inventing a religion
May. 22nd, 2013 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliThe muse has a story, and it has knights. Not samurai, not kshatriya, knights, in shining armor, even if it's chain mail and not plate.
(Note to the curious: a good knight wears shining armor because he keeps it in good shape, without rust.)
So I'm meandering along and working on the metaphysics and stuff and conclude -- no this is not a Christian setting. Any more than C. S. Lewis could have made Till We Have Faces in a Christian setting. Nevertheless, if I am going to have knights in shining armor, I've got to have an equivalent religion. . . .
Monotheistic, of course. Polytheistic is right out as a Christian counterpart, being so different from monotheism that historically, many sorts of philosophers have been been both. Still, to feed into the proper religious structure, this has to be a popular monotheism. Indeed, I've done one before, where, since the story focused on the vicissitudes of life, I conjured up the Lady of Permutations. And there's always the forces of Light, though that would need some serious work to develop past the the standard.
But here -- ponder, ponder, ponder. What is the concept that most needs to be foregrounded in the work. . . .
You would think it would be war and justice for knights, perhaps, but I think perhaps this one emphasizes order. (Perhaps I can rip off the notion of oysters being the lowliest of animals from the Elizabethans.)
Hmm. . . to be sure, order and justice would probably be closely intertwined in this sort of society. Though there is the difficulty of conveying the the modern-day reader that they really think the social structure from the least to the greatest a matter of justice. As I observed in Orwell's essay on Yeats, he thought that anything non-egalitarian was intrinsically unjust, and he's not alone there.
(Note to the curious: a good knight wears shining armor because he keeps it in good shape, without rust.)
So I'm meandering along and working on the metaphysics and stuff and conclude -- no this is not a Christian setting. Any more than C. S. Lewis could have made Till We Have Faces in a Christian setting. Nevertheless, if I am going to have knights in shining armor, I've got to have an equivalent religion. . . .
Monotheistic, of course. Polytheistic is right out as a Christian counterpart, being so different from monotheism that historically, many sorts of philosophers have been been both. Still, to feed into the proper religious structure, this has to be a popular monotheism. Indeed, I've done one before, where, since the story focused on the vicissitudes of life, I conjured up the Lady of Permutations. And there's always the forces of Light, though that would need some serious work to develop past the the standard.
But here -- ponder, ponder, ponder. What is the concept that most needs to be foregrounded in the work. . . .
You would think it would be war and justice for knights, perhaps, but I think perhaps this one emphasizes order. (Perhaps I can rip off the notion of oysters being the lowliest of animals from the Elizabethans.)
Hmm. . . to be sure, order and justice would probably be closely intertwined in this sort of society. Though there is the difficulty of conveying the the modern-day reader that they really think the social structure from the least to the greatest a matter of justice. As I observed in Orwell's essay on Yeats, he thought that anything non-egalitarian was intrinsically unjust, and he's not alone there.
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-23 05:30 pm (UTC)This comment isn't aimed at you, mind, but I've seen this attitude myself. Thing is, the people who seem fondest of bragging about their Great Egalitarian Social Ideals are also typically the worst bunch of condescending elitist snobs I've ever seen.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-23 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-24 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-24 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-24 02:21 am (UTC)Seriously, did those people ever even READ a history book? Or realize that the concerns, wants, and peccadilloes of a very small group of incredibly privileged upper middle class kids* are probably NOT universal concerns through all of history?
* -- When compared to most of humanity through history, and even by modern standards.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-24 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-24 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-24 06:08 pm (UTC)Except that some of it is sheer obliviousness to variation in history, that their neighborhood does not cover all of space and time.