I guess you just didn’t communicate the essential female-ness of Aerhien very effectively (at least to me), because it didn’t seem to me like it was very important to what limited character development she got.
The background story that was alluded to came across quite clearly. Not only did the character emerge sufficiently that a sex change would have felt awkward, it left me grasping for the tantalising details that couldn’t quite be fit into the short story format.
The question of “what gender is”, when you strip away the purely anatomical, is a topic of great interest to me.
It seems to me that while Aerhien’s gender wasn’t essential to the story, there were certain aspects of her personality that hinted at it (and I’m not talking about the eyelashes) -- but I wouldn’t go beyond that; if she had been written as male, I don’t think I would have sensed any incongruity.
Without further biasing the discussion by mentioning what I think those personality aspects might be, I’m curious to find out what attributes other people thought made her essentially female—among those who hold this position, that is.
Are we arguing about some Platonic “essentials”, in that fictional characters “actually exist somewhere”? I believe that the fictional characters were formed in Eliezer’s brain as representations of certain archetypes (such as, as he noted, the “wise female council leader”) that he felt best represented the characterization he was intending to give them.
It doesn’t mean the story wouldn’t work if the characters were given different genders or other different characteristics. It means that the author would find it unfitting to his semi-conscious concept of the story and its fictional setting, which is unknown to us except for what’s revealed in the text, and is necessarily richer than the text. Or at least, I generously assume that this is what Eliezer was arguing—that “she had to be female” meant “I believe she worked best as female as the representation of my character role concept”, not a postulation of some fictional Platonism.
The background story that was alluded to came across quite clearly. Not only did the character emerge sufficiently that a sex change would have felt awkward, it left me grasping for the tantalising details that couldn’t quite be fit into the short story format.
The question of “what gender is”, when you strip away the purely anatomical, is a topic of great interest to me.
It seems to me that while Aerhien’s gender wasn’t essential to the story, there were certain aspects of her personality that hinted at it (and I’m not talking about the eyelashes) -- but I wouldn’t go beyond that; if she had been written as male, I don’t think I would have sensed any incongruity.
Without further biasing the discussion by mentioning what I think those personality aspects might be, I’m curious to find out what attributes other people thought made her essentially female—among those who hold this position, that is.
“Essential” in what sense?
Are we arguing about some Platonic “essentials”, in that fictional characters “actually exist somewhere”? I believe that the fictional characters were formed in Eliezer’s brain as representations of certain archetypes (such as, as he noted, the “wise female council leader”) that he felt best represented the characterization he was intending to give them.
It doesn’t mean the story wouldn’t work if the characters were given different genders or other different characteristics. It means that the author would find it unfitting to his semi-conscious concept of the story and its fictional setting, which is unknown to us except for what’s revealed in the text, and is necessarily richer than the text. Or at least, I generously assume that this is what Eliezer was arguing—that “she had to be female” meant “I believe she worked best as female as the representation of my character role concept”, not a postulation of some fictional Platonism.