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Le choix du roi
Jun. 13th, 2014 10:56 pmIn Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik recounts how, when his wife became pregnant in Paris -- a girl, after they had had a boy -- everyone kept saying, "Le choix du roi!" until he finally snapped when a taxi driver said it and demanded to know what it meant.
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babies and castes and mutual sterility
Apr. 6th, 2014 10:25 pmWhat would a society be like if it contained species of intelligent beings -- which, being species, could not interbreed with each other?
A lot of SF and fantasy writers don't like the problem. You get the most improbable abilities to interbreed, even among beings that evolved independently in separate star systems.
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A lot of SF and fantasy writers don't like the problem. You get the most improbable abilities to interbreed, even among beings that evolved independently in separate star systems.
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Chesterton's Fence
Jan. 25th, 2014 05:26 pmI have heard the principle of Chesterton's Fence propounded in many places. Explaining to young lawyers why a confusing wording and an apparently superfluous clause should be taken seriously and not just junked. Discussing why certain aspects of the tax code are the way they are.
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legitimacy and heirs
Dec. 23rd, 2013 10:37 pmRan across a tidbit about the False Dmitriys -- one of whom actually reigned as Tsar for some time, claiming to be the the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible. The tidbit was that the Russian Orthodox Church prohibited more than three marriages, and so Dmitriy was actually technically illegitimate. (Even though "Terrible" means "Inspiring Terror" -- still he went through a lot of brides.)
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first comes marriage
Jul. 8th, 2013 02:13 pmGot thrown out of a pseudo-medieval-setting book recently. . . the heroine didn't want to get married. Her friend laughed at the very notion, but no, she didn't want to. . .
And this in a culture where she might as well have said that she didn't want to curtsey to the king.
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And this in a culture where she might as well have said that she didn't want to curtsey to the king.
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history and babies
Jun. 1st, 2013 12:34 pmBeing pondering the question of societies reproducing themselves lately. It's a complex question, and not just in that you have to watch for population sizes. Not that writers always manage to do that. . . .
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reproducing society
Aug. 17th, 2012 07:37 pmA further reflection on one of jordan's essays that I've already pondered. . . but two other discussions I've seen have sent me whirling off on a completely different tangent to it.
In it, he observes
Well, in one sense, yes, but in another, it would turn on: are these abilities of theirs hereditary?
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In it, he observes
Superbeings would of necessity in any system of government evolve into a sort of aristocracy.
Well, in one sense, yes, but in another, it would turn on: are these abilities of theirs hereditary?
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The Magical Middle Class
Mar. 19th, 2012 09:59 pmDespite the title, this was about the lower classes as much as the middle classes -- the unglamorous work classes.
Urban fantasy has more, of course. Though one panelist told of a work where we had a scene of peasant women working their fingers to the bone to make a blanket for the princess, and then the princess tore it to shreds -- to be sure, because it was a bribe to her to keep her quiet and out of the way, but still. . . . .
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Urban fantasy has more, of course. Though one panelist told of a work where we had a scene of peasant women working their fingers to the bone to make a blanket for the princess, and then the princess tore it to shreds -- to be sure, because it was a bribe to her to keep her quiet and out of the way, but still. . . . .
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Against the New Worlds Order
Jan. 18th, 2011 11:52 pmI was on this one.
The title's odd. What it was about was whether planets would have single governments.
I mentioned in the introduction that there are aesthetic reasons to have a single government to clear clutter out of the way, but the panel concentrated on the centripedal and centrifugal forces.
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The title's odd. What it was about was whether planets would have single governments.
I mentioned in the introduction that there are aesthetic reasons to have a single government to clear clutter out of the way, but the panel concentrated on the centripedal and centrifugal forces.
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It's summertime and the questing is easy
Dec. 1st, 2010 08:58 pmTolkien, of course, sent his Fellowship out into the winter.
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babies in world-building
Jul. 7th, 2010 09:33 pmOne world building error that I find as often in SF as in fantasy: many, many, many writers neglect to figure out Where Babies Come From and Why It Matters.
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Update: I am now screening comments to this to prevent its going off on tangents. Even non-tangential things will get unscreened as I have time to deal with them.
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Update: I am now screening comments to this to prevent its going off on tangents. Even non-tangential things will get unscreened as I have time to deal with them.
women in war
Feb. 11th, 2009 08:36 pmTwo screeds on the topic:
Against Tiny Kung Fu Women: A Polemic
and
Verisimilitude and the Woman Warrior, With Some Relevance to Fantasy Tropes
Me, when I put a woman in battle, she's either a wizard or a cringing little thing who thereby lures the other guy into dropping his guard and then stabs him.
But I notice that in the discussion of fighting, no one mentions the real reason why the women weren't fighting.
Because they were either pregnant or nursing, neither of which mix well with war. On average, a woman in medieval Europe was pregnant ten times. This resulted in, on average, two children who lived to adulthood. Took up a good chunk of her adulthood that way.
Sure, you can finesse it, most pseudo-medieval settings do have some kind of healing, but then, as long as it's pastoral, they are going to want more children. More hands to work. Your only form of old-age insurance. etc.
Besides, childbirth is hazardous to the health. Why should women have risk their lives on the battlefield, too?
Against Tiny Kung Fu Women: A Polemic
and
Verisimilitude and the Woman Warrior, With Some Relevance to Fantasy Tropes
Me, when I put a woman in battle, she's either a wizard or a cringing little thing who thereby lures the other guy into dropping his guard and then stabs him.
But I notice that in the discussion of fighting, no one mentions the real reason why the women weren't fighting.
Because they were either pregnant or nursing, neither of which mix well with war. On average, a woman in medieval Europe was pregnant ten times. This resulted in, on average, two children who lived to adulthood. Took up a good chunk of her adulthood that way.
Sure, you can finesse it, most pseudo-medieval settings do have some kind of healing, but then, as long as it's pastoral, they are going to want more children. More hands to work. Your only form of old-age insurance. etc.
Besides, childbirth is hazardous to the health. Why should women have risk their lives on the battlefield, too?
