kingtycoon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kingtycoon) wrote2011-04-26 05:37 pm
kingtycoon) wrote2011-04-26 05:37 pm
Is Fantasy Writing a Gendered Experience?
Man, so that Game of Thrones discussion is making me think of my own little patch of imagination land. That and my, like, academic obligations. I was smoking with the professor today and I apologized to him - we were analyzing a Cultural Revolution memoir and the assignment called on us to decide if the story was gendered or if there were any other class divisions in the author's disclosures. I gave a few throw away sentences to the obvious gendered stuff (in order to be properly sexless in the Red Guard the author unintentionally starts posing as a boy for instance) but mainly settled into class divisions. That's my whole thing lately/anymore and I stick by it. We always have productive smoke-break conversations though and I was able to persuade him to give the Second Sex a look. Meanwhile, I think about how I want to depict gender identity in Klial.
First- it's a fairly typical fantastic setting- pre-industrial, mainly proto-urban. Farmers see, and farmers break out into family patterns. It's productive for me to think about the sort of idealized family structure - rather than the role of the individual in society - since if I'm imagining my own place - the answer is - there aren't individuals in society. So I get to examine family structure and I'll try and compose an idealized family structure- like the nuclear family of the late-capitalist west or the five generations under one roof of the Confucian tradition.
Second - I'll break these out according to ethnicity - and by ethnicity here (In Klial I have what amounts to human subspecies that compose the main form of ethnicity - they're linked to an obsolete role in the biome rather than language culture - so I get to divorce the two from one another thus...) and by ethnicity here I mean region/language inclusion. If you're in an area and speak the commonest language there - then we'll constitute that as ethnicity - regardless if you've a wolf-muzzle or are 9 feet tall. Anyhow the larger ethnic identities are Broad -in that there's probably hundreds of sub-linguistic or language isolate groups in an ethnicity that I don't have the time or the concentrated interest in spelling out. So what I'm saying is - broad characteristics - but the name is going to the biggest regional group in a region.
Kliali - So I want them to have a 'clan' identity - similar to the latin Gens - but less in line with blood ties and more with regional dominion. They're spread out and a Clan is a block of controlling interests in an area who have marriage alliances and band together as a unit. Within that organization there are politically derived hierarchies so that the highest ranking politicial figure becomes the defacto head of the Clan. Since the Clan is a non-political, and in fact sub-rosa social entity there's a level of inbuilt corruption possible (which in turn gives me opportunities to provide CONFLICT - as well as rationales for larger political movements). Within the Clan structure the Family is defined, ideally, as probably Paternal and Maternal Great-grandfathers as the localized heads of family organization - probably in formation similar to a Senate/Senex. They're the local matchmakers and hearbreakers - deciding who will marry whom and to which family group their descendants/progeny - belong to. Practically speaking the idea here will be that Given the circumstances - old men will be more common than old women - so it goes to them by tradition unrelated to a concept of male privilege. Below them are the Grandparents - and these will be the Householders. They run the households as are parcelled out by their fathers and can have say- all of their children and children's families under their household/auspices. Or they can have none of them. Because the old are supported by the young it matters who you have under you in the family. Next up is mothers and fathers - here I figure... you've got a mishmash. Probably during fecund years the mothers will be continuously pregnant with the children reared, after infancy by a collective of the elder householders - Granma and Grampa - meanwhile the parents, especially the father and older children will be workers tasked with providing for the whole unit (through agricultural practice - but sometimes through martial practice or civic responsibility). But! So inheritance is insignificant, land can't be inherited in Klial (unless you're in the one family that owns everything but ignoring them now) the valuable inheritance then is Children - some progeny to support you into old age and provide a surplus of goods etc... So! Fecund offspring and good matches - genealogically (they breed like racehorses there, or goldfish) are desirable - and can be traded from clan to clan and sub-clan to subclan by the party with the most interest in the transactions - the Great-grandfathers.
So? Problems?
I only have a minute so one or two more...
