Kevin's Watch

wow. hurtloam! of course! probably MUCH better than motrin!!!

i knew i was good for something.

I have often wondered about the period situation myself. It has been addressed only in a few fantasy or science fiction novels that I can think of. I think George Martin might be the only male writer who has ever brought up a girl or woman having periods in books of fantasy/science fiction that I have read; the rest of the time it has been mentioned by female writers...I'm trying to think of some of the "natural" paddings these women have mentioned in their books as being used by female characters...I think I have seen cattail fluff, soft absorbant bunny fur, and moss. Also ripped up sheets or other cloth rags. None of which I would like to use myself. There is nothing as wonderful as modern feminine hygeine products!

Dennis, I think you are on to something. Hurtloam would have to help with cramping and bloating and PMS, if nothing else.

duchess, Luci: wouldn't the stress of the situation also mess with the cycle? i'm sure that women in the land have some system in place. what did ancient folks use?

I'm rereading the Gap books at the moment and SRD makes a brief reference to Morn's menstrual cycle, saying that she didn't renew her contraceptive implant because she was being assigned to a ship crewed by her family and her periods were never very difficult. I'd imagine Captain's Fancy was well stocked with futuristic feminine hygiene products though.

It seems to me that in most of the rare cases when someone's periods are mentioned, it is strictly in connection to a character's fertility. Usually it's something like a character knowing she's pregrant because she missed her period.

As far as I'm concerned, I can't understand why Morn would choose to have her period if there was an easy futuristic way out of it. It's not just the pain, it's the bleeding too.

It would be really nasty to have a period in the Land with the Sunbane in action and not much in the way of friendly non-murderous villagers to help. Maybe if there were vegetation, you could use grass or something, but in the time of the Desert Sun there wasn't much you could do but bleed in your pants and hope you could get to wash them eventually.

And of course, in the Second Chronicles there was no hurtloam to be had.

then i'm guessing Linden would just pack cut up cloth and toss it when it got too bad.

yeah...you'd wanna bury the used cloths, tho.

i was thinking for tracking purposes burying would be best. i'm also wondering if the sunbane would affect it any after discarding?

sgtnull wrote:i was thinking for tracking purposes burying would be best. i'm also wondering if the sunbane would affect it any after discarding?

in what WAY?????

(what effect would the red moon have on such cycles?)

Damn, you people like to talk about periods, don't you! A simple joke post has branched into a multi-page discussion about burying Land improvised tampons. I've been surfing this site too long! (and I think a few of you have, too.) But, I guess after my comments on breastfeeding, I've got no room to point fingers.

In terms of narrative construction, the amount of realism portrayed is dictated by the subject matter and the points being made by the author. In the GAP series, we have lots of gritty detail about Morn shitting her spacesuit, using the "head," and missing her period. This is perfectly appropriate for the context of the GAP cycle, but would be completely out of place in the Chronicles of TC.

Oh, and wasn't James Joyce one of the first to ironically portray "realistic" bodily functions (the irony being that there is nothing at all realistic about his--or any--fiction)?

Not a very pleasant thought (but better than being 'shed'), wouldnt periods under a Sunbane be a good thing? After all you have a ready supply of blood without the need for sacrifice - well without the need for dying anyway! You don't have to be killed to provide blood for use under the Sunbane as Sunder showed often enough!

Hmmm, so you would be walking around without pants so that the sunlight could touch the blood, but at least the blood would vanish immediately and you could do cool magic?

The only problem with this is that you would need some training to use the Sunbane (even to make the blood vanish, I think) and Linden didn't have that. Well, Sunder could probably teach her.

but since it is waste blood would it work the same? just like a vampire not being able to live off of it.

Lucimay: just had an image of the sunbane corrupting an animal that ate the rags...

although technically, you leave the land in the same condition you came in as...and really technically speaking; Linden was only in the Land for about and hours or so. Her body was inthe real world, perhpas her bodily functions also stayed in the real world.

That may by possibly why she never got herself knocked up with all the Mackin' her and Cov were doing on the ship; she never ovulated because her body in the real world wasn't ovulating.

------ OR -----

My wife tells that when women are together a lot (and whose cycles aren't being regulated by medications) their cycles tend to begin to match up with eachother.
Well she was around the First quite a bit; I'm sure that Giantsesses cycles are longer than the ol' 28 day stand-by, probebly only once or twice a year.

I've actually been wondering that if Covenant had accepted Creator's offer and moved to the Land, would Covenant have still been alive and aged only 10 years by the time of the Second Chronicles. Either way, the plot would have been different for sure from the one we got.

what would the giants cycle be like anyway? and how long would gestation be?

drew wrote:although technically, you leave the land in the same condition you came in as...and really technically speaking; Linden was only in the Land for about and hours or so. Her body was inthe real world, perhpas her bodily functions also stayed in the real world.

Hence why you don't see many people going to the toilet in TCTC *or* bathing *or* washing their socks (ie: I guess they wouldn't sweat much either if their bodily functions stayed in the real world).

Ahhh, it's all so much clearer to me now!

don't buy the hype. Thomas ate food here. meaning he got hungry, even though he might not be back in the free world.