on the attractions of terrible politics
Sep. 29th, 2017 01:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI did dancing and shopping at the usual times
and got home and made two egg sandwiches (though I still have not got the hang of eggs, they're better tasting when cooked elsewhere)
and the I sat down to catch up on tumblr
and it got to be now in the usual pleasant way.
astolat has made new Witcher fic.
You know those writers where you end up reading fandoms you've got no clue about, because it will rock?
yeah.
a lot of fic though seems pretty cool with the basic concept of monarchy and conquering people for their own good. I mean I'm British, I have grown up surrounded by stories that are pretty much yaay monarchy lets conquer stuff and make it civilized, and that means that I both adore a well written Arthur and wince every time it comes up. I mean, we were kind of bastards, for much of history. I feel the tendency to conquer everything in sight in the name of someone with a shiny hat did not in fact enrich the world per se.
... does make bloody good fiction though.
... so how does one get something just as viscerally satisfying about democracy and generally getting people to agree to laws and things?
preferably involving swords and dragons.
... wait, Temeraire sort of did that, except from the starting point that Temeraire was as aristo as inhumanly possible, so.
Pratchett had several passes at it too. Good stuff there.
I don't know if it's British programming or something about humans that makes some shiny monarch with a banner flowing behind them while they wave a sword and give speeches just really moving and effective.
It's probably Britain. I've seen American stuff where even all that round table stuff turned out for the bad, because monarchs.
But I've also watched enough episodes of enough shows to know I fail to feel the attractions of much of American history, even the bits that come up all the time, and presumably American audiences think are kind of nifty. Of course a lot of it involves killing people and nicking their stuff, or the whole slavery thing, which, you know, sucks, the exact same way, just without the shiny hat.
... humans can suck quite a lot.
I'm not saying that I, upon reaching Cair Paravel and being hailed as the next high queen, would successfully institute a parliamentary democracy, or that such a story would be superior. I mean for a start it's still basically conquering people for their own good, just with more divine right and less blood, ish. Probably if someone made me Queen even for a day I'd try and get a lot of good stuff done before even thinking about dismantling the monarchy. It's the basic fail of 'it would all work so much better if they listened to me', but with a whole lot of history as a really big lever.
And as storytelling goes it's just plain easier to talk about monarchs. One person who makes all the choices! Family arguments that feel like the end of the world, magnified by power until they pretty much are! Good, relatable, stuff.
If you try and tell democracy stories by focusing on one person it's more or less missing the point from the get go.
Same like problem of drama vs sense. Lots of stories fo for maximum emotion, requiring all characters to screw up at every available opportunity, and never have an unforced conversation. Show not tell is not actually how humans as humans learn. But it is maximum feels time. So you start focusing a story on on person who is personally invested and will have feels all over your screen for you, and the whole thing with negotiating laws for equitable settlement of grievances and maximum systemic efficiency and equality and all that good foundation of civilization stuff... well, it's not two people having shouty arguments in a room, is it? It's not even protest marches. It's a whole lot of fiddling with words until they say exactly what you need them to, and getting the maximum agreement for them.
Civilisation is the anti drama, really. Civilisation is the mechanism by which we minimise drama.
Kings have some excellent potential to be just the opposite, as the centuries of talking about that one guy brought down by his bastard will attest.
So I'm not even really sure what sort of stories I'd want, let alone how to write them.
But I feel almost as weird cheering on a good king as I do being a fan of a good villain...
and got home and made two egg sandwiches (though I still have not got the hang of eggs, they're better tasting when cooked elsewhere)
and the I sat down to catch up on tumblr
and it got to be now in the usual pleasant way.
astolat has made new Witcher fic.
You know those writers where you end up reading fandoms you've got no clue about, because it will rock?
yeah.
a lot of fic though seems pretty cool with the basic concept of monarchy and conquering people for their own good. I mean I'm British, I have grown up surrounded by stories that are pretty much yaay monarchy lets conquer stuff and make it civilized, and that means that I both adore a well written Arthur and wince every time it comes up. I mean, we were kind of bastards, for much of history. I feel the tendency to conquer everything in sight in the name of someone with a shiny hat did not in fact enrich the world per se.
... does make bloody good fiction though.
... so how does one get something just as viscerally satisfying about democracy and generally getting people to agree to laws and things?
preferably involving swords and dragons.
... wait, Temeraire sort of did that, except from the starting point that Temeraire was as aristo as inhumanly possible, so.
Pratchett had several passes at it too. Good stuff there.
I don't know if it's British programming or something about humans that makes some shiny monarch with a banner flowing behind them while they wave a sword and give speeches just really moving and effective.
It's probably Britain. I've seen American stuff where even all that round table stuff turned out for the bad, because monarchs.
But I've also watched enough episodes of enough shows to know I fail to feel the attractions of much of American history, even the bits that come up all the time, and presumably American audiences think are kind of nifty. Of course a lot of it involves killing people and nicking their stuff, or the whole slavery thing, which, you know, sucks, the exact same way, just without the shiny hat.
... humans can suck quite a lot.
I'm not saying that I, upon reaching Cair Paravel and being hailed as the next high queen, would successfully institute a parliamentary democracy, or that such a story would be superior. I mean for a start it's still basically conquering people for their own good, just with more divine right and less blood, ish. Probably if someone made me Queen even for a day I'd try and get a lot of good stuff done before even thinking about dismantling the monarchy. It's the basic fail of 'it would all work so much better if they listened to me', but with a whole lot of history as a really big lever.
And as storytelling goes it's just plain easier to talk about monarchs. One person who makes all the choices! Family arguments that feel like the end of the world, magnified by power until they pretty much are! Good, relatable, stuff.
If you try and tell democracy stories by focusing on one person it's more or less missing the point from the get go.
Same like problem of drama vs sense. Lots of stories fo for maximum emotion, requiring all characters to screw up at every available opportunity, and never have an unforced conversation. Show not tell is not actually how humans as humans learn. But it is maximum feels time. So you start focusing a story on on person who is personally invested and will have feels all over your screen for you, and the whole thing with negotiating laws for equitable settlement of grievances and maximum systemic efficiency and equality and all that good foundation of civilization stuff... well, it's not two people having shouty arguments in a room, is it? It's not even protest marches. It's a whole lot of fiddling with words until they say exactly what you need them to, and getting the maximum agreement for them.
Civilisation is the anti drama, really. Civilisation is the mechanism by which we minimise drama.
Kings have some excellent potential to be just the opposite, as the centuries of talking about that one guy brought down by his bastard will attest.
So I'm not even really sure what sort of stories I'd want, let alone how to write them.
But I feel almost as weird cheering on a good king as I do being a fan of a good villain...