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The importance of planning, Ice
Feb. 7th, 2007 05:49 pmSo I wrote up the opening of the next chapter of Ice, which is going to involve what they stole/reclaimed. Originally I was planning to ignore it and have it reappear years later without even saying it was the same thing, but figured I should throw basic continuity a bone.
But anyway, I realize that what I wrote really should have been the end of the last chapter, not the start of the next. Whatever. In five more chapters I'll move it so it works better, screwing over all my readers who will wonder if something's wrong with their memory. When people ask I'll deny it and suggest they seek psychiatric help and medication before the problem gets worse.
I've actually got three or four complete chapters of Ice already written, but they all take place further along in the story. Because I like futility and am also stupid, today I wrote the beginning of a sequel chapter to the chapter that won't be posted in my lifetime at the rate I'm writing chapters.
Anyway, between producing unproductively, I've been kicking around views on revenge. The child should have pretty strong ones, or to put it differently, she does, and I'm trying to work out why. Working it out I keep winding up with her not caring, but I think that's an artifact of trying to work out any very rational character because I've seen it crop up elsewhere. Also, that line of thought makes her not care about other things and shortly stops making sense entirely.
I did come to the conclusion that she's got a different view of time than we do (thank you, Serebii! Your pointless rehash thread about pokemon sentience managed to have some use after all). Humans see things in terms of the past and present, with the future being of far less importance. Her viewpoint is flipped - she operates in the present and future. We view the future as relevant only in specific instances (where we assume one thing or another will happen). She's much better at predicting the future, and has a much more organized memory, so she sees the future as more concrete, and the past as relevant only in specific instances when she pulls out something that's important in relation to the future.
Consequently, while to a human, saying you're going to kill someone who helped you because they might cause trouble later is very wrong because (among other things), we place high value on past events. When we guess about the future, we automatically assume similar things will happen. Even when evidence exists that future events will be different, we want to act based on past events. From our view, it's killing someone who is still helpful, and we act accordingly. The child doesn't.
Also, it's a nonhuman view that is not accomplished by taking human intelligence, cutting it apart, and handing the remains to your nonhuman character. Fucking McCaffrey dragons.
But anyway, I realize that what I wrote really should have been the end of the last chapter, not the start of the next. Whatever. In five more chapters I'll move it so it works better, screwing over all my readers who will wonder if something's wrong with their memory. When people ask I'll deny it and suggest they seek psychiatric help and medication before the problem gets worse.
I've actually got three or four complete chapters of Ice already written, but they all take place further along in the story. Because I like futility and am also stupid, today I wrote the beginning of a sequel chapter to the chapter that won't be posted in my lifetime at the rate I'm writing chapters.
Anyway, between producing unproductively, I've been kicking around views on revenge. The child should have pretty strong ones, or to put it differently, she does, and I'm trying to work out why. Working it out I keep winding up with her not caring, but I think that's an artifact of trying to work out any very rational character because I've seen it crop up elsewhere. Also, that line of thought makes her not care about other things and shortly stops making sense entirely.
I did come to the conclusion that she's got a different view of time than we do (thank you, Serebii! Your pointless rehash thread about pokemon sentience managed to have some use after all). Humans see things in terms of the past and present, with the future being of far less importance. Her viewpoint is flipped - she operates in the present and future. We view the future as relevant only in specific instances (where we assume one thing or another will happen). She's much better at predicting the future, and has a much more organized memory, so she sees the future as more concrete, and the past as relevant only in specific instances when she pulls out something that's important in relation to the future.
Consequently, while to a human, saying you're going to kill someone who helped you because they might cause trouble later is very wrong because (among other things), we place high value on past events. When we guess about the future, we automatically assume similar things will happen. Even when evidence exists that future events will be different, we want to act based on past events. From our view, it's killing someone who is still helpful, and we act accordingly. The child doesn't.
Also, it's a nonhuman view that is not accomplished by taking human intelligence, cutting it apart, and handing the remains to your nonhuman character. Fucking McCaffrey dragons.
