Haruchai women

[Haruchai]

[quote="Fist and Faith"]In that case, here's a Haruchai girl. Possibly the Watch's own Haruchai?

I wish!!

[matrixman]

Very nice picture, Fist!

So...who gets her cell phone number?

[Fist and Faith]

She can probably only get snail-mail. And that's likely a very accurate description in her case, as it's probably delivered by yak. On the bright side, by the time she gets it, she might be of legal age. So go for it, dude!

[Lament]

It's been said in this thread, and more eloquently than I could have put it, how important wives and women were to the Haruchai males.

One line always stayed in my mind however that really first pinned it for me from LFB.

But Bannor stepped over to the dead wolf and pulled Grace's cord from around it's neck. Holding the cord in a fighting grip he stretched it taut.

"A good weapon," he said with his awkward inflectionlessness. "The Ramen did mighty work with it in the days when High Lord Kevin fought Corruption openly." Something in his tone reminded Covenant that the Bloodguard were lusty men who had gone unwived for more than two thousand years.

Then, on the spur of an obscure impulse, Bannor tightened his muscles, and the rope snapped. Shrugging slightly he dropped the pieces on the dead kresh.

[Fist and Faith]

Yes! Such moments are priceless!! Man!!

And hey, you gotta love a guy who can snap a rope by pulling on it like that!

Lament, I'm very happy you found the Watch!

[Haruchai]

Then, on the spur of an obscure impulse, Bannor tightened his muscles, and the rope snapped. Shrugging slightly he dropped the pieces on the dead kresh.

Very strong.

[Haruchai]

I have a question about the Haruchai, but not specifically the Haruchai women. should I ask it here, or start a new thread?

[hierachy]

might aswell ask here I s'pose

[Fist and Faith]

Well how many threads have you started? I'm all in favor of asking questions in a relevant thread, if there is one. But if it's not relevant to Haruchai *women*, and you don't see a better thread for it (for example: kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=812 kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=811 kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1754 kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1837), there's nothing quite like the thrill of starting your own, brand-spankin'-new thread!!!! Ah, the rush! The feeling of power you get from knowing that everyone will see your name in the "Author" field!

*swooning*

What's your question?

[Cord Hurn]

It's been said in this thread, and more eloquently than I could have put it, how important wives and women were to the Haruchai males.

One line always stayed in my mind however that really first pinned it for me from LFB.

But Bannor stepped over to the dead wolf and pulled Grace's cord from around it's neck. Holding the cord in a fighting grip he stretched it taut.

"A good weapon," he said with his awkward inflectionlessness. "The Ramen did mighty work with it in the days when High Lord Kevin fought Corruption openly." Something in his tone reminded Covenant that the Bloodguard were lusty men who had gone unwived for more than two thousand years.

Then, on the spur of an obscure impulse, Bannor tightened his muscles, and the rope snapped. Shrugging slightly he dropped the pieces on the dead kresh.

I have NEVER been able to understand this reference to Bannor being un-wived and lusty as to why he would admire the garrote and then break it. That passage never made ay sense to me. Could any of today's Watch members explain it?

[wayfriend]

I cannot explain it, but I can tell you what I think it is. The Bloodguard desire nothing more than to fight Corruption. Not his minions, but the big baddie himself. So what hear in Bannor's tone is repressed and thwarted desire.

Of course, others have speculated that the breaking of the rope was sexual frustration, brought on by proximity to The Women of Ra.

[Avatar]

3 for 3.

--A

[Cord Hurn]

I cannot explain it, but I can tell you what I think it is. The Bloodguard desire nothing more than to fight Corruption. Not his minions, but the big baddie himself. So what hear in Bannor's tone is repressed and thwarted desire.

Of course, others have speculated that the breaking of the rope was sexual frustration, brought on by proximity to The Women of Ra.

I'll imagine it means both together, and that's good enough for me, WF!

[DrPaul]

I think the key point to be made about this is one that others have made. The Bloodguard's renunciation of their wives as one of the consequences of their Vow was a massive sacrifice, and was integral to the overall sacrifice of the lives of ordinary mortals that the Vow entailed. The circumstances in which the original Haruchai army of 500 took the Bloodguard Vow were arguably only possible because Haruchai society was, we can infer, a highly patriarchal one with strongly delineated gender roles. While exploring why Haruchai society was like that or how it got to be that way could be an interesting bit of backstory speculation in this forum, it is very likely beside the point in terms of what SRD was aiming to do with the Haruchai/Bloodguard in the story.

SRD posted a response to a question I posted in the GI that I think is relevant here, so I'll post both the question and the response.

Dr Paul: Dear Stephen,

Some years ago I read an online discussion in which a contributor accused Star Trek of a particular ideological bias because no millionaires ever appeared in the series. About the same time I read one of David Brin's articles complaining about the tendency of fantasy writers to situate their stories in feudal monarchies rather than in liberal societies. More recently I have participated in a Kevin's Watch discussion prompted by a post suggesting that the Land in TCOTC was "backward" because it didn't have a monetary system. It seems to me that such views miss an important point about both SF and fantasy as genres. This is that much of the best of both genres would not be possible without both the freedom to imagine alternative social possibilities, and the challenge of convincingly exploring both the alternative social possibilities themselves and how people succeed or fail in making authentic choices within such contexts. What do you think?

It appears to me that this whole discussion proceeds from a false premise: that the function of storytelling is to portray societies. While this premise clearly holds true in some cases, it is far from being universally relevant. For many many writers, the society being portrayed is simply a means to an end. Context enables story. Why else do science fiction and fantasy exist? I don't write about Covenant because I want to portray a "backward" society. I portray a "backward" society because it frees me to tell Covenant's story the way I want to tell it. Similarly, I don't write about Angus Thermopyle and Morn Hyland because I want to portray an "advanced," corrupt society. I've imagined an "advanced," corrupt society because it enables me to tell the story of Angus and Morn.

Of course, being "convincing" is essential to good storytelling. No matter what story I'm telling, it will fail if I can't make the context convincing. So I have to understand that context well enough to pursue its implications consistently and even logically. But the context is *not* the point of the story.

For some other writers, of course, the context *is* the point of the story. A fair amount of hard sf comes to mind. To a certain extent, even LOTR comes to mind. During certain literary periods (say, Victorian England), a portrait of society was one of the expected requirements of a novel. Nonetheless I could easily spend the rest of the day listing exceptions.

(09/30/2010)