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kaberett(Not sure what's going on here? The answer is Ancillary Justice.)
We're told that Radchaai does not bother with gendered pronouns. It seems to me that the default pronoun used means gender-irrelevant (rather than gender-unknown or gender-specific, which seem to me to be a useful way of considering pronouns of gendered beings). We're told that Strigan's society uses gender-known pronouns even though it professes to consider gender irrelevant.
And yet: the Radchaai frequently refer to ships as "it" (I note that the standard English pronoun used to refer to vessels is the same as the way in which the Radchaai default pronoun is rendered). It's clearly not as simple as in/animate - ships have emotions, ships have personality and identity, ships are sentient, ships have ancillaries. Except that this is done in a literally dehumanising way - ships are explicitly not Radchaai, not citizens, and therefore not considered human; characters who are uninterested in or unsympathetic toward ships are far more likely to refer to them as "it", whereas characters who like ships seem to mostly not pronoun them; non-Radchaai humans are generally called the standard pronoun for Radchaai, despite being considered by at least some in the society to have sub-human status - and so I am left picking away at what distinction it is the Radch is making here...
Thoughts very much appreciated!
We're told that Radchaai does not bother with gendered pronouns. It seems to me that the default pronoun used means gender-irrelevant (rather than gender-unknown or gender-specific, which seem to me to be a useful way of considering pronouns of gendered beings). We're told that Strigan's society uses gender-known pronouns even though it professes to consider gender irrelevant.
And yet: the Radchaai frequently refer to ships as "it" (I note that the standard English pronoun used to refer to vessels is the same as the way in which the Radchaai default pronoun is rendered). It's clearly not as simple as in/animate - ships have emotions, ships have personality and identity, ships are sentient, ships have ancillaries. Except that this is done in a literally dehumanising way - ships are explicitly not Radchaai, not citizens, and therefore not considered human; characters who are uninterested in or unsympathetic toward ships are far more likely to refer to them as "it", whereas characters who like ships seem to mostly not pronoun them; non-Radchaai humans are generally called the standard pronoun for Radchaai, despite being considered by at least some in the society to have sub-human status - and so I am left picking away at what distinction it is the Radch is making here...
Thoughts very much appreciated!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-16 10:04 am (UTC)Because humans are treated as mortal and AM clearly isn't (3000 years old! - and we know Justice of Toren is 2000 years old), and if the tech existed to turn humans into the kind of AI that Justice of Toren clearly is (or if it wasn't wildly taboo) I'd assumed AI originated as one of the earliest AIs; I'd expect that to at least be discussed - humans have access to the necessary tech to transfer AI consciousness into ancillaries, so one would've thought that if human-->human transference were possible there would at least be a great deal of suppression of it, particularly among the hideously rich.
(And I am now thinking of Jessie Hajicek's The God Eaters, which involves gods consuming other gods to gain power & domain...)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-16 10:44 am (UTC)Oh, God Eaters sounds fascinating, I want to read that.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-16 10:47 am (UTC)ETA here's The God Eaters and some of the overview incl a link to his webcomic, Metanoia, which I loved; pretty much of everything is up at
Also, sparked by the "was originally human" thing, STRONGLY recommend Benjanun Sriduangkaew's Hegemony verse (if you haven't already read, and even if you have! She was a John W Campbell nominee this year and is eligible again next year, and I really want her to get it...)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-16 11:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-16 12:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-16 01:07 pm (UTC)Which is playing games with gender perception right there!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-18 09:07 pm (UTC)AM 3000 years old
Breq 2000 years old
Seivarden 1000 years old