more sedoretu

[melannen]

So instead of an FMK review this week you get more talking about sedoretu (not the moiety post yet, that's coming. Probably.)

The opinions on the poll about bookmarking were interestingly split - pretty consistently 2-1 in favor of bookmarking, but the anti-bookmarking people seem to feel more strongly about it. I guess the only solution is for more people to start adding stuff to that collection so mine don't stand out as much!

I also finally read Another Story, or, a Fisherman of the Inland Sea, which is the first and longest of Le Guin's O stories. Or possibly I had already read it and then blocked it out. I am... not sure how I feel about it? It is definitely the most SF-based of them, with quantum physics and interplanetary travel and so on (and probably the most useful for people who want to think about sedoretu in the context of a much larger and more cosmopolitan society than we see in either "Mountain Ways" or "Unchosen Love".)

But. I like both "Mountain Ways" and "Unchosen Love" a lot better. The actual plot of the story seems to be "Hideo gets to have his cake and eat it too." Which is to say, he get to go off and see the galaxy and go to college and take part in universe-changing research and have a prsetigious career, and he also gets to go back in time and marry his childhood sweetheart while she's still young and pretty and inexperienced enough to love him and quietly raise a family with her on the farm. And meanwhile, the version of her that got to grow into herself without him and make her own life as something other than the mother of his kids is erased from existence and he never seems to even think he maybe should mourn that older version of her who was lost forever. Because the version of her that didn't marry him is better off erased from existence anyway, right?

blehhhhhh

It's an interesting metaphor for gender roles re: family and careers and dudes who never have to grow up and get over it, but unfortunately I don't think Le Guin realized that was what she was doing. (It actually reminds me a little bit of a practice run at Ged/Tenar in Tehanu except that Tenar knows that she can go and be the White Lady whenever she wants to and it's all her choice to be something else, and also they both know they will neither of them be able to want normal again even after Ged comes back. Whereas in the final timeline Hideo's love does not get to make any choices for herself and never even finds out that she had an alternate life where she was happy and fulfilled without Hideo.)

Anyway, I still really really like the worldbuilding!

I have managed to narrow it down to ten prompts in the Sedoretu fest that I probably *could* write. (As opposed to the ones I most want to see written, which includes many that I am definitely not the person to write.) They all have pros and cons, which I shall now ramble about here:

1. The city is like a woman... and another woman who happens to also be a vampire... and a man by Anonymous
   Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
   Samuel Vimes, Havelock Vetinari, Sybil Ramkin, Lady Margolotta
   They do it For The City (and also Uberwald) XD
   
   Pros:
   • I was going to prompt this myself but then someone got in first
   
   
   • I already have a first line in my head
   
   
   • writing Ankh-Morpork fic is super fun
   
   Cons:
   • I have absolutely no understanding of Margolotta whatsoever
   
   
   • I would probably have to finally read Snuff



2. epilogue-compliant by AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)
   Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
   Harry Potter Draco Malfoy Ginny Weasley Astoria Greengrass
   yes, I am ruining any possibility of Scorpius/Albus Severus here :P but come on you know this would be a fantastic sedoretu. for instance: what do Ginny and Astoria have in common?
   
   Pros:
   • "What do Ginny and Astoria have in common" very important question
   
   
   • Sedoretu solves the epilogue
   
   Cons:
   • Would have to re-read last HP book, also finally read Cursed Child, to answer question.
   
   
   • Okay but I would want the fic to be all about how Slytherins are all about germane marriages and Weasleys and Muggles are NOT but OP does not seem to want germane marriages to be a thing at all?



3. Gísla saga Súrssonar by Anonymous
   Fandom: Íslendingasögur | Sagas of Icelanders
   Gísla is already about the competing demands of different kinship ties: the sibling bonds, marriages, extramarital and premarital loves, bonds between in-laws, and blood-brotherhood. Talk about a canon where sedoretus fit REALLY WELL and make things EVEN MORE FUCKED UP--I would love to see any exploration of how adding sedoretu marriage and moiety kinship changes any of these relationships.
   
   Pros:
   • Iceland!
   
   
   • Canon is short and already on my to-read asap pile!
   
   
   • Could do it as Ki'O setting and not obsess more than I want to about Iceland!
   
   Cons:
   • Get the impression OP has way more feelings about kinship in sagas than me
   
   
   • Have not actually read canon yet, only people talking about canon
   
   
   • Cannot remember saga genealogies five minutes after reading them



4. actual Ki'O fic by Anonymous
   Fandom: LE GUIN Ursula K. - Works
   Fic for any of the canon Ki'O stories, not a crossover.
   
