A l'entrada del temps clar

(nitpicking SWANA is not the issue, although the term seems to be deployed here instead of MENA very intentionally, as part of the effort to erase Israelis).

tabletmag:

The media is at it again, and the latest NY Mag is way worse than it looks. Naturally, we read the main articles so you don’t have to.

Yes, these are real.

I don’t know how we’re supposed to combat this or impress upon non-Jewish audiences how completely bonkers, frighteningly discriminatory, and nefariously antisemitic and xenophobic a piece like this. its entire purpose isn’t to uplift anyone, it is to cast suspicion upon and attempt to ostracize and force out and culturally erase one specific people.

“the Jews are not a part of us. no matter where they live, they are foreigners. unwelcome. inhuman. invaders. their existence victimizes ours. they have no culture, unlike us. they are puerile and violent. they are thieves. they have no food that isn’t stolen. they create no meaningful art. they don’t contribute, they just leech off of the rest of us. we are subjected to them and forced to do business with them, and it’s harmful to our morals and our society. we must not normalize tolerating them.”

Finished Star Surgeon!

Is it weird that my main takeaway is trying to figure out what things I'd change for a screen adaptation?

Speaking of, I wanna discuss this.

@ciotkahermenegilda @tigirl-and-co @greencheekconure27 Uh, who else should I tag for this?

I feel like the species codes might need to be re-worked a little? Like, it's a little silly that species as diverse as Earth-Humans, Orligians (who are furry and long-muzzled) and, and Nidians (3-foot red-furred teddy bears) are all DBDG, whereas the tripedal, storklike Nallijim are LSVO and the tripedal, storklike Eurils are MSVK.

Also the idea that the first letter represents "evolutionary levels" is absurd. Heck it doesn't even work in-universe; it's noted that "A" is for aquatic species, being the "least evolved", and then they found sentient plants and had to invent "AA", except the AACPs still only have four letters, so what got left out, hmm?

i think what might be better is a color/shape code system, where it's like... the shape represents something, and the colour is the general environment the species requires, and then a secondary shape inside to convey additional information

so like square-yellow-square could be 'quadruped from a hot, sulfurous environment who require heavy gravity'

Another thing I'm not sure how to square the circle on is the initial assertion that the Monitor Corps is staffed solely by Earth-Humans. This is absurd, and White himself ignored it later, but there are MULTIPLE bits in Star Surgeon where this fact is crucial to the plot.

And like, I suppose you could skip Star Surgeon in an adaptation, but like...why would you? It's a great story that illustrates the series' central themes, it's the only time we get space battles, it introduces Commander Dermod to the setting (cuz his original debut, which I haven't been able to get my hands on, was written to take place out-of-verse at editorial insistence), it's relevant to a later story, it has the ad-hoc translator sequence which IMo is one of Conway's best moments, it's got multiple bits of Prilicla demonstrating that he's not only got the biggest balls of anyone in the hospital he's got balls bigger than the hospital, and it's got Conway and Murchison's romance (which is surprisingly well done under the circumstances).

EDIT:

@ciotkahermenegilda @skjam @greencheekconure27

I think we should keep the letter codes but definetely scrap the evolutionary level explanation- just ignore this bit and use the first letter to group according to (rough correspondence to) taxonomical orders. It's still not going to be perfect- taxonomical orders don't even work perfectly for Earth, why would they be ideal for aliens from all over the universe) , but it would be enough to give one an idea of whether to expect a mammal or an invertebrate. All models are flawed but some are useful.

Maybe even include some background discussion of how the system is based too much on Earth and Orligia (rooted in the backstory with the Human-Orligian war) and is long due for an overhaul. The alphabet thing could be part of that- they had to pick something, and early on, there were few enough species and enough linguistic coincidences for it to work (and after all, learning JUST a 26 letter alphabet, not the actual language, is not THAT hard-how many of us know the Greek alphabet without knowing Greek?) , but it too is starting to cause issues, with species that don't rely on vision for example.

