Halloween

[outsidetheparty]

Once again with the your-party-will-be-more-successful-if-you-remember-to-invite-people-to-it:

Halloween. I'm thinking the weekend after, both because of squirrelhaven's out-of-townness and because it maximizes the chance of our house not still having a big hole in it.

More formal invitations will be forthcoming; this is mostly an availability check:  are you all free on November three?   Or would november two be better for you?

(As for the event itself: we were batting around several ideas, andsylvantechie made a suggestion which has been growing on me:  let's play Assumption.   Which if you don't know what that is, it's sort of like poker, but with creepy undertones.  It's also possible I'll build a labyrinth of some sort because I've been thinking that might be fun; if anyone's interested in helping with the design or the construction or both, let me know.)

[ETA:  if the idea of a card game fills you with meh, please don't let that dissuade you from coming; the intent is for it to be a thing that happens during the party, not the thing that is the party.]

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Either Nov 2 or 3 would be fine by me. :-)

[minyan.livejournal.com]

If I can make either, I can make both. :-)

[woobat.livejournal.com]

Either day would be fine by me.

And there's no way in hell that I'm playing Assumption. Admittedly, it isn't actually on Halloween/Sawhain, but that just treads a bit too much in to actual scary territory rather than fun scary territory. It's all well and good to treat tarot cards as toys if you don't believe they're anything more than that, but some of us do, and stories have more power than one might think. < creeped out shiver > Frankly, I don't think I even want to watch.

But that's just me. And as you say, there will be other things happening.

I like the idea of a labyrinth, and I'd love to help, except for the whole tricky working thing.... how far before the even would you be making it?

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

We won't be using real Tarot cards, no question about that.

I had planned to make a new deck of cards from scratch -- possibly using some variation of the tarot suits, but if that's too close for comfort we can use our own synthetic suits or even just stick to a standard card deck and just add the Knights rank. (...though the standard suits are descendants of the tarot, too, aren't they?)


(My own feeling on it, for what it's worth, is that they're a complex set of symbols whose power comes entirely from the intent behind their use: if you treat them as toys, they're just toys, bits of cardboard; if you invest them with meaning then it's there and very real. I know some might find that too freewheeling or even naive, and I hope I don't offend anyone by it (I certainly don't mean to) but it's kind of how I feel about any symbology -- a walk in the woods can be a spiritual journey or just part of a camping trip, depending on how you intend it; a cross can be a symbol of the one and only god or just two bits of metal, etc etc etc. I guess what that boils down to is that I don't think the symbol has any inherent power, it's all in your head -- but that being all in your head doesn't make it any less powerful. So personally I wouldn't want to play with real tarot cards because they've got a history and layers of meaning I respect, and toying with them would weaken them for me, which I'd rather not happen. (In a weird way, though, and I'm not sure I'll be able to explain this successfully, but: playing with a false deck that reflects some aspects of the real thing would almost strengthen the real thing by comparison... if that makes any sense.) As for the game itself: I've got no problem at all with that, it has zero historical basis, any mysticality in it just comes straight from a single work of fiction, which puts it solidly in the same territory as telling ghost stories. But all that said :) it's not going to be the only thing happening, and if more people prefer not to play then we'll not play.


The labyrinth: I'll probably start with some tests after the weekend, just to see if what I have in mind is even vaguely feasible; if that works I'll most likely be doing it gradually over the next couple of weeks. (I'll be taking advantage of the fact that squirrelhaven is out of town and therefore nobody will be put out by disarray other than me :)

[minyan.livejournal.com]

though the standard suits are descendants of the tarot, too, aren't they?

From what I've read (only one source though), it's the other way round: Tarot decks grew out of four-suit decks of playing cards, and the four tarot suits are the same as the suits in early, especially eastern, decks of cards. Countries that had paper tended to have cards early, so China, India, the Ottoman empire, Spain.

I'd be really curious to know whether this source has its facts straight, because it suggests that while the stories are far older, the paper Tarot cards themselves appeared about 500 years ago, as additions to what we think of as standard playing cards. And I had no idea they were as recent as that.

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, tarot cards originated in Italy in the 1400s, playing cards in China in the 800s, the modern suits in France in the 1500s, though there were still decks with different suts (or five suits) for a while after that -- and nobody seems to agree on which details of each were inspired by the others.

Hooray for google and wikipedia, sources of so much information that you generally wind up knowing less than when you started.

Anyway, come to the party. :)

assumption

[(Anonymous)]

was the actual game described well enough to actually play?

assumption

[shgb.livejournal.com]

was the actual game described well enough to actually play?

Re: assumption

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this precisely matches the book, but it looks playable...

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

We can't make it, unfortunately...DaMan is busy on Saturday and we're hosting Tea on Sunday. Blarg. But in your honor, I will make assumptions all day!

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

Oo! And I forgot to mention--one really cool thing to do with a labyrinth involves lots and lots and lots of tealights at all the turning points; this way you can walk it late into the night and it looks simply beautiful.

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent idea, which will be implemented. Sorry you won't be able to make it though!

[yaoobruni.livejournal.com]

Amazingly enough, the 2nd and 3rd both work for me, and, I believe, for R. Assumption makes me a little nervous, but am willing to experiment if it doesn't involve using the actual tarot cards. And I like labyrinths a lot - if you end up doing the 3rd, maybe I can help you with a labyrinth on the second?

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

The third it is -- I'm going to try to have the bulk of the building done early, but that only guarantees there will be many finishing touches to put in place on friday; I'd be glad of any help :)