   Pros:
   • Could write fix-it for Another Story
   
   
   • Would be penance for all those people who look in the Le Guin tags and only find crossovers
   
   Cons:
   • Do not actually know broader Hainish physics well enough to figure out how to make it work
   
   
   • Nobody actually cares about Ki'O



5. My Friends Are Dead and Gone and that is Suddenly a Major Logistical Hurdle by Anonymous
   Fandom: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
   Marius Pontmercy Cosette Fauchelevent
   So, in a sedoretu-verse, I think Les Mis is exactly the same right up until the last act, when Marius and Cosette can't get married because NEITHER OF THEM KNOWS ANYONE WHO ISN'T DEAD or has the slightest idea how to make friends. And now I REALLY want the story of Jean Valjean, Most Socially Awkward Dad Ever, having to suddenly learn how to people in his sixties so he can find suitable partners for his awkward daughter and her awkward fiance.
   
   Pros:
   • ADORABLE, Valjean not dead
   
   Cons:
   • But actually who is left? Even Theodule is the wrong moiety iirc. Would either have to make up OCs or have it be about Valjean using his Batman powers to pull all the not-actually-dead-because-reasons Amis out of hiding, which would also be adorable but also much longer



6. We have come to sleep with you by Anonymous
   Fandom: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
   Marius Pontmercy Cosette Fauchelevent Courfeyrac (Les Misérables)
   Courfeyrac wants to marry Marius. Marius wants to marry Cosette. Cosette won't marry either of them until there's a proper fourth.
   
   Pros:
   • First scene already written, posted to tumblr
   
   
   • would like to write more of it
   
   Cons:
   • Not sure if kosher to finish fic already started elsewhere?
   
   
   • Forgot what happens next (okay what happens next is Eponine and Courfeyrac circle each other extremely carefully for a couple days, and then everybody dies. Not sure how I was planning to write that, though.)



7. pink by Anonymous
   Fandom: Nimona (Webcomic)
   Ballister Blackheart Ambrosius Goldenloin Meredith Blitzmeyer Nimona
   Knights don't get married, villians even less, so Ballister never expected to, even after the end. Then Meredith started dating a mysterious young woman - who turned out to have pink hair - and things got weird, fast.
   
   Cons:
   • We all love Gay Dads AU so it's kinda weird
   
   Pros:
   • Okay but pretend you never heard of gay dads AU, remember that Nimona is very old and capable of making her own choices, and think about Nimona/Goldenloin trying to do an Evening marriage to make Ballister happy



8. Rey/Finn/Poe/? by such_heights
   Fandom: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
   Poe Dameron Finn (Star Wars) Rey (Star Wars)
   Poe's grown up used to four-person marriages. Rey and Finn know nothing about moiety and don't really get why being a triad makes Poe twitchy sometimes.
   
   Pros:
   • Am writing it in my head as we speak
   
   
   • Can probably still get away (for now) with treating IV-VII as an isolated canon and ignoring all the paracanon
   
   Cons:
   • Possibly OP did not want a story about how they obviously already have a fourth and it's BB8 and then the rest of the fic devolves into Artoo and Threepio as the Galaxy's Worst In-Laws
   
   
   • With occasional digressions into Yavin IV aka Classic Maya kinship structures and/or Droid Rights activism and/or astromech linguistics



9. Ivan/By/Rish/Tej by Anonymous
   Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
   Ivan Vorpatril Tej Arqua Vorpatril Rish (Vorkosigan Saga) Byerly Vorrutyer
   So I want pretty much ALL the Vorkosigan sedoretus. For this one, I would love to see lots of wacky espionage hijinks.
   
   Pros:
   • I could fill out this notfic
   
   
   • finally someone else ships Rish/Tej poly, I want to encourage them
   
   Cons:
   • Would have to re-read CVA at minimum
   
   
   • Still not sure if previously published stuff is ok



10. the trials of alys vorpatril by Anonymous
    Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
    Alys Vorpatril Aral Vorkosigan Padma Vorpatril Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
    Alys is determined that her marriage will not be the sort of disaster that gets endlessly circulated as a warning and a scandal, even if Padma insists for reasons surpassing understanding that it really ought to include Aral Vorkosigan, whose first marriage was both of those things. And then the events of Cordelia's Honor play out.
    
    Pros:
    • I ship it. A lot.
    
    
    • I know that part of canon well enough I probably wouldn't have to re-read much
    
    Cons:
    • Am not sure Cordelia's Honor would actually be that different? TBH am more interested in how they arranged the thing in the first place and how Simon got married in later
    
    
    • And if I did the Simon version I would also have to do the "who are Laisa and Gregor going to marry" prompt since Alys' sedoretu rebuilding is predicated on that

...this is weirdly stressful compared to a prompt meme community where I can just blather on in comments without committing to anything until somebody else either writes the thing or I know exactly what I am doing

Comments

[recessional]

I find myself extremely interested in Classic Maya kinship structure.

[melannen]

If you find a good source on it, please let me know! In my wild google trip yestereve looking for Poe's moiety it seemed to mostly be a lot of wild extrapolation by white people based on archaeological floorplans and king lists. (I did manage to find someone who was complaining about how they were all ignoring *modern* Maya kinship structures, but then he didn't manage to explain those coherently either.) I basically got as far as Sedoretu AU!Poe is a Sun person who is looking for Moon partners (although the Sun/Moon moieties were probably not Ki'O style exogamous? If they even existed at all?)

[alexseanchai]

+1