The Monitor Corps thing I would make a gradual evolution from human-only personnel to starting to include other species in response to the inevitable criticism.

@greencheekconure27 100% agree on the classification system. A set of 26 symbols is definitely manageable, and allows for a massive number of permutations. @tigirl-and-co you're right the Latin letters could use a back-up, though, given the diversity of the species - another set or several sets of 26 distinct signals that would be clear for aliens whose communication systems don't use distinct phonemes or written word (kind of analogous to how they mark all the hospital vessels with symbols from several different cultures alongside with the red cross). These could be anything from geometrical shapes, colour shades to sound frequencies or embossings. It's something you could bring up in dialogue once or twice, and just consistently sprinkle in set and prop design.

(I also like the fact that the classification system is imperfect, it makes it kind of more realistic to me. When I first came across that bit about AACP I actually appreciated it as a clever nod to how quickly the discoveries of modern biology outgrew Linneus' system.)

As for the Monitor Corps = Earth humans, I'd definitely take the gradual evolution route as well. It would be true to the spirit of the books (I can't think of any other long-running sci-fi series, where the author actively tried to reflect his changing beliefs and the societal changes around them) and I guess it could make sense within the internal chronology of the books. Now, White's chronology is kind of wonky*, but here's what we know for sure:

everything that happened between the construction of the hospital and the end of "Double Contact" fits within one human lifetime - O'Mara is in his 20s when he's working on the construction site and in "Double Contact" he's recently retired;

the concept of the inter-species hospital emerged some 270 years after the end of the Earth-Orligia war (MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki were brought out of stasis after 236 years and the events of "The Accident" take place over 30 years later); at that time the Monitor Corps has just gained Federation-wide acceptance (MacEwan says something along the lines of "Recently, you're more and more widely accepted as the Federation's law enforcement"** and he criticized the fact that the vast majority - not all, though - corpsmen are humans right after that).

"more time than even the most conservative calculations had assumed"** passed before the hospital was actually operational. This, unfortunately, can mean... anything. But I'd assume 20 years would be the minimum to warrant this wording. In the meantime, many new species have experienced first contact and joined the Federation.

In "The Accident" it's pretty clear that the radical pacifism of MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki is not yet widespread (and in most of the books it seems both to be the most common attitude and official Federation doctrine). That makes me think it could take place at around the same time (same decade or so) as "Occupation: Warrior" which shows us Dermod as a young man. In "The Accident" there is a risk of war on Thralta and in "Occupation: Warrior" Earth and Kelgia still have individual armies and choose to fight each other. The Corps in "Occupation: Warrior" seems to have different priorities than in the main series - they are more like Galactic Geneva Convention Enforcers rather than the policing + search and rescue + exploration + humanitarian aid conglomerate they act as in the later books.

I'd also assume that some 15-20 years must have passed between the construction of the hospital (and O'Mara's assumption into the Corps) and the beginning of Conway's career. And it's important to note that young Conway is very critical of the Corps, but for completely different reasons than young Dermod was. Dermod grew up in a world where war was still a natural thing, Conway grew up in a world where it was almost unthinkable.

Based on that I'd assume that the Corps was created some time - perhaps 20 or 30 years - before "The Accident" and "Occupation: Warrior". It was most likely an Earth human-led initiative, and it obviously must have had some alien support, but the moral relativism embedded in its philosophy seemed murky to species with more black and white morals, so mostly humans joined up. I'd assume some 20 more years passed before the hospital was constructed and 15 or 20 more elapsed before Conway showed up (I'm compressing the timeline as much as I can to fit it into Dermod's lifetime). After that the species make-up of the corps starts to change. I'd say over the span of the whole series we see the first 4 generations of Monitors and their different roles and priorities:

1st generation: the unnamed Monitors from "Occupation: Warrior" and "The Accident", members of a relatively bare-bones organization who try to prevent and mitigate any interspecies conflict and manage the wars they couldn't prevent in order to reduce casualties and minimize the risks of war crimes or genocide. They face criticism as an outside force that meddles into the actions of planetary governments, limiting their freedom of action.