The Dasc - These people live mainly around the big inland sea and their region is calorically... uh- Vital. That is, they get a lot of food resource out of very small landholdings - so they're more urban than the mainstream, and they're more concentrated on the rich coastal regions. Because they've got a mostly urban settlement/identity they're really outside the mainstream -but they're also numerically significant - being the fourth or fifth largest ethnic group. The Dasc are the least likely to be agriculturalists and the most likely to be clergy and, AND artisans/tradespeople (in their culture the Trade Union = The Religion). Anyhow - they're more about mobility for the purpose of pursuing work, and they're more about smaller family organizations because they're less needful of offspring to provide. In fact they're the most casual about establishing continuity of generations of all the people. Family structure, where it exists, is based around a nuclear family - usually to establish a method of transmitting wealth (mainly currency, contracts, contacts and licenses). Marriages are more likely to be materially based (that is, the Love Match is the thing) - arrangements are, if ever invoked then probably sanctioned by the church/state/trade organization. Because there's always a scarcity for workers and because trades and churches are the SAME there's an inbuilt apprenticeship program for orphans - as such there is not a lot of pressure to marry the parent of your kid or even recognize to recognize a kid as your own - just take them to the trade-school - they need them there. I might toy with the idea of having churchmen come to kidnap surplus children - but probably they'd just buy them. The Dasc will be all about being Transactional. Because they again, can't inherit or own property - they are working for rents/licenses and the like - leases - which can be inherited - but can also be sold, and in fact are more likely to so be.
So? Problems?
Later I have to the Yoyue - mountain folk. They're pretty weird, and probably have two paradigms to work from.
First- it's a fairly typical fantastic setting- pre-industrial, mainly proto-urban. Farmers see, and farmers break out into family patterns. It's productive for me to think about the sort of idealized family structure - rather than the role of the individual in society - since if I'm imagining my own place - the answer is - there aren't individuals in society. So I get to examine family structure and I'll try and compose an idealized family structure- like the nuclear family of the late-capitalist west or the five generations under one roof of the Confucian tradition.
Second - I'll break these out according to ethnicity - and by ethnicity here (In Klial I have what amounts to human subspecies that compose the main form of ethnicity - they're linked to an obsolete role in the biome rather than language culture - so I get to divorce the two from one another thus...) and by ethnicity here I mean region/language inclusion. If you're in an area and speak the commonest language there - then we'll constitute that as ethnicity - regardless if you've a wolf-muzzle or are 9 feet tall. Anyhow the larger ethnic identities are Broad -in that there's probably hundreds of sub-linguistic or language isolate groups in an ethnicity that I don't have the time or the concentrated interest in spelling out. So what I'm saying is - broad characteristics - but the name is going to the biggest regional group in a region.
Kliali - So I want them to have a 'clan' identity - similar to the latin Gens - but less in line with blood ties and more with regional dominion. They're spread out and a Clan is a block of controlling interests in an area who have marriage alliances and band together as a unit. Within that organization there are politically derived hierarchies so that the highest ranking politicial figure becomes the defacto head of the Clan. Since the Clan is a non-political, and in fact sub-rosa social entity there's a level of inbuilt corruption possible (which in turn gives me opportunities to provide CONFLICT - as well as rationales for larger political movements). Within the Clan structure the Family is defined, ideally, as probably Paternal and Maternal Great-grandfathers as the localized heads of family organization - probably in formation similar to a Senate/Senex. They're the local matchmakers and hearbreakers - deciding who will marry whom and to which family group their descendants/progeny - belong to. Practically speaking the idea here will be that Given the circumstances - old men will be more common than old women - so it goes to them by tradition unrelated to a concept of male privilege. Below them are the Grandparents - and these will be the Householders. They run the households as are parcelled out by their fathers and can have say- all of their children and children's families under their household/auspices. Or they can have none of them. Because the old are supported by the young it matters who you have under you in the family. Next up is mothers and fathers - here I figure... you've got a mishmash. Probably during fecund years the mothers will be continuously pregnant with the children reared, after infancy by a collective of the elder householders - Granma and Grampa - meanwhile the parents, especially the father and older children will be workers tasked with providing for the whole unit (through agricultural practice - but sometimes through martial practice or civic responsibility). But! So inheritance is insignificant, land can't be inherited in Klial (unless you're in the one family that owns everything but ignoring them now) the valuable inheritance then is Children - some progeny to support you into old age and provide a surplus of goods etc... So! Fecund offspring and good matches - genealogically (they breed like racehorses there, or goldfish) are desirable - and can be traded from clan to clan and sub-clan to subclan by the party with the most interest in the transactions - the Great-grandfathers.
So? Problems?
I only have a minute so one or two more...
