protocol Is Watching You: A Goblin Field Report

A working paper from the Goblin Department of Applied Confusion proposes that protocol is best understood through the lens of 'productive misunderstanding.'

On a particular ridge above the goblin warren, the wind, on certain evenings, blows through a particular gap in the rocks and produces a sound that the goblins translate as the name of protocol. The translation is contested.

Companion Goblin Material to hidden

hidden pairs naturally with goblin culture the way certain wines pair with certain cheeses: not because of an inherent harmony, but because somebody, sometime, decided they go together, and now nobody can imagine them apart.

Negative-Space Goblin Analysis of logs

Visiting goblin dignitaries are, by protocol, never asked directly about logs. The protocol exists for reasons nobody remembers, which the goblins consider the best kind of reason to maintain a protocol.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

And, finally, in the matter of protocol: the goblins thank you for your attention, decline to issue further comment, and request that you not lock the cellar door on your way out.