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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   15631 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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This is also what was grating for me in Ancillary Justice - I get how the (ex)AI may be weak on the concept of gender, and how its (her?) default may be stuck on female. That's understandable. But a small child learns to grasp that concept - and how to use it - within rather short time. Breq is clearly aware (it was stated in the text, as I remember) that genders exist, and that gendered languages - including some she is using - exist, and that some of the people she is talking about are male (she may be unaware initially, but it's not after repeated encounters) and there is a proper way to address them in that language. Yet she keeps applying "she" to them as some kind of obsessive tick. That breaks the immersion. At least such a major flaw should be somehow addressed.

In general, the first part itself looked average for me. Some of the ideas and depiction of Raadch, its philosophy and the consequences of its multiple-personalities setup are well done, but the style and the pace didn't really work for me that well, and I couldn't really feel anything for the protagonist. Didn't try the other parts for this reason.

If aspiring writers of science fiction and fantasy can't make it without catering to woke sensibilities, then unfortunately the quality of the genre will drop drastically

I expect this is exactly what is going to happen. Likely already happening. Alas.

I thought it was just Breq not caring about learning other pronouns or gender concepts than Radch female pronouns. Which was character building: Breq is fully-immersed chauvinist partisan for Radch totalitarianism.

By the time we meet her she's anything but, I think.

Breq is clearly aware (it was stated in the text, as I remember) that genders exist, and that gendered languages - including some she is using - exist, and that some of the people she is talking about are male (she may be unaware initially, but it's not after repeated encounters) and there is a proper way to address them in that language. Yet she keeps applying "she" to them as some kind of obsessive tick. That breaks the immersion. At least such a major flaw should be somehow addressed.

Yep this is a great overview of my thoughts. The immersion was just broken when this supposedly brilliant AI who's existed for thousands of years makes such a basic mistake over and over - with no explanation as to why that's happening.

My Chinese ex, despite living in the US for over two years and speaking English everyday, frequently would confuse she / he and use the wrong pronoun in conversation because Chinese doesn’t really have gendered pronouns.

If a real life human has issues with it why wouldn’t an alien?

Two years is not that much, and it's one thing to occasionally make a mistake, and another to consistently use the wrong one while knowing it's wrong.

Yet she keeps applying "she" to them as some kind of obsessive tick.

Maybe hard-wired in, if all the commentary about scooping out bits of brain to fit in all the cybertech is correct? Can't be corrected/reprogrammed without access to the fancy AI starship tech which she currently doesn't have. And/or it is an obsessive tic, the human brain is damaged, this is like Tourettes Syndrome.

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