New access to some old issues of ThinkWell

I'm in the process of uploading PDFs of seven issues of Thinkwell. Four are in already, this evening. The files are huge; it's taking a while. The PDFs were sent by Ivan Alexovich.

I found something worth quoting, that I wrote in 1993. It's on page 7 of TW #15:

"I'd rather see someone who stammers and mumbles truth than a great orator with simulated warmth who would sell the whole kingdom for a beer."

Here it is in greater context:

What should be the balance of Truth and Theatre? What if a speech sounds good, but it isn't true? What if someone gives the appearance of being a sincere, caring, compassionate person but really is a lying, cheating conscience-free human substitute? Once when someone was formally accused of being extremely untruthful, that judgment came back 50/50 on the grounds that although the lying was indisputable, the physical and social appearances were good, and that was considered (by some, not all involved) to cancel out the problem.

Of course the ideal is someone whose honor is impeccable and who is Kenneth Branagh's drama coach, and some of you have memories of SCA royalty or nobility who come close to this model, but personally I'd rather see someone who stammers and mumbles truth than a great orator with simulated warmth who would sell the whole kingdom for a beer.

Reading through some of these issues I'm working with, I've found a typo and a misspelling I wish I had caught 25 years ago, and I used "which" when I wish I had used "that," and I nearly lull myself into wanting to spruce the whole thing up and schedule some philosophy discussions, but then I remember that lying is excused and people who work as hard as I did are abused, insulted, and not defended.

If I had three parallel lives, I might have stayed in the SCA with one of them, but I'm not going to use up my only life on it. Not all of it, anyway. I did invest more in the time I played than most people ever do, and I was able to have more fun than many get to have, too. It was good; it was enough.


Issue #11, July 1992

Issue #12, October 1992

Issue #13, December 1992

Issue #14, February 1993

Either search for Duckford at the archives there, or go to SandraDodd.com/tw to find the other three (15, 18, 19). The first six are linkd at this /tw page, too. Someday maybe they'll all be somewhere. Some of the ideas are way old and not useful. Others are as good as new.