Lois’s answer to “I'm re-reading the Chalion books right now, trying to capture some of their essence for my own nove…” > Likes and Comments
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This is a brilliant answer. Now I'll be thinking about it all day.
The analogy in our world might be to the followers of Morihei Ueshiba, who introduced the martial art of aikido to the world. He had a number of top students, who gradually spread out over the world and built their own schools and organizations. Each of them had their own interpretation of what he taught. Some pride themselves on being very pure, adhering to exactly what he taught; others focus on or optimize different aspects, like the meditative/aikido-is-love/blending approach, or the "this is a martial art designed to protect you, and you should train with the assumption that gangs might be waiting for you outside the front door" approach.
I'm an atheist in real life, but I think it would be impossible in the world of Chalion. The existence of living saints and funeral miracles provide too much evidence to deny the gods.
So our protagonists are in possession of The Truth, and all the others are heterodox? Something to consider. A novel I am unlikely to get around to writing features protagonists who do that "transfer from our world to a fantasy world" trope and hook up with a group of elves. Only late in the story do they find out that their companions are orcs. They are differentiated from elves by their religion.
Heh. No human in Chalion is in possession of more of the truth than one human mind can contain. The most a person can hope for is "correct, but incomplete".
Ta, L.
What I'd love to see is a Chalion novel from the Roknari prospective. Their four-square view of the gods was interesting. Maybe set in the time of the Golden General.
I've never read Chalion myself (not enough money or time at the moment), but I would think that being an atheist in a world of living gods/miracles, while self-deceiving, would be relatively easy--you couldn't deny their existence or their power of course, but what it would come down to is changing the definition of these beings--at least in one's own head. "They're not gods," one could tell oneself, "merely ascended humans (or extra-planetary beings, or visitors from another dimension, or... etc.)" whatever alternate explanation fit the available facts. Like I said, self-deceiving, but doable.
I imagine that there are lots of people in the world of the five gods who like the dowager Provincara are so literal- and practical-minded that the gods cannot touch them directly, and so they have the option of believing or not.
The gods of that world show themselves to humans very rarely, and I suppose the great majority of people go through their whole lives without any direct evidence of their existence. That being the case, atheism should be quite feasible. Anyone who's seen a sorcerer in action may feel inclined to believe in magic, but you can believe in magic without believing in gods. And even sorcerers seem rare enough that there are people who've never seen one.
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Feb 23, 2015 01:23PM
This is a brilliant answer. Now I'll be thinking about it all day.
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The analogy in our world might be to the followers of Morihei Ueshiba, who introduced the martial art of aikido to the world. He had a number of top students, who gradually spread out over the world and built their own schools and organizations. Each of them had their own interpretation of what he taught. Some pride themselves on being very pure, adhering to exactly what he taught; others focus on or optimize different aspects, like the meditative/aikido-is-love/blending approach, or the "this is a martial art designed to protect you, and you should train with the assumption that gangs might be waiting for you outside the front door" approach.
I'm an atheist in real life, but I think it would be impossible in the world of Chalion. The existence of living saints and funeral miracles provide too much evidence to deny the gods.
So our protagonists are in possession of The Truth, and all the others are heterodox? Something to consider. A novel I am unlikely to get around to writing features protagonists who do that "transfer from our world to a fantasy world" trope and hook up with a group of elves. Only late in the story do they find out that their companions are orcs. They are differentiated from elves by their religion.
Heh. No human in Chalion is in possession of more of the truth than one human mind can contain. The most a person can hope for is "correct, but incomplete".Ta, L.
What I'd love to see is a Chalion novel from the Roknari prospective. Their four-square view of the gods was interesting. Maybe set in the time of the Golden General.
I've never read Chalion myself (not enough money or time at the moment), but I would think that being an atheist in a world of living gods/miracles, while self-deceiving, would be relatively easy--you couldn't deny their existence or their power of course, but what it would come down to is changing the definition of these beings--at least in one's own head. "They're not gods," one could tell oneself, "merely ascended humans (or extra-planetary beings, or visitors from another dimension, or... etc.)" whatever alternate explanation fit the available facts. Like I said, self-deceiving, but doable.
I imagine that there are lots of people in the world of the five gods who like the dowager Provincara are so literal- and practical-minded that the gods cannot touch them directly, and so they have the option of believing or not.
The gods of that world show themselves to humans very rarely, and I suppose the great majority of people go through their whole lives without any direct evidence of their existence. That being the case, atheism should be quite feasible. Anyone who's seen a sorcerer in action may feel inclined to believe in magic, but you can believe in magic without believing in gods. And even sorcerers seem rare enough that there are people who've never seen one.
