Chop off one head, two grow back

[rolanni]

I crossed six things off my to-do list today. Why is it longer now than when I started?

It's snowing.

In anticipation of this very event, Steve went out to the front yard earlier in the day and wrapped a deceased potted Christmas tree with a string of Halloween lights, sat it on the bench in the Cat Garden, and plugged it in. The result is rather cheery, and pleasant in the falling snow.

Spent some time reading Great Swathes of I Dare, Plan B, and Carpe Diem, which counts as writing -- or at least research -- and took care of a short edit letter (which also counts as writing, if only to keep me from wallowing in a Slough of Despond). Still sort of feeling my way, dernit (explosions! I need explosions!), and noting Odd Facts.

Such as:

*Miri left Surebleak as an apprentice soldier in a mercenary unit when she was fourteen years old.

*When Theo was fourteen, she was a minor child, subject to her mother's absolute authority.

Tomorrow is a writing day, to-do list or not. At the rate it's growing, it'll have opposable thumbs by Tuesday, anyway, and then it can clean the house.

Progress on Ghost Ship

10355 / 100000

Comments

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

Not to belabor the obvious, but Surebleak is almost certainly the living antithesis of a Safe World.

Just imagine the potential for future EngLit majors (or high school English students,) to write papers comparing and contrasting the characters of Miri Robertson and Theo Waitley.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Just imagine the potential for future EngLit majors (or high school English students,) to write papers comparing and contrasting the characters of Miri Robertson and Theo Waitley.

That's Deeply Scary.

[sraun]

Didn't Miri need her mother's permission to be a merc? I distinctly recall that from one of the short stories.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Didn't Miri need her mother's permission to be a merc?

Katy had to sign a paper, but that was a merc rule, not a Surebleak law.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Does Surebleak have laws? Admittedly when Pat Rin was there it was many years later, but it seemed that any laws were the whim of the bosses.

Also, 14 is not an unusual age to be independent enough to be married in many cultures, especially 'rough' ones (like the American West a couple of centuries ago), it made sense to me that Miri would be considered old enough to decide her own fate. Whereas Western society keeps increasing the age, often 18 years old; for many things it's 21 (like drinking alcohol in certain places). (Although the age of adulthood went down from 21 to 18 in my lifetime and is now drifting back up.)

Yeah,ages

[(Anonymous)]

I remember the same as sraun - Liz had Katy's permission to take her daughter offworld.

Or I could fanwank the difference in local years v. Standard Years. Either way, though, Miri had a MUCH more streetwise education than Theo. The ultimate SafeWorld v. NonSafeWorld. I'm thinking kid from Towson v. kid from Sandtown.

We had major snow here, to accompany the community tree-lighting, so there weren't many folk about. Oh the locals showed up for the tree, then came over to say hi and look at the books. No takers though. :/

Sure is pretty,
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks

[(Anonymous)]

We had our civic tree-lighting Thursday; it was quite chilly but dry, and Brave Combo did their traditional performance. They are one of our local claims to fame, http://brave.com/bo are. Fun to see the assembled populace, young to old, putting their right feet in and doin' the Hokey Pokey all over the courthouse square. We're a pretty Safe town.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to re-read all your books again (especially Fledgling because I only read the non-draft version once) Yay Theo!!

It also snowed here in Oahu (on the mountains) Yay climate change?

Hey you guys, when the apocalypse comes I figure Hawaii will survive fairly well, plan a vacation here for 2012...

~Lizah C

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I read that first part as:

Question: I crossed six things off my to-do list today. Why is it longer now than when I started?

Answer:It's snowing.

The frightening thing is that it actually made sense to me as an answer...

(Are they the six impossible things which the Red Queen says one should believe before breakfast?)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

(Are they the six impossible things which the Red Queen says one should believe before breakfast?)

Alas, they were quite mundane things: Answer edit letter, email NAME, change filter in cat fountain, do arm therapy exercises, write, wash dishes... The Impossible Things are yet to accomplish.

[ligeia-bm.livejournal.com]

Well, Delgado is a Safe World (more a Big Brother-ish World, IMO, but maybe that's just me). Surebleak, on the other hand, is the equivalent of a today's Third World country, but in space. A "developing world"? In some developing countries, within some social strata kids of 14 have been already initiated in gangs, are dealing drugs, or work as prostitutes. They are even hitmen. I'm thinking of Brazil or Colombia or some Central America countries here. In some others, they are militias for warlords, like in some African countries. Surebleak lawlessness and violence reminds me of these. After all, Miri had to kill in self defense even before she left Surebleak. Otherwise, she would have been sold to a brothel. And let's not forget the abusive father.

As ironic as it sounds, her survival odds were perhaps greater as a merc than if she had remained in Surebleak. So, Necessity (survival) demanded that Miri grew up and took the responsibilities of a full adult when she was still very much a kid, age wise. Because as many kids in developing countries, she was an adult mentally speaking before she left Surebleak.

