When I read that part of the story, it looked like a storefront on a stage set with nothing behind it. That is, I saw nothing in the story to indicate that Eliezer had given any thought to fleshing out the actual complexity of a detail that was merely mentioned in passing. A Rowlingism, one might call it. There’s no point wondering how that custom works in that society and how it came to be, because it’s a fictional society and if the author didn’t imagine anything to fill that gap, there’s nothing actually there. The only function of the detail is to be a nod to the posting on weirdtopias.
Eliezer said in the comments that it was in fact a fully fleshed out idea, but taken from a different story, and that it didn’t seem right in the context of this story because it belonged to a different universe.
When I read that part of the story, it looked like a storefront on a stage set with nothing behind it. That is, I saw nothing in the story to indicate that Eliezer had given any thought to fleshing out the actual complexity of a detail that was merely mentioned in passing. A Rowlingism, one might call it. There’s no point wondering how that custom works in that society and how it came to be, because it’s a fictional society and if the author didn’t imagine anything to fill that gap, there’s nothing actually there. The only function of the detail is to be a nod to the posting on weirdtopias.
Eliezer said in the comments that it was in fact a fully fleshed out idea, but taken from a different story, and that it didn’t seem right in the context of this story because it belonged to a different universe.
But yes, the out-of-placeness is noticeable.