Dragaera

[stevenbrust] Re: Dzur and Sex

Thu Jan 29 15:06:08 PST 2004

> On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Casey Rousseau wrote:
> 
> > David Silberstein wrote:
> >
> > We have not seen any stories set when a house other than Phoenix was on the
> > throne.  My understanding of the relative social statuses of the noble
> > Houses was their relative ascendancy in the Cycle.
> >
> > Hence, I would expect that during a Vallista Reign there would be much less
> > stigma attached to being of House Jhereg.
> 
> I had thought _influence_ went with the Cycle, and I can imagine status
> following influence to some extent - but I can't imagine any point in the
> Cycle where House Lyorn will be looked down on like House Jhereg is now.

I can.  I see lots of real-world examples of cultures which are (at least
briefly) obsessed with novelty, to the extent that people who are concerned
with things like honor, tradition, and intellectual thinking are seen as
pariahs.  I think such meme-plexes are unstable and self-defeating, but
they definitely *do* occur periodically.  Admittedly, it's rare for them to 
heap as much scorn on intellectuals as is more generally heaped on Organized
Crime -- but I don't think it's unheard of.

Alexx


Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers.
alexx at carolingiaSPAMBL@CK.org                http://www.panix.com/~alexx
(At the Bad Habit there was some brief discussion of how many things
 one could do at once.  For instance, is it possible to have net
 access, a job, a social life, and be romantically involved with one
 or more people?  I believe the consensus was "yes, but you don't
 get to sleep...")   -- Sean McGuire