5.4 KiB
[RT][WIP][HSF] Set In Stone: Follower Chapter 08 Rational Stonepunk
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Author: u/Farmerbob1 Level 1 author*
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URL: https://setinstonestory.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/chapter-08/
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Score: 11
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Created: 2015-03-04T20:47:33
Post:
Comments:
u/Kodix [+4] (9 hours later)
Still enjoying this very much.
It's nice to see Allen take what I assume are some of his first steps to more rational thinking.
u/Farmerbob1 [+4] Level 1 author (15 hours later)
Thanks! Yes, I'm trying to push Allen towards at least some basic rational thought outside of his comfort zones.
u/Charlie___ [+3] (a day later)
I'm willing to buy into the whole idealized dominance-hierarchy-based upbringing thing, but teenagers not having sex, for conscientiousness reasons? Please.
And even if they're so conscientious, are you telling me that contraception has been suppressed? How the heck do you suppress knowledge of the rhythm method among livestock breeders?
u/Farmerbob1 [+1] Level 1 author (2 days later)
I thought I was pretty clear that when they were attending school, Allen and Marza had experimented quite a lot, trying pretty much everything that wasn't actual intercourse. (They would have walked back and forth to school in the morning and afternoon - plenty of opportunities to sneak off for short adventures.) After they graduated from school, their families drastically reduced the free time that they could spend alone together. Contraceptives are available, but they aren't given away for free, and the grocer would certainly make sure that the parents of pre-adults buying them knew that they were being bought.
Marza is more than aware of when she could probably have sex and get away with it. So are Marza's female relatives. She lives with them. Their cycles will be aligned, and during those times when it would be safest for her to have sex, her relatives will be watching even closer than normal.
Farming is an always-on job, especially in a low-tech environment. From before dawn to after dark, there's always something to do. It isn't hard for their families to keep them busy enough to not give them an opportunity to sneak off alone. Both families approve of the relationship, but neither family would appreciate Allen and Marza having a child before they have a home of their own.
u/Charlie___ [+2] (2 days later)
There's a contradiction - they wouldn't appreciate a child, but they watch them closer when there's less chance of a pregnancy?
I feel like it's pretty clear here that the morality came first and the justifications later. And what I think that means for the story is that two teenagers should at the least be chafing a little bit under the surveillance of their elders, who have these old-fashioned notions about no sex before marriage :P
u/Farmerbob1 [+2] Level 1 author (2 days later)
The world came first, then the characters and the setting. The morality is a result of the culture, the circumstances, and the characters. If I had been writing about a town family or a city family, or even a different set of farm families, things could easily have been different. The world isn't a monolithic culture, though it's a lot less varied than our world. Albert's experiment has been going on for several thousand years without technological advancement, and there has been a lot more movement of families than would be normal for an agrarian society because they have good roads, passable ships, and a common language.
I've tried to make the point that Allen is seeing the world from the view of a farm family. I also tried to make it clear that town families and especially town children might be a bit less conservative about sex fairly early, when I had Jen create a situation where she had the ability to slap Allen on the ass as he ran by her. She's the Countyman's daughter, and Allen was angry at her for what she did, because of how she contrived it.
Allen and Marza are both intelligent, and their elder family members are also (mostly) very smart and very observant. They are living a life which makes it very easy for their parents to monitor them.
As you said earlier, Allen and Marza are familiar with animal breeding. If you have more animals than you can support, you cull them. You can't do that with children. Not in any society that I'm willing to write about. Abortion is a potential option, there are herbs which can be made into teas to stop a pregnancy. The problem is that these herbs are poisons. They are not very reliable in dosages that won't hurt the woman, and if taken in larger concentrations that are guaranteed to end a pregnancy, can cause the woman drinking them to become very ill - perhaps chronically. Doctor-assisted abortion is almost unheard of in farm communities.
Thank you for forcing me to look at what I've done with Allen and Marza's sexual relationship closely, but I am happy with it. If others agree that I should put more detail into the story to explain, then I can certainly go back and add a bit more detail to the bits and pieces where references to sexuality have been made.
EDIT ADD - Also I would like to point out that they ARE chafing and eager to get to the point in their lives where they can start to have sex.