Okay, I’m fed up.
If you don’t stop with this chauvinistic ■■■■, I’m going to start hunting you as sport.
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Good hunting.
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Go for it!
EDIT: Princess
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To me, at least. You get kind of aggressively opinionated sometimes, sometimes about strange things, but there’s a lightness there-- a sense that you get the joke.
Else’s no doubt a respectable person, but she … definitely doesn’t.
Directrix Daphiti is a respectable person. I’m not. (Just ask Ms. Qerl.) My sense of humor’s even a little malicious.
It might be the Goonyness is what I like.
I get along fine with Deitra Vess, though.
What’s “the joke?”
Earnest question.
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That none of this actually matters, we’re all a lot less mature than we think we are, and getting worked up about some ■■■■■■■■ Galnet message forum is the ■■■■ we should have been over in ■■■■■■■ college?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it, but I know it’s ■■■■■■■ reductive.
Not a clue.
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It’s … interestingly hard to explain, ma’am, and will probably end up sounding awful. The best way I can think to sum it up is this:
This world isn’t made for us. It’s a terrible, sad world full of misery and futility, where justice is a cruel joke and almost every ideal is at war with reality. If this world were the work of a sapient being or beings, that being or beings would be unforgivable.
It probably isn’t. So instead of an atrocity, it’s a wonder.
I have a few reasons to think Arrendis understands this, but maybe the best example is that Arrendis believes, with a determination I don’t really understand, that each of her physical deaths is real, that she’s truly just serially mortal. I don’t agree with her interpretation, but I know she feels strongly about it. She goes to her repeated deaths more or less willingly, though, generation after generation, walking into death with eyes open, not once but many times.
It’s something I’d find difficult to understand, if she didn’t get the joke.
(Arrendis of course will probably be climbing all over my reasoning in 3, 2, 1 …)
No one’s getting worked up here now but you, now be quiet and let people have their chat, it was just getting interesting.
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So, Aria, forgive me if I’m the one who sounds condescending here, but I don’t believe that’s the quite what you believe deep down.
You say you think the world’s a terrible misery-filled hellscape, yet you seem to look very hard for what you see as “good” among all the evil. You have your vow to protect Directrix Daphiti because you see her as something important and good. Likewise you care very strongly about the concept of redemption because of your own situation.
I think that deep down, you don’t get your own joke.
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Hey, welcome to the IGS, where I get to talk as much as I ■■■■■■■ want and not give a ■■■■ what you want.
Well … I did say it was probably going to come out sounding awful.
The world’s not a hellscape out of malice; it’s just indifferent. And it’s not like there’s no joy or light. It’s not like we can’t make it more comfortable for others and ourselves, at least for a while. One of the great and beautiful strangenesses of this harsh world is how much we love it. The pains will come, and inequity is omnipresent (just ask the sausage on your plate), but it’s not like everything’s a meaningless mire of malignant misery.
It’s just not here for us. We’re like little cliff-dwelling creatures eking out a living in a canyon wall, struggling along as best we can.
Understanding the joke means understanding how small you are, and how much of what you struggle for is basically just awaiting the next flash flood. It often looks like cynicism. Really, it’s just acceptance.
Odds are good that neither Directrix Daphiti nor I will end up being very meaningful in the flow of time. That’s okay. I’ll stand by her even so.
It’s possible Arrendis aspires to be bigger than that, but she sacrifices herself often, each individual self subsumed into the meta-entity we call “Arrendis.”
Out of curiosity, which part of this you think I do not “get”? And why do you think that?
The flaw in your idea of an evil world is that the very worst things there are all come from people.
So even if you don’t believe in God, the evil of the world is mostly a conscious creation.
But also, If there are good people (and there are), the joke loses its punchline.
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I really do try to avoid them, you know. But I took on obligations. I made commitments. And those put ‘my’ life in danger. So far, my life’s been pretty good. On the longer side, too, as Arrendises go: 56d and counting. But as far as ‘walking into death with eyes open’ goes… I’m just living the life I have.
No ‘joke’ necessary. I have made commitments, and I am Stjörnauga. Those commitments will be kept. My obligations will be met. While other people might find it convenient that they’ll get another Arrendis if I get killed, from my point of view, what matters is that I’m living in a way that’s true to who I am.
Am I small? Not from where I stand. I’m me-sized. And I have a life that’s me-sized. And who gives a damn if the rest of existence particularly cares about me? Who cares if I’ll eventually be meaningful to some future generation. My life has meaning for me. The people I care about valuing me… either do, or don’t. I hope they do, but I can’t control it. So that has to tend to itself, and I’ll worry about the things I can effect.
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I rather see it as a reflection of people, their resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made it so.
The world’s full of both misery and beauty, but it’s not distributed evenly.
I’d agree that the world is broken, but I still think it important for me to do what I can in hopes of improving it, even if just for some people in small ways.
I’ve probably got more blood on my hands than can ever be washed off, but that’s not an excuse not to try my best to do what I think’s right.
Which improves the world more, to do what’s right or what’s needed?
What’s right is what’s needed.
Then it would follow that what’s needed is what’s right?