There is nothing in Theo's environment or upbringing that can compare to Miri's.

I am not saying that Theo's world was better. The behavioral drugs and the State Eye sound pretty scary. A very stifling society, that eradicates differences, equating them with "danger" is perhaps the other end of the spectrum, and if the "If This Goes On" principle plays here, this "Safe World" might be as scary and violent as Surebleak, just in a different more "civilized" or "invisible" way.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"In some developing countries, within some social strata kids of 14 have been already initiated in gangs, are dealing drugs, or work as prostitutes."

I know some of those countries. A couple of them begin with 'U' -- SA and K.

The problem I can see is that a number of things are going the "Safe World" way right now. Rampant "nanny-state" initiatives in a number of western countries, all of course "for your own good", right down to what you can and can't be allowed to eat or drink or say or read or go.

Both scenarios are frightening...

[ligeia-bm.livejournal.com]

I know some of those countries. A couple of them begin with 'U' -- SA and K

Being a South American myself (Argentinian), this phenomena hits really very close to home too. It's disheartening and frequently born out of desperation and lack of opportunities, plus police and judicial corruption. They use the kids, because ultimately, they are easy to replace. Too many out there, without any family or social net to protect them. Or worse, with a family that exploits them too. On one hand, very sad. On the other, very frightening.

The problem I can see is that a number of things are going the "Safe World" way right now. Rampant "nanny-state" initiatives in a number of western countries, all of course "for your own good", right down to what you can and can't be allowed to eat or drink or say or read or go.

Both scenarios are frightening...

Yeah, I know. Individual liberties are being eroded quietly but surely, in the name of safety. In a world that grows more and more violent each day (violence which comes essentially from those who are waving those safety measures in our face) the question would be "Whose safety?"

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

Different cultures have different ages for different things, and even different ages in different segments of society: in ancient Greece and and ancient Rome, with a few exceptions such as retired Vestal Virgins, there was no self-determinism for women. Citizens' (all male...) daughters/wives/mothers were their dependents, slaves were slaves, and the lives of e.g. hetairae were marginal as regards legal standing. So long as any male paternal ancestor-grandfather, father...--of a free male of a polis was alive, the male descendants were minors--a 75 year old free male whose 94 year old free father was still alive, was still a minor child in Greece!

On the other hand, Alexander Hamilton was a successful businessman at the age of eight, with his own business, and full self-determination and control over his life.

The adulthood age rise in the USA from what it was in the 1700s and 1800s to what it is today, involves factors such as those against child labor they viewed it as detestable, those against it because children got paid less and hence were considered unfair competition for adults earning liveable wages, and the educational lobby all have the common interest in under-18-year-olds not being wage-earners--the anti-child-labor partisans because they view it as a moral and ethical issue; the unions and other worker organizations and lobbies because they object to the competition from young, healthy, often naive, persons who don't have a bunch of responsibilities generally such as providing income and support for other people and having to spend time and money and attention and effort away from "work" to focus on family needs....; and the educational lobby because the more sixteen year olds there are out working full time, the fewer teachers there need to be and the less need the society sees for them....

The combined interests of keeping youth out of the labor force, worshipping formal education, and trying to prevent exploitation of young naive workers, combined... it's had a number of unpleasant side effects, such as preventing youth with economically disadvantaged background from social mobility upward by getting a job and growing in it--the state feels youth should be in -school-, even though formal education the way it's currently configured, seems to be a waste of resources in a lot of places--note, I am NOT saying education is a rathole, I'm saying that the way things are today, the expensive educational systems on places like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, much of New York City, Detroit, etc., spend a lot of money and are NOT successful in reducing poverty, dropping crime rates, reducing teen pregnancy rates, and "educating" childing to beome productive happy law-abiding etc. etc. citizens... instead the gang violence continues, illiteracy, theft, drug use and drug pushing, etc. are rife, and lots of people have rotten lives.... in no small part because all the legal alternatives to the educational lobby prescripts, got eliminated....

Miri had the option of enlisting at 14 into a mercenary output and leaving hellhole Surebleak behind. What would her life have been like if she's been living in south central LA or in public housing in Chicago? She's likely have been pregnant and stuck perpetrating the poverty cycle....

ToDo?

[mtz322.livejournal.com]

This time of year I find my To Do List has morphed into a Should Have Been Done Last Month List.

[ingrid44.livejournal.com]

Yes, but. Theo grew up on a scholar's world, a world at peace,with caring parents.
Miri grew up on a world, well maybe not a criminal world, at least a dog-eat-dog world, and with a drunk for a father.
No comparison whatsoever.

[(Anonymous)]

*Miri left Surebleak as an apprentice soldier in a mercenary unit when she was fourteen years old.

*When Theo was fourteen, she was a minor child, subject to her mother's absolute authority.

But wasn't Miri subject to Liz's absolute authority? Seems like it to me. Similar in structure if not content. Jenny from WA (now CO)