2nd generation: people like Dermod, often veterans and/or reformed militarists who want to make up for wartime destruction but also bring in a ton of military expertise which allows the Corps to mobilize and organize larger units and to act as the defense force of the Federation should the need arise. By the time of the Etlan war, they are in high-ranked positions, still ready for combat, thankfully. Still way over 90% human. Their presence contributes to the perception of the Corps as a relic of a more brutal time when war was still common.

3rd generation: O'Mara and Skempton, people with more diverse roles and more specialised skill-sets, who may rarely be involved in actual combat or law-enforcement, focusing more on humanitarian projects and managing large-scale interspecies collaboration. The Corps is definitely ready to work with sentient-beings of any species and they might try to recruit more widely on other planets but they are not very popular due to being seen as a morally grey necessity at best and a brutal relic of a bygone era at worst: if Conway seems them as such, they must deal with even more prejudice in culture who found their entire premise foreign.

4th generation: Fletcher, Braithwaite and Lioren joined up in the era of post-Etlan war reconstruction with chief focus on humanitarian aid, exploration and research. Humans still make the majority of the Corps but the organization is becoming more diverse as its changing priorities are becoming more acceptable to more species AND cultural relativism becomes more widespread in different societies due to longer coexistence with aliens.

And as to what I'd change... More consistent timeline! Dammit James, keep track of time!

*Even on time scales much smaller than this. My personal pet-peeve is the fact that Hewlitt still describes Fletcher as young in "Final Diagnosis". Based on the references to the Etlan war and the timeline of Conway's career Hewlitt must have been a teenager (if not younger) when Fletcher was given the command of the Rhabwar, and the captain had had an academic career before that.

This allows the Monitors to present as being a Federation outfit rather than an Earth-Human one while still allowing the subplot of various e-t militaries rolling up to join the defense. There is still the issue of handling the Translator problem, but given how long Earth-Humans and Orligians have been close to each other, and the fact that we're both DBDG and can be assumed to have a similar vocal apparatus, it makes sense that A: Universal is spoken by both species and B: there are Earth-Humans who grow up speaking Orligian languages and vice versa.

What say y'all?

Anyways, other thought. So initially, all the nurses are female, and that's the only role available to women in the hospital, because '50s. Later, White acknowledges the ridiculousness if this, and one of the ways is Murchison becoming a Pathologist. And I get what he's going for, but like...these aren't the same field? And also slightly disrespectful to nursing as a profession? But also want to keep her as Thonnastor's sidekick, cuz that's a fun relationship.

Speaking of, whilst it is obligatory that Murchison be sex on legs, I do think we need to make it clear that Conway thinks she's the hottest woman in the hospital because he loves her, etc. Which does mean we need at least one nurse who is hotter. I may be overthinking this.

Speaking of overthinking, it bugs me that Conway, a surgeon, is referred to as Senior Physician for multiple books, and that the title for someone who's running around with a bunch of permanent Educators is Diagnostician when that has nothing to do with Diagnostics, but I don't think that's fixable; chalk it up to translation of e-t terminology. Sidenote, which is also a reason to call Educators "mind-tapes"; whoever invented the technology still refer to the medium used to store computer data as whatever their words is for tapes, even when it isn't actually on tape.

Other thought: need to make it clear that simply having an Educator isn't enough to make you a doctor, you need to have an actual grounding in medicine or it's no good to you for...reasons. Unless you're an autodidact freak like O'Mara.

(aside for future project; O'Mara as member of the La Clan in an Apothecary Diaries fusionfic)

Anyways, thoughts on adapting specific stories? Speaking of, we thinking of only adapting the source material or also having original stuff?

