Krista
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I've noticed some Japanese elements in Barrayaran culture (the two swords, some of their attitude towards their ancestors), but only a couple Asian names. How extensive is that cultural influence, and how did it get so submerged while remaining so important?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The influence of Japan is more structural, on the authorial level, than internal in terms of fictional founder population. (Though the 50,000 Firsters were undoubtedly more racially mixed than most readers seem to realize, drawn from four different kind-of-European Earth regions 200 or more years from "now".) But Japanese history gives a worked example of cultural isolation and forcible rediscovery that is most evocative, psychologically and politically, when thinking about SFnal lost-colony scenarios. Useful stuff.
Reading rec: A Daughter of the Samurai (1925) by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto.
Ta, L.
Reading rec: A Daughter of the Samurai (1925) by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Generally since the higher a person’s status the more they are able to get away with, was Ezar’s concern over Serg mostly about erratic and destructive decision making rather than his “personal hobbies” or was he concerned Serg would eventually move on to Vor women, causing a Vor revolt? Is there even a concept of human rights or are any rights seen only in the lord/subject relationship? And would that evolve?
Marti Dolata
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I think from the time stamp, you answered my question at about 2:30 in the morning. Are you a night owl?
Nirkatze
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Bujold-sensei, I want to add my thanks to the pile--thank you so much for sharing your stories. They have given me many hours of quiet enjoyment and great conversation. I've been thinking about the "son/daughter of a great man syndrome" you have mentioned. Miles is constantly chasing his father's achievements--will Sasha and his siblings face the same future? How does M&E's parenting differ from C&A's? Thank you!
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