Recognition World
Nov. 6th, 2006 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqI used to be a huge ElfQuest fan. I still like the original story, but after seriously overdosing on it, I find I can only read the original "classic" story.
One of the concepts I always liked from EQ was that of recognition. Recognition (to quote the Wikipedia article above) was "a kind of psionic 'matchmaking' effect that forces the elves to mate, in hopes of breeding children, and often results in a lifelong pair-bonding known as 'life-mating' if the elves are compatible with one another in temperament."
I recently thought that this would make a good speculative fiction story. The following is the rather detailed premise:
1) Aside from the addition of recognition, it is the real world, not the ElfQuest World of Two Moons.
2) On one day in the very recent past, every human who is able gains perfect knowledge of their life-mate. If it's someone they know or knew, they will remember or otherwise have the detailed knowledge necessary to find them. If they don't, they will simply have an image of what the person looks like, as well as a very general sense of where to find them.
3) The people who gain this insight are those that are sufficiently mature to maintain such a relationship and for whom a compatible partner exists.
4) Each pair would be most compatible with each other in as many ways as possible - intellectually, emotionally and sexually. Therefore there could be life-mates who were gay or asexual, as well as heterosexual. Other, rarer possibilities exist so long as the couple were mature and compatible.
5) Despite this, recognition is not a "free pass" and people would still have to work at their relationships. They would have a terrific head start though as well as not having to second-guess their choices.
6) This is a pair-bonding - there are no poly relationships of this nature. Presumably people who identify as poly-amorous would pair with others like themselves, allowing for non-recognition secondary relationships.
7) People who subsequently "qualify" would recognize, presumably because both halves of the pair-bond age sufficiently. This is a permanent change to human nature rather then a one-time thing.
8) When one half of the pair dies, the other half knows it.
Nothing else should be read-into recognition. The relationship is not blessed in any way - you could literally recognize your mate seconds before they die in a plane crash.
My intent for the story is to have the protagonist, who is searching for his life-mate, explore this radically changed world. To that end I would like feedback - what are some logical implications of this world's base assumptions.
One of the concepts I always liked from EQ was that of recognition. Recognition (to quote the Wikipedia article above) was "a kind of psionic 'matchmaking' effect that forces the elves to mate, in hopes of breeding children, and often results in a lifelong pair-bonding known as 'life-mating' if the elves are compatible with one another in temperament."
I recently thought that this would make a good speculative fiction story. The following is the rather detailed premise:
1) Aside from the addition of recognition, it is the real world, not the ElfQuest World of Two Moons.
2) On one day in the very recent past, every human who is able gains perfect knowledge of their life-mate. If it's someone they know or knew, they will remember or otherwise have the detailed knowledge necessary to find them. If they don't, they will simply have an image of what the person looks like, as well as a very general sense of where to find them.
3) The people who gain this insight are those that are sufficiently mature to maintain such a relationship and for whom a compatible partner exists.
4) Each pair would be most compatible with each other in as many ways as possible - intellectually, emotionally and sexually. Therefore there could be life-mates who were gay or asexual, as well as heterosexual. Other, rarer possibilities exist so long as the couple were mature and compatible.
5) Despite this, recognition is not a "free pass" and people would still have to work at their relationships. They would have a terrific head start though as well as not having to second-guess their choices.
6) This is a pair-bonding - there are no poly relationships of this nature. Presumably people who identify as poly-amorous would pair with others like themselves, allowing for non-recognition secondary relationships.
7) People who subsequently "qualify" would recognize, presumably because both halves of the pair-bond age sufficiently. This is a permanent change to human nature rather then a one-time thing.
8) When one half of the pair dies, the other half knows it.
Nothing else should be read-into recognition. The relationship is not blessed in any way - you could literally recognize your mate seconds before they die in a plane crash.
My intent for the story is to have the protagonist, who is searching for his life-mate, explore this radically changed world. To that end I would like feedback - what are some logical implications of this world's base assumptions.
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Religious Implications
Date: 2006-11-07 02:25 pm (UTC)I'm going to assume that Quixote's group that are "able" to pair bond is a relatively small subset of the population - say 5%-8%.
Second, I'm going to further assume that once someone becomes "aware" of their life-mate, that any existing relationship will collapse shortly as the newly aware person begins to seek out their mate. (I may be inferring a drive here that Quixote doesn't intend)
Third, I'm going to couch this in terms of our local (North American) context - and in particular, I'm going to play around with Evangelical Fundamentalism...(because it presents so many "fun" possibilities for a "systemic adversary")
A sudden spike in relationship failure will be noticed primarily by zealous religious groups - especially as members of their flock abandon the highly regulated world of "church law". (Many fundamentalist churches are pseudo-legalistic in their approach to most things)
These groups will deem that pair bonding, especially when it breaks an existing religious marriage covenant, is a moral failing and should be condemned.
Once they learn that there's more to it - a strong internal drive of some kind that the bible doesn't describe - they will begin to attack it the way that evangelical groups attack homosexuals - "pray it away". Try and convince pair-bond aware people that they can "live normal lives" if they pray hard enough.
Other Christian denominations (e.g. United Church) will see it quite differently and may well use the change to justify dropping much of the legalistic aspects of Old Testament scripture in favour of a more allegorical interpretation of New Testament.
The Pope in Rome will condemn divorce and call for massive restrictions on divorce, threatening Catholic politicians with excommunication should they fail to act on his decree. There will be a sudden increase in the number of excommunicate Catholics in North America...
Re: Religious Implications
Date: 2006-11-07 03:09 pm (UTC)Would that stop the scenario you describe? Not if there is a negative correlation between "reactionary asshat" and "abilty to sustain a mature relationship". Then it becomes more likely as the Fred Phelps of the world refuse to believe the experience that everyone else is having. Hell, it would only convince them more that they are on the right path to God and everyone else was going to hell.
I think what would happen would be a lot of double standards. My life-mating is right and true but your life-mating is an abomination and should be banned.
Certainly this could be made a metaphor for what GLBT's experience now, though that was not my original intention.
Re: Religious Implications
Date: 2006-11-07 03:28 pm (UTC)It wasn't where I started either when I read your post - I initially came up with something derived from Le Guin's "Left Hand of Darkness". It was Garething's question about religion that brought the rather obvious real-world metaphor forward.
Re: Religious Implications
Date: 2006-11-13 05:12 am (UTC)A stigma could develop after awhile (i.e. after a generation or two). Initially, too many people will be in denial. You couldn't tell the people ignoring their knowledge from those who simply haven't recognized.
Conversely, a lack of recognition so far does not necessarily mean a lack of recognition forever.