...And they turn away and go back to their work—all except for one, who brushes past the grasshopper and whispers “Meet me outside at dusk and I’ll bring you food. We can preserve the law and still forgive the deviation.”
Did I hallucinate an earlier edit of this where this line comes later in the story (after the “And therefore, to reduce risks of centralization, and to limit our own power, we can’t give you any food” line?). I found it more meaningful there (maybe just because of where I happen to be at my own particular journey of moral sophistication.
Yeah, I moved it to earlier than it was, for two reasons. Firstly, if the grasshopper was just unlucky, then there’s no “deviation” to forgive—it makes sense only if the grasshopper was culpable. Secondly, the earlier parts are about individuals, and the latter parts are about systems—it felt more compelling to go straight from “centralized government” to “locust war” than going via an individual act of kindness.
Curious what you found more meaningful about the original placement?
The stage of moral grieving I’m personally at is more at the systems stage, and I’m still feeling a bit lost and confused about it. I felt like I actually learned a thing from the reminder ‘oh, we can still just surreptitiously forgive the sinner via individual discretion despite needing to build the system fairly rigidly.’ Also I did recognize the reference to speaker for the dead, and the combination of ‘new satisfying moral click’ alongside a memory of when a simpler application of the Orson Scott Card quote was very satisfying.
Did I hallucinate an earlier edit of this where this line comes later in the story (after the “And therefore, to reduce risks of centralization, and to limit our own power, we can’t give you any food” line?). I found it more meaningful there (maybe just because of where I happen to be at my own particular journey of moral sophistication.
Yeah, I moved it to earlier than it was, for two reasons. Firstly, if the grasshopper was just unlucky, then there’s no “deviation” to forgive—it makes sense only if the grasshopper was culpable. Secondly, the earlier parts are about individuals, and the latter parts are about systems—it felt more compelling to go straight from “centralized government” to “locust war” than going via an individual act of kindness.
Curious what you found more meaningful about the original placement?
The stage of moral grieving I’m personally at is more at the systems stage, and I’m still feeling a bit lost and confused about it. I felt like I actually learned a thing from the reminder ‘oh, we can still just surreptitiously forgive the sinner via individual discretion despite needing to build the system fairly rigidly.’ Also I did recognize the reference to speaker for the dead, and the combination of ‘new satisfying moral click’ alongside a memory of when a simpler application of the Orson Scott Card quote was very satisfying.