Re: Brithini Caste Restrictions/Duties

From: John Machin <orichalka_at_Vzb4Mpxb7Ulv4GBVwVnHxr6U_Aaze-bCwg_ckGhFkAS5oOXMThR-UXpyBI3j5-VQNa>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:26:48 +1000

2009/9/30 ttrotsky2 <TTrotsky_at_oaZL45MtKByYDur3ADl45rbcdkbU23ZI0h_P6ZemuDEqSGBXVnFSuiz5PaNk1auMInwm3R2kaQMMxH1-1_GiPgRP.yahoo.invalid>
> I doubt this was the intended meaning here :)
>
> If we're looking for a psychological term that might characterise Brithini, mild sociopathy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or
> something like Asperger's might be closer.

I don't see them as necessarily unsocial though. Surely the castes interact with each other? Albeit in the approved ways?

I sort of like the idea that the Brithini society is like one of those intricate clockwork toys that might seem bright and lively but are repitious and stagnant on closer observation. A society of Lord Groans is just less interesting to me. I think you can capture the qualities of existential dread that I discern as implicit in the Brithini without making them all gloomy.

Or to put it a different way: Isn't it worse that some of them *aren't* gloomy. That they are certain this is right? That the pity other, mortal, people because they aren't this way?

--
John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.