Meme and short essay

[kippurbird]

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

As a species, humans are physically, culturally, and politically diverse. Hardy or fine, light-skined or dark, humans remain one of the most dominant species through out all eras of play. Personality: Human personality runs the gamut of possibilities, though members of this species tend to be highly adaptable, tenacious, and willing to keep striving no matter the odds.


~Star Wars, Saga Edition, RPG manual.

On a side note, since this is what came up. I've read a lot of RPG manuals and in regards to humans they always say that they're very adaptable and diverse etc. Other species, every individual is all the same. They're all "calm, peaceful, tranquil and gentle" (Ithorians) or "Violent, tenacious and dedicated" (Rodains) which doesn't make any sense, since when is an entire race of millions or billions of people definable in three words?

And now that I think about it why do all non-human races have only one society, one culture, one way of doing things? All the Klingons are a warrior race bent on Honor. All Vulcans embrace logic. There's an entire planet of these people and they're all the same. They don't have different countries or religions. They're all one society. And those that do happen to have different beliefs are heretics or rebels or different from the norm.

I suppose it's because it's rather difficult to come up with one alien culture, much less five or six. But at least they could be indicated, or hinted at even if they aren't shown.

I now must do this for my own races.

Bugger.

Comments

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

Related story:

I was explaining one of my Star Wars Sues OC's to a friend who's a Star Wars nut.

My OC was a cybernetic Twi'lek, and she said something along the lines of "They'd rather die than becomes cold and mechanical" and I said "Well,surely not ALL Twi'leks are like that. They can't be. I'm sure not all Toydarians only care about money, like Watto."

her response? "Diversity? In Star Wars?"

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

I certainly don't see why there can't be diversity in Star Wars even if it wasn't shown.

[yattara.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, we did see Vulcans being not-so logical, and incorporating emotions into their lives. Still not enough to count as a diversity in the culture, like with humans.

It's probably easier to write humans, since that's the area best known to them.

For a moment I thought the quote came of the D&D Player's Handbook.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

This is true, but again, they were the odd balls.

For a moment I thought the quote came of the D&D Player's Handbook.

I think it's practically the same from the D&D players handbook. After all it's made by the same people.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

There were illogical, emotional Vulcans (well, other than the Romulans, who somehow ended up far, far away from their original homeworld instead of colonizing a nearby star ..)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

They wanted to avoid the snotty Vulcans.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes. IIRC it was said (somewhere, possibly in one of the books) that the Romulans went as far as they could from the Vulcans when they split off, and that they left specifically because they couldn't stand the whole Vulcan philosophy.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I think that's what I was saying... >> Just snarkily.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and only those species ever have those cultures. Where are the humans studying on Vulcan? Or Vulcans finding Klingon philosophy fulfilling?

And for that matter, why, in most sci-fi, are species almost always in the same political unit? Nations and races have little correlation on Earth. Sure, some nations are largely homogenous (like Japan or Iceland), but many nations are multiracial, and all races are scattered about different nations. While Japan may be over 90% ethnic Japanese, ethnic Japanese are scattered all about the Earth. Why can't there be Klingon immigrants in the Federation? Or, vice versa, human emmigrants in the Klingon Empire? (Perhaps even with problems similar to those of the Japanese-Americans in WWII) Why is every planet unified before they develop space travel? It would be more logical to suppose a situation analogous to the European settlement of America. There would be, for example, US space colonies, Russian space colonies, EU space colonies, and so on.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Well, there was Whorf, of course, but by his time, the Federation and the Klingon Empire were allies.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

(And, despite being raised by Humans, Whorf still acted stereotypically Klingon! It must be genetic!)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

That would be Worf. And yes, that was rather odd how Klingon the Human raised Klingon was.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

*nods* Star Trek has a disturbingly strong genetic predestination bias.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Or lazy writers. XD

But it seems like most Science Fiction aliens are like that.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

One really annoying thing is, most alien species basically behave like human cultures, or at most, exagerations of stereotypes of human cultures or subcultures! Aliens rarely behave as though they have actual neurological differences. Honestly, most sci-fi aliens would lose nothing by changing them into just different human cultures. Klingons are honor-obsessed warriors. Gee, how alien *eyeroll* Oh, wait, wasn't that the SAMURAI?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

This is true. Everything seems to be cribbed from other human cultures.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Most criticisms of sci-fi have to do with bad physics and the like, like complaining about the sounds and sights of space battles (of course, a truely realistic space battle would be extremely boring to watch ^_^), but honestly, biology/sociology/psychology is far worse. And even human culutures rarely are anything more than modern society with some of its ideals realized. Is there really anything different about Star Trek humans than modern American society minus some of its prejudices and religious biases?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I imagine that they don't mind that so much because if the alien culture was too alien they wouldn't be able to relate to iy.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is true. *nods* There's a practical limit to how alien you can make a culture, but you can still do better than your average Sci-Fi writer. Heck, just get inspiration from different human psychologies! Imagine a species whose normal neurology resembles autism, or a species whose normal neurology is a form of multiplicity. How about a species that lacks pair-bonding, but instead has powerful group-bonding, such that monogamy would be seen as deviant (perhaps deemed a form of OCD ^_^) and polyamory normal and healthy? There's a lot of differences you could do while still remaining human enough to relate to.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for some alien cultures that actually come across as alien-yet-comprehensible, you might try Alan Dean Foster's "Nor Crystal Tears" or Eric Flint's "Mother of Demons".

