Moments of Permanence - Because I need to think about things that are differently stressful, sometimes...

From: anatsuno Date: May 9th, 2009 11:55 pm (UTC) (Link)

wow. you are so right. And now I get all of a sudden what I found so likeable and yet vaguely nauseating in the Drasnians: they're my people, except they're my people defaced by prejudice / stereotype.

God. How did I never see this before?

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From: sami Date: May 10th, 2009 12:03 am (UTC) (Link)

I'm disconcerted by this - I never would have twigged Drasnians as faux-Jewish.

Possibly because of the whole Alorn thing, I just... in my head, all of the Alorns are tagged as variant northern Europeans, because they're all descended from the Alorns, who are kind of Vikingish in my head.

I suppose it doesn't help that I haven't read Eddings in about ten years.

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From: anatsuno Date: May 10th, 2009 12:10 am (UTC) (Link)

Hmm. Less than ten years for me, but I haven't reread in a while. I had forgotten the Alorn roots - I'll have to think about this more, but yeah, once pointed out, I can't not see the merchant / spy emphasis-on-the-nose angle, either.

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From: sami Date: May 10th, 2009 12:18 am (UTC) (Link)

The nose thing was only Silk, though, wasn't it? I don't recall other Drasnians with nose issues. But... many years. And I'm only just now really thinking about it.

On the one hand, the spying thing - that doesn't code Jewish to me, because on the one hand, Drasnians outside Drasnia generally are spies, but on the other hand, they don't tend to pass as anything but Drasnians, and, as they have their own well-marked homeland, etc, they don't have a lot of the same historical characteristics I associate with Jews-as-ethnic/national group.

Eddings is fairly strong on ethnic determinism, after all, so having characteristics ascribed to nationalities isn't exactly limited to Drasnians. Tolnedrans are secular and greedy, Arends are stupid, Sendarians are practical, the, um, snaky people are junkies, etc. (Issan? Nyissan? Something like that.)

It's easier than characterisation, I suppose.

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