Okay, this is where Claudia, Livia and co. realize that Alexandra is a 5th level magical fighter/3rd level rogue with a few levels in the badass prestige class and has survived the last few years having people and things trying to kill her, partially as an unintended consequence of people being less than strait with her.
It's where Alexandra learns that people really do care about her and love her and she should be a little less hard on them.
Good name for AQATSA would be 'Book of Revelations'.
And I think we're going to have some revelations style stuff basically take place in Larkin Mills and the threat of BSG being light and fluffy in comparision, but only the threat.
So Alexandra is keeping the truth about the barreness curse from Claudia because Claudia might be hurt by it. I wonder if Alex will realize she's doing the same thing to Claudia that Claudia did to her.
This is a response to a comment by tealterror weeks ago.
Edit: I did not read the chapter before posting this!! All of those are true. The fact remains that the rewards you get from a human/human relationship are of a much different kind than those you get from a human/cat relationship, which is all I was arguing. (And while I loved my cat, I have to say my human relationships were far more important to me.)
Agreed. But I'm with Alexandra on this one - her mother is NOT a cat. If nothing else, she can still speak and have short-term memories.
(Was that last meant to be in past tense?)
It is indeed hard to do scientific experiments in this area, lol. But yeah, except for differences in the relationship due to whatever differences the children might have (sex, looks, whatever impacts biology has on personality, etc.), I think the relationship would be the same. There's no real point arguing this - I'm sure you can cherry-pick nature-nurture proofs at least as well as I can.
To be fair to Claudia, she does try to find out what's bothering Alex--she just gives up when Alex refuses to indulge. But I'm not sure that lots of hugs and kisses and deep emotional conversations are necessary to have a family be "bonded the way they should be"...
Right, she gives up. Now I am not a mother, but if a close friend or sibling was sulking for over 3 days, I would insist on finding out what is wrong. Maybe you're right, and there are plenty of less than involved mothers around, who would ignore it. So fine, perhaps Claudia is just not the best mother figure. But I personally think she has the potential to be an excellent mother, but lacks this bond with Alex who she always knew was not truly hers (particularly when she began displaying her magic). I wouldn't experience something as family if it didn't include a certain level of warmth, but as you pointed out, maybe other families work differently.
I thought I wanted to go to law school, and it was suggested that I pick an analytic minor so I could appear well-rounded. Then I decided I didn't want to go to law school after all, but by then it was too late lol. I get that. (thought I wanted to go into clinical neuroscience, ended up only liking the research part, got research experience, thrived on statistics, and ended up in statistics-focused research field.)
Unfortunately I live by myself so that option is closed for me. :( Well that and I do almost all my work on my computer so...
I have two computers: my netbook, for fun, and my work computer. I can't let myself use one for the other.
I actually don't think a person's memories make them who they are; Aisaacs might, but I think it's far more complicated than that. However in the case of amnesia, the entire question is whether "inventing the printing press" was an action done by the post-amnesia Gutenberg too, or whether it was only done by the pre-amnesia Gutenberg.
Your philosophical hairsplitting is confusing me. :) I think my point is that a person's memories are not the only thing that make them who they are, even according to you. I believe a person's actions make them who they are, but of course they are based on memories. So we both get to the same point by opposite directions. Did that make sense?
See you in a few weeks! I hope you accomplish everything you want to accomplish during your break from the internet. :)
Thanks, yes I did, my workload is now reduced to below crisis proportions.
So I definitely feel you are starting to wrap it all up. The thing from the hodag, the dinner, the family get togethers - these are definitely leading up to something great.
The annoying thing about commenting while you are still posting the story is that you never know when something will change.
One major question I now have is what John's role is in the larger story. I.e., will he lead us back to Huckstein? Is he linked to another Voldemort type? Is he a Voldemort wannabe? Will Abraham Thorn make peace with the Confederation through a common fight against John? Will there be a three way confrontation? Or is John just there so Alex can show off and learn more in the process, a subplot, a gigantic subplot?
Back to quote signs - easier than italics. "Sorry, but that's nowhere near enough to form anything like a meaningful relationship IMO. Parrots can do both those things." I guess this goes back to the other discussion about what makes a person who they are - just giving birth, taking care of Alex, and loving her, makes her her mother in my book. I accept that you don't agree. note: Anyway, you can't be telling me that Alex doesn't get to fix her mother; isn't there some kind of nondisclosure agreement for betas? :P Or, if she does fix her, she's a different person than when she was a cat (although she retains that transformative ability.)
