Talk:Ethan of Athos

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Hi,

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Athos as an SF culture or world is rare in that it is a well-functioning and egalitarian religious society. The norm in SF seems to be that religious or theocratic societies are totalitarian. Athos, as Ethan reports it, is about as much a dictatorship as Eisenhowerian suburbia ...

This may be because of the way the author went about creating it. What usually happens is that an author starts with the idea of a religion-based society and works forward to what such a society might turn out like; for Ethan of Athos, Bujold started with the idea of what the society turned out like and worked back to how it came to be like that. The fact that it's religion-based is, in a sense, just an incidental detail. --Paul A 02:07, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Also you have to bear in mind that Ethan, the character through whom the society in question is being described, is an enthusiastic member of that society—indeed, he plays a vital role in its continuance—and is therefore unlikely to be an objective observer. I'm not implying that he might overlook any egregious problems, mind—he's not backward in coming forward when he spots a potential for trouble IIRC—just don't expect the narrative to be NPOV :-). HTH HAND --Phil | Talk 07:54, Dec 9, 2004 (UTC)

> he is unaffected by the presence of women, and feels a sexual attraction to the male blond Terran-C genetic experiment mentioned below. Shouldn't this experiment actually be mentioned, then? 212.219.48.247 13:04, 6 February 2007 (UTC)