Civilization
In which Aunt Asta is in a good mood.
The opening of this chapter is word-for-word the same as in the opening of the first “Civilization” chapter — until it isn’t.
When Asta says that Civilization and the Haosa will end, I think what she means is that the people will continue but the labels and divisions designated by “Civilization” and “Haosa” will blur and disappear. Bentamin doesn’t get the point, perhaps because he’s so immersed in maintaing the system as it is. I think Tekelia will be more likely to get it. (I was going to say, “if Bentamin conveys Asta’s words as she said them and not as he understood them”, but then I remembered that last time Bentamin went to Tekelia with news from the Oracle, Tekelia wasn’t shy about making sure he was giving it verbatim.)
By now, I’m pretty confident that Asta’s Great Ones are Dyoli and Mar Tyn, since she’s talking about them settling down and not just visiting. Which adds some irony to the counsellors of the Haosa being worried about the Great Ones being something more powerful than the dramliz.
I never suspected that the great ones were Doyle and Mar Tyn. I did think of Shan and Priscilla, or even Padi.
I remained unsure about the Great Ones until almost the very end. Authors are fond of twists and turns, so I was still wondering . . .
Paul said, “ When Asta says that Civilization and the Haosa will end, I think what she means is that the people will continue but the labels and divisions designated by “Civilization” and “Haosa” will blur and disappear.”
A sociopolitical system I have not quite understood. It puzzles me that a people who were exiled from Liad for having strange abilities would then exile a subgroup of themselves into the wilderness for having VERY strange and powerful abilities. So, I wonder…Did they exile themselves, to protect the more predictably and less radical people? How do the Haosa feel about being cast out? Do they feel cast out?