Look to the West Volume VII: The Eye Against the Prism
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
It'll probably be something like that. I'm still holding out hope for a reconstructed Old Eurasian in a Societist power, maybe Yapon as ironically the only major part of the Unfree World that originally spoke a language not derived from Indo-European.
*Edit- I know it's a stretch but what about some form of neo-Sumerian in the Eternal State, at least as a fervent passion project?
Last edited:
I wish they'd stuck with that, rather than making them generic Space Totalitarians in the next series. Of course, given that they had an episode with literal Romans in space (or at least on a distant planet somewhere IN SPACE), perhaps they felt two sets of Space Romans was pushing Hodgkins Law of Parallel Planetary Development too far.
"Goulashian." Or maybe "Goulashic."
Or Uyghurs...
The difference is that the Balkans was the Ottoman heartland until pretty late into their decline IOTL (so likely not the case ITTL) while neither Tibet nor Uyghuristan are the Chinese heartland.
On something of a different tack, given the Societist focus on synthesizing cross-cultural trends would Combine fantastic romance focus on platonic ideals of things like dragons or undead, both of which are broadly represented in various mythologies? It's mentioned that vampires and zombies are considered a relatively recent niche phenomenon, but given that this is in a Diversitarian text published well before the Last War of Supremacy is it possible that the Unfree World made use of some sort of gestalt "hungry dead" or "giant magic lizard" concept that simply went unnoticed by the Prism at the time due to ideological biases and a lack of reliable primary sources from within the Eye's field of vision?
Last edited:
Societism is not focused on rationality but rather on universality.
And short of walking, eating, sleeping and breathing, there is little which is more universal among human civilisations than sitting around a warm hearth in the evening to tell stories to the kids.
In the Societist Combine, VoxHumana does that for you. (I suppose)
I could see a Joseph Campbell analogue being from the Combine. It seems like the perfect place, ideologically, to get an analysis like OTL's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. State-sponsored (or enforced) versions of the Hero's Journey perhaps to emphasize the universality of themes among different cultures?
On the other hand, assuming such a thing were to become as influential as it was OTL, maybe some particularly driven Diversitarians or Diversitarian groups try to push back against it. Literature, film, and other fiction end up being very art house-esque in rejecting things like traditional storytelling structure, etc.
On the other hand, assuming such a thing were to become as influential as it was OTL, maybe some particularly driven Diversitarians or Diversitarian groups try to push back against it. Literature, film, and other fiction end up being very art house-esque in rejecting things like traditional storytelling structure, etc.
Last edited:
Skallagrim
Banned
In a more moderate sense, you'll definitely see Societist interpretations of mythology stress the universality of themes etc. -- while Diversitarian interpretations are bounds to highlight how different each tradition is, and how all mythological sagas are unique.
Oh Lord imagine the endless books about how Aztec mythology is the perfect counterexample to the Combine's doctrines of universal archetypes in the myths of the first three Societies.
"In the American Empire, you read books. In the Societist Combine, the ruling caste reads you!"
Skallagrim
Banned
I was thinking "In the Societist Combine, narrative shapes you!" -- but then I realised... "In the Diversitarian bloc, narrarive shapes you!"
This tells us something about the world of LTTW...
Well, I think we could still say "In Soviet Russia" for this timeline...
Hey! As long as cobrist revolutionaries have national characteristics it's better than the alternative!
*shudders in a culturally distinct way*