Cynewulf, to say that all interpersonal attraction is inevitably sexual in nature shows that you have bought into the lies of today's society.
Ookla, I totally get what you're saying. I actually mostly agree with you. But, just to play the devil's advocate here, can you really call them 'lies' of today's society? Isn't it just another, different way of life? What is a lie to you, may be a truth to the next man.
I like this line...
Hey firstly id like to say 1st post!
Big fan who reads these forums alot, but never posted, but this thread got to me!
Can you realy say thousands years of conditioning to seek out partners and procreate is part of todays society?
Its not at all, the only difference is now it is done in a more casual way, due to ability to prevent procreation, yet still satisfy the physical drive.
Im not terribly religious but come form a family that is, father trained to be a priest etc...
I dont understant the way people on this forum seem to treat "sex" do, it isnt a sin, its 100% natural. to assume that vin and elend wouldnt likely of slept together... well actually its believeable in their case because they are above the norm, but in a society where sex clearly has no value...
There is no church that vin knows of bar through sazed, and elends own "god" was ok with raping skaa once they were murdered after...
To assume it wasnt a pretty common thing in such a society is imo rediculous, in fact, i dont recall anywhere where Elend sys he regrets sleeping wiht her because he had sex wiht her, but rather it seems its only because she was killed for such an act(this might say he wudnt be to rushed into it again but the norm wudnt feel this way or of been exposed to it so).
The lack of attraction to me always bugged me, it seemed so... unreal! Now i rarely focused on it, but when its pointed out to em like in this thread its hard to ignore how outside the norm this all is!
My girlfriend who i love to bits etc,, i would almost think be offended if thought i wudnt think of her sexually, i damn well would be annoyed if she wasnt attracted to me that way!
Its not like one day you get married and discover all these sexual feelings, they are there all along, you can deny that you felt them for randomers all you want(i wont believe you), but to imply that you only have had sexual feelings for your partner and only since married is a blatant lie. You can even develop these feelings over time with an appreciation of a persons personality, but as we all know the more you "care" for someone the better they look in our eyes, again leading onto sexuality for those who think that way.
I myself dont look at girls and always thing "daaamn"
But id be talling lies to say i never have, and to deny such thoughts is to deny instints etc... after all thats more or less what religion teaches us, to control such instincts, not to deny we have them.
That we now believe sex to be so terrible is in itself a conditioning of todays society!
Jesus was born in the time of the romans, do you know what the romans got up to?
hell, go back to the renaissance, what happened there?
That sex is a sin is wrong i think, that it shouldnt be had frequently with randomers etc is again a conditioning!
(one i believe btw) but conditioning all the same!
We are all the product of some society, so who are you to realy judge any other? born dif place, diff timeyou wouldnt be the same person.
in summary, i think some people need to get over the idea that these thoughts are unnatural, else we wudnt be having them...
reality check states that vin and elend likely had these thoughts, or at least other characters would of! Even Sazed has a level of more attraction shown then Vin or Elend, and he cant have sex! their relationship is lacking!
That aside, i love this book, read the trilogy about 8 times so far, and even ordered all the books from america(cant buy them where im from)
muboop