The Dasc - These people live mainly around the big inland sea and their region is calorically... uh- Vital. That is, they get a lot of food resource out of very small landholdings - so they're more urban than the mainstream, and they're more concentrated on the rich coastal regions. Because they've got a mostly urban settlement/identity they're really outside the mainstream -but they're also numerically significant - being the fourth or fifth largest ethnic group. The Dasc are the least likely to be agriculturalists and the most likely to be clergy and, AND artisans/tradespeople (in their culture the Trade Union = The Religion). Anyhow - they're more about mobility for the purpose of pursuing work, and they're more about smaller family organizations because they're less needful of offspring to provide. In fact they're the most casual about establishing continuity of generations of all the people. Family structure, where it exists, is based around a nuclear family - usually to establish a method of transmitting wealth (mainly currency, contracts, contacts and licenses). Marriages are more likely to be materially based (that is, the Love Match is the thing) - arrangements are, if ever invoked then probably sanctioned by the church/state/trade organization. Because there's always a scarcity for workers and because trades and churches are the SAME there's an inbuilt apprenticeship program for orphans - as such there is not a lot of pressure to marry the parent of your kid or even recognize to recognize a kid as your own - just take them to the trade-school - they need them there. I might toy with the idea of having churchmen come to kidnap surplus children - but probably they'd just buy them. The Dasc will be all about being Transactional. Because they again, can't inherit or own property - they are working for rents/licenses and the like - leases - which can be inherited - but can also be sold, and in fact are more likely to so be.
So? Problems?
Later I have to the Yoyue - mountain folk. They're pretty weird, and probably have two paradigms to work from.
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Mortality from childbirth will consistently outstrip death by misadventure in my construction - but death and maiming through warfare will be higher too. I'm only drawing an idealized version here - so I think a lot of these groups will just have a single dude and probably a couple of old ladies as well - for him to have to deal with. I want factions within families and for families to have their own drama - but I want the whole milieu to be kind of recognizable as well. The tyrranical old man in charge of the family is a kind of idea that flows out of the western tradition but which probably not too many people ever experience anymore.
Probably... Probably wetnursing and etc... would be the demesne of the 'breeding stock' of the family - with those who are most adept rolling into the teacher/educator/matchmaker role going forward - and those who are most inclined to remain - remaining.
Really I think I'd use that relationship between the communal 1st & 2nd cousin rearing organization to evolve family factions based on the mother/grandmother/grandfather relationships. And because those are kind of the tenuous bonds - not mandated by requirements or requisite for existence - they'll be the most sacred too.
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A union of wet nurses is a pretty brilliant idea, though. I want to read more about that.
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In any case, although there were plenty of deaths from childbirth, that particular book might change your mind about how frequently deaths actually occurred. Simple practices make a big difference: the Gates Foundation (I think) did some work just handing out sterile packaged razor blades to field women in India, because their habit was to cut the umbilical cord (birthing in the field) with their harvest knife, which was usually contaminated with feces of some sort, resulting in high rates of death by fever in the first postnatal week. Even without knowledge of germ theory, there are really basic practices that could reduce death by childbirth. Something as simple as a midwife's sacred knife or something like that (maybe it's blessed in holy water, or boiled) could accidentally lead to a midwife having excellent success avoiding some of the germ-based issues. Hemorrhage (more likely in prolonged labor) or tearing are the two big ones you have to worry about.
The union of wet nurses...I still love it though I don't have an overarching vision of the society...and the idea has shades of The Handmaid's Tale, which I'd want to avoid. Needs more development.
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But as a general rule, once you've had one baby, subsequent births are not necessarily more dangerous. Your body becomes more efficient at it, you have a larger milk supply, all that great stuff. With adequate nutrition/food access, the nutritional issue isn't as much a problem.
I'd caution comparing modern accounts of multiple births, unless you're looking at women in preindustrial societies. The modern sedentary lifestyle has created a lot of problems with birthing that were absolutely not present in previous eras. The simple act of physical labor makes a huge difference in the body's preparation. There's a movement today to have women prep for birth by re-learning to squat, which opens and stretches and tones the muscles you need for birthing in a way that modern chair-sitting habits can't do.
Anyway this is all a digression. Probably far more detail that could be included in a novel without getting didactic. But it never hurt to have the background ideas, of course.
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Re: sitting versus squatting, I say meh. The "obstetrical dilemma" of "giant head versus bipedal pelvis" is endemic to the species. But now we're just quibbling.
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quibbling
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I really wish it were on Kindle. Would make it way simpler.
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God I am really just talking out my ass here. Any history of medicine scholars in the house? There's got to be a book on this.
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