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Do You Like Being A Herethroy?
Mirrored from Sythyry.
Stormydragon asks: Do [Herethroy] like [being Herethroy], or are they just resigned to it?
Let’s ask them!
What, all of them?
Yes! Let’s ask all of them!
- Hops and 48%: I don’t think about it very often. Why would I? It’s not as if I could be anything else very easily. It has its good points and its bad points, more good than bad I guess.
- Greenstripe and 43%: I am very glad to be a Herethroy. Other prime species are so low on limbs, it’s just pitiful! I rejoice in my smooth carapace, tough and protective yet light and sensitive, so easy to adorn with gems and metal inlay. I rejoice in my swift and graceful body, my highly expressive antennae, my exceedingly-useful Creoc knack! I love being, I love being, I love being a beetle!
- Coriander and 15%: I am not fond of being an impoverished peasant. This doesn’t so much have to do with being a Herethroy.
- Fennel and 15%, mostly male: I am glad to be a Herethroy man (or an attractive co-lover). Aside from having a very nice body, I have a dessert of extra status over other Herethroy — and that means, all the sex I want, and girls and cosis competing for my attention, and generally lots of treats.
- Chickory and 10%, mostly female: This concept of “too many women” is awful. I’m never going to manage to get married, and probably never even going to lose my 3-virginity (even if I somehow manage to make it with one other Herethroy). It’s not so much having a Herethroy body that’s so bad, it’s the general Herethroy social structure.
- Casamint and 8%: The problem isn’t so much being Herethroy, about which I have no complaints. It is about rustication. I don’t want to live in a sleepy socialist Herethroy village. I want to live in a big, bright, exciting city! This is not always easy to do if one wishes have a reasonable Herethroy life, e.g., getting married.
- Marjoram and maybe 1%: Real strong, four arms, built-in armor. Why would a tough adventurer want to be anything else?
- Mynthë and a tiny fraction of 1%: I hated being Herethroy! I hated it more than anything else in the world, save one thing, and that one thing was Sythyry putting words in my mouth — especially after I died and had no useful way of objecting any-the-more. So zie’d better stop it.
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But I still have to agree with Chickory. I suspect I would have to live a lot longer than any ordinary Herethroy does if I was to have even a sliver of a chance to find a husband and mari. Certainly, the day I find such fortune is not today and likely not tomorrow or the day after, either!
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Admittedly, your husband would probably be a Rassimel there, and your wife an Orren who always wears Herethroy colover garb, but it's better than nothing.
Well, OK. It might be better than nothing.
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You can have my Orren-loving Rassimel Healer, though. She's too touchy-feely!
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[Sorry! I misunderstood!]
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This made me think about how, far more than any other prime, herethroy seem to expect everyone to be completely interchangable drones and anyone showing the slightest hint of non-conformity is punished until they go back to being exactly like everyone else.
I thought this would be soul-crushing, to which Sythyry replied that it probably is, but most herethroy seem to like it.
My question is whether they naturally like it because they're wired to enjoy that kind of society, or are they just resigned to it because years of being hammered down any time they were the nail that stuck out has broken their spirits?
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I think that the interchangeability matter is more of a villager sort of thing, or a peasant one. City-dwelling Herethroy are not notably more conformist, or likely to punish nonconformists, than any other city-dwellers.
I hadn't asked a question about "interchangeable drones" and "punishing non-conformity" at all! When it's phrased that way, I couldn't get very many people to agree. So I suspect that we could get pretty much any answer we like, based on how we ask the question. This is why I prefer such solid and reliable disciplines as magic and architecture to sociology.
And what about Cani, say, who are even more explicit about their ideals of obedience to the proper authorities? Does that not disturb you greatly?
My opinion is that most Herethroy are more or less wired or programmed to work well in the standard Herethroy society -- I cannot guess how much of that is nature and how much nurture. There are certainly plenty of Herethroy who are less of the conformist peasant than the stereotype indicates.
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No, because even within the obedience, the Cani still have much room for individual expression. Indeed, the entire choofing/affan thing is in some sense a formalized way for finding each individual's particular strengths and celebrating them as a community. And there's a difference between cani obedience, which seems focussed on action (it's wrong to be disobedient even if you disagree with the group) and herethroy obedience which seems focussed on the mind (it's wrong to disagree with the group).
Yes, and they are almost all protrayed as having had to choose almost total alienation from proper herethroy society in order to do so.
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Yes, and they are almost all protrayed as having had to choose almost total alienation from proper herethroy society in order to do so.
An excellent point. Especially if I have somehow managed to portray "proper Herethroy society" as being "proper village Herethroy society, which is an utterly defensible point of view. And considering also that my closest Herethroy friends -- Mynthë and Dustweed, say -- have been among the most alienated Herethroy around.
The Herethroy in the city who take part in cosmopolitan prime society [think Casamint -bb] are not particularly a part of proper village Herethroy society, but they are a part of proper urban prime society. So, with another quick poll: 27% feel alienated from village life; 28% feel themselves a part of village life on those occasions they go back to the village; the remainder feel liberated from the constraints of village life.
[Sythyry is making up all these numbers, btw, though zie is trying to make them accurate. -bb]
I do believe that can be interpreted as proof of a diluted version of your point. I might phrase it as: Herethroy village life is wonderful for those Herethroy (the majority of them) who enjoy it; but a significant minority don't like Herethroy village life and are either miserable in villages, or happier elsewhere.
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