Yeah, I know. It's hard and contradictory to find just the right amount of info-dumping.
By religion I might mean magic system, and I might like my interpretation of it rather than what you're thinking of. I like the idea of metal being able to read identity and displaying it with musical notes. I like the idea of Lyricists and sacred hymns only composed by women. I like the matriarchy, I just would like to see it deepened and made to feel more "real" (by which I do not mean less tyrannical--I mean more tyrannical and less about powerful women giggling all the time) I like the myth stories I'm seeing on the walls of the temple. I like the idea of arcs.
Speaking of musical notes, I forgot to mention: How did Talven know what he was when he held the knife if he had never heard a knife make that sound before? If no one had since the knives were lost? And yet Talven knew he was a Nuk or whatever right off, without any study or thought.
Of course, what it comes down to is not necessarily liking the religion itself, but liking the conflict between religion and science and magic and the hints of schisms--one woman says the men shouldn't be allowed in but the high priestess allows it. I like the potential conflicts. I like the sacred book that must be protected at all costs.
“I've read your notes,” Orlisa said. “Aside from the sheer blasphemy of it all, it seems as if you men are just trying to embarrass the women.”
“Not at all,” Talven said. “Though admittedly I have been known to speak about being at allowed at least to own my own land. The land I've been living on since I was Jin'Cathul's age.”
I don't think any priestess worth her salt would dismiss blasphemy so easily, by the way. That seems pretty blase.
I go to political writer/speaker because why would Talven state his political beliefs otherwise? Why does he go to landownership instead of saying "disproving a hypothesis has nothing to do with men or women?" To me, by admitting he's made speeches of a political nature, he's tacitly admitting his research could be used to support political causes. Or he's so used to making speeches, he's making one now even when it doesn't seem to have anything do with the subject.
Basically, he's been speechifying since he walked into the temple. Most people in a repressive society who aren't political don't argue/correct the people in power. They duck their heads and try to let be. Talven's been speaking like a political reformer ever since his first interaction with the priestesses. The way I understand your world, the very existence of an intelligent men is bound to cause controversy, and his peers' reaction would force him to one extreme or the other--weak-spined sheep trying to prove he won't rock the boat or alpha dog champion of disenfranchised men.
It's possible this society is not very repressive and free speech is encouraged, but that doesn't seem to coincide with women walking around calling people "Man." It feels very schitzophrenic, and I think you need to fall to one side or the other. Or you already are on one side or another and you need to convince me that the society is where it is.
I get he's an important researcher from the text. What I don't get is that he's important enough for the priestesses to cater to his every whim. The dead zone's been there for centuries. Why worry about it now? Why not have a female study his notes and assume that she knows more about it than he does? I mean, getting a woman to admit a man could be a foremost researcher has got to be a struggle. Not to mention how he managed to get into research in the first place since he was disenfranchised. I'm surprised some woman hasn't taken his stylus away and said "stop worrying your pretty little head about things beyond your comprehension."
But a lot of this is because I have the later chapters. I don't know what I would think if my head was a clean slate.
Show Posts
.