"Yeah, my cat died a while back. :(" Sorry to hear that. Just to be clear, I was referring to the human relationship part, I was kidding. :)
"True enough. I tend to instinctively side on the "nurture" part when in doubt." I also have my instinctive reactions. See next:
"Claudia is most certainly not the best mother figure. :p There are plenty of bad mothers out there. I think Claudia's about average TBH." Average good or average all others? It's the difference between being average as a student in preschool, and being an average student in PhD Philosophy at Harvard. When you say someone is an average mother, imo it's not enough that she doesn't abuse the kid and provides a physically safe environment so that they survive childhood with most limbs intact and minimal trauma. Such a kid will still have lots of problems. An average good mother, imho, is involved with her kids' lives, and doesn't just ignore unpleasant issues. She may not handle them perfectly well, but she doesn't neglect them either. I hope this is not frustrating you, as I recognize that my instinct in this area is pretty strong, so there's really no purpose arguing it. For example, the conversation over dinner in this chapter really got on my nerves (as much as I admired Inverarity's execution.) I consider Claudia a poor mother, perhaps she did her best but it wasn't good enough. It may not have been her fault - being a bad mother doesn't mean she's a bad person - but she's not a good mother, even an average good mother.
"That is entirely possible. But if that was the case, I don't think it's because Alex isn't hers biologically. Rather, it would more be a case of having Alex be forced on her without giving her much of a choice."
Makes sense to me.
"I just don't want to put myself into the position of having to say parents are necessarily less loving toward adoptive children than they would be to biological children." Given a choice between biological children and adoptive, or just one?
"It depends on what you mean by 'family.' There are plenty of families that are technically families, in that the people there are related by blood, but so lack in warmth we might want to say they're not "actually" families." Correct.
"Heh. You could say that the printing press was invented by "Gutenberg," just by the Gutenberg who existed before he got amnesia." Got it, thanks. :)
Half sister is the same blood relationship as grandma/grandaughter and aunt/niece. It is common for grandmas and aunts and adoptive parents to love the childern. Claudia has HUGE issues with Wizarding World and with being stuck with Alex and having her career destroyed.
I score Claudia's mothering skills at 43%, she hain't as good as an average mother, but she hain't that bad.
"Alexandra is a 5th level magical fighter/3rd level rogue with a few levels in the badass prestige" Wrong: D&D wizard casts a dozen spells a day; HP wizard casts a dozen spells per minute. In D&D terms, HP wizard chidren start at 100th lvl or more.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inverarity) wrote2012-04-27 07:33 am
no subject
It's where Alexandra learns that people really do care about her and love her and she should be a little less hard on them.
Good name for AQATSA would be 'Book of Revelations'.
And I think we're going to have some revelations style stuff basically take place in Larkin Mills and the threat of BSG being light and fluffy in comparision, but only the threat.
Claudia dies in the next few chapters?
no subject
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-04-27 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)--Geneva
no subject
(no subject)
(Anonymous) - 2012-04-27 15:21 (UTC) - Expandno subject
no subject
(no subject)
response
Edit: I did not read the chapter before posting this!!
All of those are true. The fact remains that the rewards you get from a human/human relationship are of a much different kind than those you get from a human/cat relationship, which is all I was arguing. (And while I loved my cat, I have to say my human relationships were far more important to me.)
Agreed. But I'm with Alexandra on this one - her mother is NOT a cat. If nothing else, she can still speak and have short-term memories.
(Was that last meant to be in past tense?)
It is indeed hard to do scientific experiments in this area, lol. But yeah, except for differences in the relationship due to whatever differences the children might have (sex, looks, whatever impacts biology has on personality, etc.), I think the relationship would be the same.
There's no real point arguing this - I'm sure you can cherry-pick nature-nurture proofs at least as well as I can.
To be fair to Claudia, she does try to find out what's bothering Alex--she just gives up when Alex refuses to indulge. But I'm not sure that lots of hugs and kisses and deep emotional conversations are necessary to have a family be "bonded the way they should be"...
Right, she gives up. Now I am not a mother, but if a close friend or sibling was sulking for over 3 days, I would insist on finding out what is wrong. Maybe you're right, and there are plenty of less than involved mothers around, who would ignore it. So fine, perhaps Claudia is just not the best mother figure. But I personally think she has the potential to be an excellent mother, but lacks this bond with Alex who she always knew was not truly hers (particularly when she began displaying her magic).
I wouldn't experience something as family if it didn't include a certain level of warmth, but as you pointed out, maybe other families work differently.
I thought I wanted to go to law school, and it was suggested that I pick an analytic minor so I could appear well-rounded. Then I decided I didn't want to go to law school after all, but by then it was too late lol.
