![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whose species name I can't spell and don't care to look up.
As always, SFF writers never think through the implications of their sweeping numbers, but the retcon here is going to be obvious. Rosemary muses to herself that all she's heard of Ohan's species is that they're all infected by The Whisperer, which makes them sick, shortens their lifespan, causes them to act kinda dopey and out of it like anybody would if they had a permanent fever, and also gives them amazing abilities in the realm of mathematics.
Except what Rosemary doesn't consider is that if they're all infected then this does not make sense. Who is making the paste they eat, or the schools for the minimal education they get before infection, or, hell, who is making the babies? Somebody has to keep things running, and they can't do that if they're all obsessed with whatever it is they see in the sky.
Luckily for us, Rosemary never confirms that they're all infected, so clearly the answer is that they're not all infected. Ohan is part of a special caste of people, chosen in some way (I'd prefer to entirely disregard the idea of intentional infection and suggest that the disease is wild in the environment, nearly everybody gets it in childhood but most are totally asymptomatic and don't even count as "resistant" in the culture because people just don't count them at all, and this class is "chosen" by no method more complex or bureaucratic than the hand of fate to carry The Whisperer.)
This raises other questions, but at least we don't have to wonder about Ohan's parentage.
Note: I will not be discussing the ethics of his storyline at this time. I... look, I honestly don't care about it, sorry. I know I should, but I don't.
******************
( Read more... )
As always, SFF writers never think through the implications of their sweeping numbers, but the retcon here is going to be obvious. Rosemary muses to herself that all she's heard of Ohan's species is that they're all infected by The Whisperer, which makes them sick, shortens their lifespan, causes them to act kinda dopey and out of it like anybody would if they had a permanent fever, and also gives them amazing abilities in the realm of mathematics.
Except what Rosemary doesn't consider is that if they're all infected then this does not make sense. Who is making the paste they eat, or the schools for the minimal education they get before infection, or, hell, who is making the babies? Somebody has to keep things running, and they can't do that if they're all obsessed with whatever it is they see in the sky.
Luckily for us, Rosemary never confirms that they're all infected, so clearly the answer is that they're not all infected. Ohan is part of a special caste of people, chosen in some way (I'd prefer to entirely disregard the idea of intentional infection and suggest that the disease is wild in the environment, nearly everybody gets it in childhood but most are totally asymptomatic and don't even count as "resistant" in the culture because people just don't count them at all, and this class is "chosen" by no method more complex or bureaucratic than the hand of fate to carry The Whisperer.)
This raises other questions, but at least we don't have to wonder about Ohan's parentage.
Note: I will not be discussing the ethics of his storyline at this time. I... look, I honestly don't care about it, sorry. I know I should, but I don't.
( Read more... )
