[Dragaera] Vlad's passivity--getting long

[Michael Wojcik]

Jerry Friedman wrote:
> 
> It's true we haven't seen any mass media, but we know
> there are ballads, and /Taltos/ and /Issola/ seem
> perfect for that.  There are also books.

And probably some equivalent to broadsheets; popular theater (we know
theater existed just prior to the Interregnum, and I don't see any
reason it would have stopped); gossip spread by merchants and other
travelers.

>> Given what we've seen of the
>> culture, I daresay that
>> the response of 'celebrities' to scandal is likely
>> to be, not lawsuits,
>> but, at best, duels; at worst, hiring thugs to burn down
>> the press and beat up/kill the owner.
> 
> I didn't say scandal.  Aliera and Morrolan should be
> among the "beautiful people".  They should be
> described admiringly in the sort of magazines I
> was trying to find an example of just now, but
> couldn't.  Maybe I want /Town and Country/?

/Better Castles and Estates/?

Agreed, though. Morrolan runs a continual party for the elite, and
Aliera likes to play the "cute dilettante", as Vlad says in /Jhereg/,
when she's not killing people or engaged in serious business. They're
prominent figures in the Phoenix Court. People come to Castle Black to
see and be seen.

>> And I expect that the events of _Issola_ are as
>> Top Secret as it is possible to make them.
> 
> Why?  I'd expect the government to proclaim this
> glorious victory in every village.  I'd expect the
> Jenoine to be the Empire's Communists or al-Qaida,
> the reason the Empire and nobility are needed and
> shouldn't be disturbed.

Hmm. I'm not so sure about that. I tend to suspect (based on no
evidence) that most Dragaerans know little or nothing about the
Jenoine; that even most nobles are unaware of the actual situation
regarding them; and that the Empire would keep a major crisis like
/Issola/ under wraps. The Easterners are the Empire's token threat to
trot out for flag-waving purposes. The Jenoine are too scary for that.

If memory serves, we know from /Orca/ that a recent Jenoine incident
was hushed up by the Empire, or at least dealt with covertly and not
publicized (which amounts to roughly the same thing).


-- 
Michael Wojcik
Micro Focus
Rhetoric & Writing, Michigan State University