I get that. (thought I wanted to go into clinical neuroscience, ended up only liking the research part, got research experience, thrived on statistics, and ended up in statistics-focused research field.)
Unfortunately I live by myself so that option is closed for me. :( Well that and I do almost all my work on my computer so...
I have two computers: my netbook, for fun, and my work computer. I can't let myself use one for the other.
I actually don't think a person's memories make them who they are; Aisaacs might, but I think it's far more complicated than that. However in the case of amnesia, the entire question is whether "inventing the printing press" was an action done by the post-amnesia Gutenberg too, or whether it was only done by the pre-amnesia Gutenberg.
Your philosophical hairsplitting is confusing me. :) I think my point is that a person's memories are not the only thing that make them who they are, even according to you. I believe a person's actions make them who they are, but of course they are based on memories. So we both get to the same point by opposite directions. Did that make sense?
See you in a few weeks! I hope you accomplish everything you want to accomplish during your break from the internet. :)
Thanks, yes I did, my workload is now reduced to below crisis proportions.
Re: response
and now for the chapter.
The annoying thing about commenting while you are still posting the story is that you never know when something will change.
You have a great sense of emotional dynamics.
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-04-28 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)One major question I now have is what John's role is in the larger story. I.e., will he lead us back to Huckstein? Is he linked to another Voldemort type? Is he a Voldemort wannabe? Will Abraham Thorn make peace with the Confederation through a common fight against John? Will there be a three way confrontation? Or is John just there so Alex can show off and learn more in the process, a subplot, a gigantic subplot?
--Geneva
tealterror
"Sorry, but that's nowhere near enough to form anything like a meaningful relationship IMO. Parrots can do both those things."
I guess this goes back to the other discussion about what makes a person who they are - just giving birth, taking care of Alex, and loving her, makes her her mother in my book. I accept that you don't agree.
note: Anyway, you can't be telling me that Alex doesn't get to fix her mother; isn't there some kind of nondisclosure agreement for betas? :P
Or, if she does fix her, she's a different person than when she was a cat (although she retains that transformative ability.)
"Yeah, my cat died a while back. :("
Sorry to hear that. Just to be clear, I was referring to the human relationship part, I was kidding. :)
"True enough. I tend to instinctively side on the "nurture" part when in doubt."
I also have my instinctive reactions. See next:
"Claudia is most certainly not the best mother figure. :p There are plenty of bad mothers out there. I think Claudia's about average TBH."
Average good or average all others?
It's the difference between being average as a student in preschool, and being an average student in PhD Philosophy at Harvard. When you say someone is an average mother, imo it's not enough that she doesn't abuse the kid and provides a physically safe environment so that they survive childhood with most limbs intact and minimal trauma. Such a kid will still have lots of problems. An average good mother, imho, is involved with her kids' lives, and doesn't just ignore unpleasant issues. She may not handle them perfectly well, but she doesn't neglect them either.
I hope this is not frustrating you, as I recognize that my instinct in this area is pretty strong, so there's really no purpose arguing it. For example, the conversation over dinner in this chapter really got on my nerves (as much as I admired Inverarity's execution.) I consider Claudia a poor mother, perhaps she did her best but it wasn't good enough. It may not have been her fault - being a bad mother doesn't mean she's a bad person - but she's not a good mother, even an average good mother.
"That is entirely possible. But if that was the case, I don't think it's because Alex isn't hers biologically. Rather, it would more be a case of having Alex be forced on her without giving her much of a choice."
Makes sense to me.
"I just don't want to put myself into the position of having to say parents are necessarily less loving toward adoptive children than they would be to biological children."
Given a choice between biological children and adoptive, or just one?
"It depends on what you mean by 'family.' There are plenty of families that are technically families, in that the people there are related by blood, but so lack in warmth we might want to say they're not "actually" families."
Correct.
"Heh. You could say that the printing press was invented by "Gutenberg," just by the Gutenberg who existed before he got amnesia."
Got it, thanks. :)
"It makes perfect sense, and I agree. :)"
Great.
Claudia
Re: Claudia
Re: Claudia
Re: Claudia
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
Re: tealterror
no subject
I score Claudia's mothering skills at 43%, she hain't as good as an average mother, but she hain't that bad.
"Alexandra is a 5th level magical fighter/3rd level rogue with a few levels in the badass prestige"
Wrong: D&D wizard casts a dozen spells a day; HP wizard casts a dozen spells per minute. In D&D terms, HP wizard chidren start at 100th lvl or more.
(no subject)
(no subject)