(sidenote, any of y'all know any other people we should be getting into this convo?)

I feel like Star Surgeon would take up a whole season, yeah? Possibly more than that; the previous season would at some point have the introduction of Lonvellin, then a two-part season finale that ends with the Etlan Military showing up and nuking the poor guy, and the next season is the war?

WRT original content, gotta address the never-picked up plot thread of, thanks to Khone, Cha Thrat sorta-kinda being in love with Murchison?

(incidentally; they make Educators from the best doctors of any given species, yes? And Khone is the best doctor the Gogleskans have... Now that's a fun nightmare scenario)

-Would it make sense to ditch the "only Earh-Humans have a nudity taboo" bit?

-Should Etlans be full-on Human Aliens or Star Trek-style Rubber Forehead Aliens or what?

-I've asked this before, but how do we do the running gag of the characters gossiping about the SLNU ward?

-Should the Order of Events be rejiggered, so we get O'Mara's little band of screw-ups earlier?

-Speaking of, how do we balance the first half of the series, which is The Conway Show, with the back half?

You understand him fully, you know how much he's suffering and why and you do feel his pain when he shows it, you just want to reach over and give him a shake and wake him up to what he's doing wrong because it's so clear he wants to be loved and good and surely if he just tried-

And of course it's so obvious that he won't try, and he murders his only friend and makes his wife and son's lives hell and seduces a woman even as his wife's possible infidelity torments him and bows to the Inquisition and believes the twisted justifications he creates for the evil he does...

I (M60) recently married my son (M23)'s beloved fiancée (F23). Please note that this was a political arrangement. Ever since the marriage, my son has been depressed. My wife is also deeply unhappy and clearly does not love me. I know this because I caught her in the act of being alone, without a single lady-in-waiting as a chaperone! Naturally, I assumed that she must have quickly dismissed an illicit 'companion' before I arrived - namely, my son. As punishment, I banished my wife's best friend from court, but that still doesn't solve the root of the problem: I suspect adultery between my wife and my son.

I am the king, so it is very important that my wife is faithful to me. It is also important that my son doesn't embarrass me in public. However, at a ceremony where everybody in the kingdom is invited to watch heretics get executed, my son had the audacity to demand to be made regent of one of my provinces. I wouldn't let myself be tricked. I knew he wanted access to an army he can use to kill me, and if he didn't do that, he'd probably try to fight for religious freedom. I refused, and he drew his sword on me! Fortunately, my most trusted confidant (M21) who I met a week ago was there to disarm and arrest him.

Not long after that, my mistress (F25) stole my wife's jewelry box and showed it to me. It turns out that my wife keeps a portrait of my son with her most valued possessions! This is as close to confirmation that they are having an affair as I can get. I am now faced with a difficult decision. My son has stolen my wife from me and threatens to tear down everything our dynasty has fought for! The anguish my son's betrayals have caused me will hound me to my grave. Yet I fear for my immortal soul were I to order his death.

I asked my religious advisor (M80) what I should do, and he told me that God wants me to kill my son. HOWEVER, I don't fully trust his input, because he also tried to threaten me into killing my confidant - my first love! So, I'm trying to find a second opinion. WIBTA for eliminating a traitor and adulterer who is also my son?

if you are CO-CHAIR OF THE DSA, a political party that has made palestine its ENTIRE PLATFORM for the past THREE YEARS—yes, i expect you to have knowledge of the stages of the peace process. if you want people to listen to your solutions, i expect you to know what has and has not already been tried, and to know why you would or wouldn't have been happy with the major proposals made at each major step. including at camp david in 2000.

oh he's great at being a barber. not so much at coming up with plans

Can we please stop doing this thing on Tumblr where everyone goes "the only way food can be flavourful is if you put 58 whole spices in it" #white people food sucks"

Like seriously.

Penelope and the suitors