Continuing the discussion from Newton - some thoughts:
Random theory I have is that newton still isn’t dead though he is still an aberrant, shioban discovers this plans to put him to rest, finds he isn’t completely brain dead and ends up rescuing him and discovers break events can be reversed in myrrdins books and attempts to fix him,
I love the idea that Newton can be cured, however, I don’t see how can that be done, or should it be done?
Some people break, and sometimes you can’t be fixed. To fix Newton will take away so much from what is learned from his breaking.
As wrong as it might sound, isn’t there honor in letting him die instead of fixing?
I don’t know, maybe there is a plan to fix him, or kill him. My health and cognitive thinking are preventing me from being able to focus to think about the magic and the rules and what it would be able to do.
I don’t know but it seems the red guard as a whole are sketchy, I think they control members so tightly with their vows because of the power hoarding, by keeping a monopoly on all aberrant remains even the living ones who are more benign, and it seems to me that there are several who are still sentient which to me means there is still part of the original person, and I think that the pursuit of power would prevent them from trying to fix the aberrants
I think what the red guard is doing is totally f*Ed up unless the person has somehow put it in their will that if the become (this kind of aberrant) they don’t mind their body being used for purpose.
It’s so wrong, because it sounds like most aberrant can’t give consent.
Terry Pratchett once had a character say that all evil starts with treating people as things. The Red Guard’s treatment of aberrants is along that line, and I think that’s why they bother me.
One of the things that makes Lacer more sympathetic to me is that Lacer is more empathetic than other members of the Red Guard: he was the only one to treat Moonsable like the damaged thaumaturge she was, instead of just an abstract monster.
Considering Newton’s entire head and brain devolved into vibrating strings, I suspect there’s nothing human left, be it a consciousness or a soul. Though the story has yet to give answers to aquestions of that nature. The norm is likely that abberants have no personality, and anything that appears to the contrary is assumed to just be a part of its nature, just a means to an end instead of a consciousness unto itself.
As for the Pratchett quote, I very much agree. But conversely, when times are tough, treating genetic foreigners nicely is a bad survival strategy. When food or shelter is short, you prioritise the in-group, and live in fear of the out-group. This collectivism is rooted in our evolutionary history, and is the source of genocide. The Red Guard are the final barrier between civilisation and its oblivion to magical disasters, I can see why the rights of aberrants falls low on their priority list. It may be a far-off goal for characters in the story to make civilisation prosperous and powerful enough to give more freedom to the aberrants, but I can only see it being very far in the future, or the good intentions paving the road to hell.
While I agree with you that’s how humans tend to work,
That doesn’t mean it’s right.
That doesn’t mean that they could put in the effort to do small steps to fix things over the long game.
Treating/ aberrants as broken beings instead of objects would be a good start.
Yes, there are some that might not be able to find their way back to being the being before, or even able to consider.ore than its own existence, but don’t treat it like an object. Maybe more like a pet.
Newton clearly still has feelings, when something is loud near him he wants to hum until it’s quiet and calm. Sorry if that means joining you to him, or killing you. He couldn’t control that yet, he didn’t know yet, he wasn’t given the chance to learn.
While blue has read the 4th book to me, I haven’t read it yet, and neither of us have gotten patreon yet. I can’t wait to find out more!