Mystery of Ascia

Son of Witz · 21 Jan 2011, 21:14 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:14:30 -0500
Subject: (urth) Mystery of Ascia
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W44D8CEB525EE96F7B9136BCFF80 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W44D8CEB525EE96F7B9136BCFF80 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <a4d269d1f16b4f79efa8f1c5d44abb2c.squirrel at email.fatcow.com>

On Fri, January 21, 2011 3:41 pm, Lee Berman wrote:
>
> I still think a discussion of actual racial features is wrong-headed in a
> discussion
> of Ascians. ...
[snip]

Yes, we should reel back in. I only brought all that up because of Agia.
Severian describes Ascian eyes as "brilliant", "wide", "insane" and
"saner". Maybe there is another adjective, but if Agia's were "strangely
tilted" it is likely that he would have described them with a reference to
Agia.

Without the relation of eyes, there may just be a phonetic association
between them.
Ascia - Agia (and we could of course throw in Asia here).
I don't think that is a particularly strong case though.

>
> I think the point of Ascians is not how they look but that they all look
> the same. Talk the same, think the same, act the same. Right or wrong,
that is the fear
> Wolfe is expressing in regards to communism. Koreans may have looked
asian but so did > some of Wolfe's fellow soldiers. The sameness is the
concern. The lack of diversity.

Yes, that is ABSOLUTELY the point, which is why I think it appropriate to
link the Ascians with the myth of the Humans who traded their Wild side.
It isn't about race AT ALL.

I do not think Wolfe was trying to make a statement about Asians, though I
think the suggestions I've laid out are plausible as suggest why he might
have called these soulless communists Ascians other than the stated myth.

There is a hot button issue currently about a negative-reinforcement,
devaluing parenting philosophy ostensibly practiced by many
Chinese-Americans.  Current issue of Time is about it. Tiger Parents. 
Yesterday I was thinking all day about this idea  of the AsCians' extreme
application of negating an individual's worth, then I came home and was
introduced to this Tiger Parenting issue.  The combination of the two
admittedly non related subjects in my head, though, made for an
?ber-creepy headspace for a while.

I'm not going to try to describe the methodology, because I barely know
anything about it. CNN has a bunch of stuff this week on it.  It really
seemed, to me, like a philosophy of cutting out a child's wild side.

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