*hopes she remembered right about ADF, knows she's right about Flint*

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll have to check those out. ^_^

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

No problem. That was one of the things that struck me in both books - it was a little jolt that really caught my attention first time I read them.

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

Species 8472.
I will now fangirl.

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

Klingons are honor-obsessed warriors. Gee, how alien *eyeroll* Oh, wait, wasn't that the SAMURAI?

Not really. I mean, they've got the honour thing down, sure, but I don't really recall much about samurai quaffing from huge kegs of strong liquor, engaging in wild parties and possessing table manners that would make a starving hobo look refined. They're really much more Viking-like than samurai, honour or no.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Well, true enough. *nods* Still, my point stands that there's nothing un-human about them. ^_^

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

True, but could any attribute truly be un-human if it's created by and marketted towards human beings?

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

See my comments above (http://kippurbird.livejournal.com/187861.html?thread=1836245#t1836245). Yes, there's a limit to how alien a fictitious species can be, both by the limits of the author's imagination ane the limits of the reader's ability to empathize, but there's plenty of room to work within that frame. Just looking at differences in human psychology is a good start. Imagine how a society might work where people's standard psychology was different.

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

Worf was actually more Klingon than Klingons, as he's told on several occasions by different characters, which makes a certain amount of sense. He had no access to actual Klingons, only to what people, and most likely Federation people specifically, had written and observed about Klingons. He went out of his way to mold himself into an outsider's somewhat stereotypical view of A Proper Klingon Warrior. Nevermind, of course, that pretty much none of the Klingons we met ever lived up to the Klingon ideals espoused, and quite often demonstrated, by Worf.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

It kinda reminds me of a convert to a new religion. They're usually a better "whatever" than the people brought up in it.

[prototypical]

Fleeing from this strange-looking man, you regain your senses and decide to wait for him. After thanking him for saving your life, you escort him back to the village and offer him proper thanks.

Returning to Arlia Village, you give the stranger a tour of the sites there, introducing him to the various people going about their daily routines.

~Star Ocean: The Second Story, Prima's Official Strategy Guide

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Yay for random geeky books laying around. =D

[prototypical]

I'm not even sure how this got into the computer room. It was sitting on top of a book of baby names I use to help in character creation.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

The baby book would have been funny.

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

If in Naples
I should report this now
Would they believe me?

-The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Tempest)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Your just trying to look smart aren't you? :D

[indescane.livejournal.com]

Pro bono indeed!
'Listen,' he said reassuringly, 'your case is strong. Verres is obviously corrupt. [...]'
~ Imperium, Robert Harris

What about different countries? In the present world, we have stereotypes of people based on their countries. Would similar country stereotypes exist if the countries were composed of human and nonhuman species? Most cultures develop depending on the land; would this be quite as true if it was a mix of species populating it?

Sorry if this post sounds too...too anything, really. They're just questions that arise for me when someone brings up interspecies culture. :]

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

No, you're right. Mixed species communities would create a different culture than those of just a single kind. What I'm complaining about is that we don't see that happening often.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

"He emerged safely inside the fastness of Caradoon Keep, and not a moment too soon. The shouts of the guards and hostlers in the keep's courtyard announced his brother's imminent return.
Renwick gathered up his robes and took the stairs two at a time."

I've already started looking at how different cultures might develop in different species, but I'm not sure how to go about it or how far to go. The only time I've ever seen multiple cultures in a single fantasy racial group has been D&D, like the multitude of elf types in Forgotten Realms. Raymond E Feist has multiple elf types too, as I recall... and in D&D, a different culture is treated as more of a racial subgroup. Drow are physically and mentally different from moon elves, not just socially. But then, once you start dividing a race into cultures, where does it stop? What if you just keep finding possible divergences?

And why can't I come up with a set of dwarves and elves that do NOT have completley opposite values???

Another question... by and large, humans developed different cultures due in part to the different niches and environments they inhabit, right? An abundance of ores make a machine-using culture more likely, a more savage land begets a more barbaric and simplistic lifestyle, and so on. So... what if there are already other races filling those niches? Would humanity divide up as much?

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the fourth line was the kicker.

"If he hurried, he'd have just enough time to reassemble Nimra's babies before their grandsire arrived."

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Certainly they would. There is huge variation even among humans inhabiting very similar environments.

[dryaunda.livejournal.com]

Here's my meme. I want lots of comments telling me how great I am. Comments are money in the blogosphere.

[alexseanchai]

Page twenty-three of the nearest book to hand is the second half of the conjugation chart for Latin verbs of the second declension. It has no sentences to speak of.

Nearest book to hand that is not my Latin dictionary is Return of the King. "'It has been guessed here already,' said Ingold; 'for there have been strange portents here of late. But pass on now quickly! For the Lord of Minas Tirith will be eager to see any that bear the latest tidings of his son, be he man or—'"

Note that this does not mean I have read Return of the King. It just means that I keep the book close to my usual seat in the apartment as a reminder that I really ought to read it.

[alexseanchai]

^ icon I should really have posted that with