Oh, brilliant. I kind of adore Miles and Bel, and you write them so well. And, uh, if you were going to write more of this? That would be a very good thing.
Plus, it gives me an excuse to think about Beta Colony. I have this whole thing about Beta Colony, where it's this combination of ultra-accepting, but it's also the place where Cordelia's "therapist" drugged her with what seems like fast-penta* without her knowledge or consent, the fact that it made Miles suicidal, because he was a novelty there, while being the place that was so good for Mark.
My view is that Barrayar has very narrow roles of what people can do, most of which are predetermined-- you are a female, of this class, these are your options, you are a male of that class, you can be this, but not that. Beta doesn't have roles like that-- it has a spectrum of "appropriate", which is mostly attained (you want to be X, so you become X).
But going outside of that spectrum makes you crazy - so Cordelia needed therapy because she didn't fall in that spectrum, criminals are by definition mentally ill (if they were sane, they wouldn't commit crimes!), and where people have good genes**, great health-care, good nutrition... and probably very limited exposure to people that are genuinely *different*.
*which is also why I reckon Mile's reaction to it is maybe genetic.
**Barrayans may still commit infanticide, but on Beta, that's not an issue because -good genes, bottle-births, etc.- I doubt it ever gets that far. Everything is cured.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:14 pm (UTC)Plus, it gives me an excuse to think about Beta Colony. I have this whole thing about Beta Colony, where it's this combination of ultra-accepting, but it's also the place where Cordelia's "therapist" drugged her with what seems like fast-penta* without her knowledge or consent, the fact that it made Miles suicidal, because he was a novelty there, while being the place that was so good for Mark.
My view is that Barrayar has very narrow roles of what people can do, most of which are predetermined-- you are a female, of this class, these are your options, you are a male of that class, you can be this, but not that. Beta doesn't have roles like that-- it has a spectrum of "appropriate", which is mostly attained (you want to be X, so you become X).
But going outside of that spectrum makes you crazy - so Cordelia needed therapy because she didn't fall in that spectrum, criminals are by definition mentally ill (if they were sane, they wouldn't commit crimes!), and where people have good genes**, great health-care, good nutrition... and probably very limited exposure to people that are genuinely *different*.
*which is also why I reckon Mile's reaction to it is maybe genetic.
**Barrayans may still commit infanticide, but on Beta, that's not an issue because -good genes, bottle-births, etc.- I doubt it ever gets that far. Everything is cured.