Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Are Kou and Drou’s four daughters the luck of the draw or a deliberate choice? Would knowing how dire the sex ratio had become outweigh the cultural pressure of wanting a son to carry on the family name? Or did they not want to subject a commoner son, no matter how close to the Regent, to having to compete with Vor sons for the available women, given pressure to marry “up”?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The first two Koudelka girls, Delia and Martya, were the luck of the draw, being natural body conceptions/births. The second two, Olivia and Kareen, were replicator births and thus sex-chosen, and also given basic gene-cleaning while they were at it. No nearsightness or diabetes or genetic cancers for them...
What was going through the minds of the Koudelka parents is not specified in text/canon. Possibly they really liked the little girls they'd got and wanted more. The option of marrying "up" was I believe mentioned in text as a hypothesis or discussion, not confirmed. There would certainly have been conversations with Cordelia exploring the ramifications of galactic tech prior to the last two conceptions.
I don't feel the non-existent son's non-life was much considered in the calculus. Though Kou might have had covert experienced opinions about the disadvantages of being a prole male.
The choice of a replicator was enthusiastically embraced by Drou, as soon as it became available/affordable to them, after one trial to see what happens, and a second to confirm that yeah, this pregnancy/childbirth thing kinda sucks for the mother, somatically. (Physical fitness being a value for Drou. And Kou, at a remove, ouch.)
Ta, L.
The first two Koudelka girls, Delia and Martya, were the luck of the draw, being natural body conceptions/births. The second two, Olivia and Kareen, were replicator births and thus sex-chosen, and also given basic gene-cleaning while they were at it. No nearsightness or diabetes or genetic cancers for them...
What was going through the minds of the Koudelka parents is not specified in text/canon. Possibly they really liked the little girls they'd got and wanted more. The option of marrying "up" was I believe mentioned in text as a hypothesis or discussion, not confirmed. There would certainly have been conversations with Cordelia exploring the ramifications of galactic tech prior to the last two conceptions.
I don't feel the non-existent son's non-life was much considered in the calculus. Though Kou might have had covert experienced opinions about the disadvantages of being a prole male.
The choice of a replicator was enthusiastically embraced by Drou, as soon as it became available/affordable to them, after one trial to see what happens, and a second to confirm that yeah, this pregnancy/childbirth thing kinda sucks for the mother, somatically. (Physical fitness being a value for Drou. And Kou, at a remove, ouch.)
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Jane Bigelow
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I love the character of Nikys, and I'd be happy to read of her again in whatever way Lois wants to do it. Characters do change, if the fiction is any good. I've liked some of Lois' books better than others, but they're all good. I admire her choice of a middle-aged woman as adventuring protagonist in Paladin of Souls. Could her weaving could be part of a story line for Nikys? I'm sure Lois has plenty of ideas already.
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