Commedia dell’arte, with their Lazzi and Scenarios, we are ready to charge onto the stage and improvise for all we are worth, and to the enjoyment of all concerned.
That we needn’t guess, or rely on our own fallible memories, for what has made up Caledon, but may rather contemplate the evidence of Caledon’s Caledonian-ness in a variety of places, I would think, only serves to facilitate the zest with which we go about the thing.
I am, sir, your most humble etc etc
JJ Drinkwater
It is I who must thank you Mr. Drinkwater and other Caledonians that I am sure debated the issue in some chamber far away. It is rare to get a response that is not only entertaining and humble and yet so courteous I am want to give up being a wandering knight, a long story really how that occured, and sit still in my classroom chair and read proper. Then again, who would Caledonians make merry over? I can serve, if anything, as a bad example of knighthood and will continue to poorly question any Caledonian who would waste time with this Chevalier.
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