Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad

--- Jörg Rhiemeier skrzypszy:

> And that on a question which I thought had been settled years ago.
> I now regret having picked it up again publicly on the list, thus
> exposing the matter to people who see things differently.
No need! Quite a lot of things have changed in IB over the last year, and I
found it interesting to learn some more about IB's earlier history.

>You asked me to name a pair of things that clash in Ill Bethisad,
>and I can name one, right in the heart of it, which has been
>a sore point for me from the very beginnings of my involvement
>with the project.  It is Andrew's representation of Kemr as
>a thoroughly modern, democratic western European country
>vs. Padraic's representation of Dunein (allegedly a part of Kemr)
>as a quasi-feudal poor country essentially stuck in the ways of
>the 19th century.
FWIW, I have always seen Kemr as a modern, democratic etc. state. But
honestly, I don't see the contradiction with Padraic's old-fashioned
Dunein. It's nothing uncommon for a modern, industrialised state to have
some poor, less developed backwater. Somebody mentioned the USA, you might
also think of Italy, for example.

>And no, I never interpreted IB as an attempt towards an utopia where
>the sun always shines and everyone is happy all the time.
>Of course, any realistic alternative history has its dark side.  But
>my perception of IB was (and still is) that it is a less advanced,
>right-wing-dominated place, though things are of course not as simple
>as that.
Less advanced, perhaps a little. The technological level corresponds more
or less with our early eighties, and like *here*, things are moving pretty
fast *there*.
Right-wing-dominated? I wouldn't say so. The fact that many old
institutions survive in IB doesn't make it more right-wing. On the
contrary, I think our world is more right-wing-dominated than IB!

>You also asked about the Dragon & Star project.  (Sorry, Padraic,
>for interpreting your question as a humiliating comment.)  This has
>not progressed much beyond the basic premise, which is the existence
>of Kemr as envisioned by Andrew, and of the Elves as a part of Kemr.
Anything known about the world outside Kemr?

Jan