Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Other than being raised with a strong moral code and sense of noblesse oblige, it seems that despite the Council of Counts and the Ministers, the only real check of the Emperor’s power is the threat of the Emperor becoming disliked enough to send enough popular support over to a relative to win a coup, hence Yuri’s Massacre and Barrayar’s stated bloody history. Or has there been a balancing act of power shifts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Again, I don't actually have a 30-volume edition of The Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage that would answer this question in the detail it would require. But both the government/s and the legal system/s are more complicated that the books can show, since that's mostly not what they are about; I'm generally more interested in exploring the impacts of novel technologies, since they fall on the just and the unjust alike. That's the sort of thing that really changes worlds, often in subtle or subliminal or unnoticed ways that add up chaotically, in both the mathematical and common senses. Worked example: the entirety of human history on Old Earth. "Technology changes the ambit of the possible," would be my most succinct way of putting it.
I think of technology in the broadest sense, here; agriculture is a technology; armies are a technology, and so on. A combination of social organization and tools, combined to produce novel outcomes.
Ta, L.
Again, I don't actually have a 30-volume edition of The Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage that would answer this question in the detail it would require. But both the government/s and the legal system/s are more complicated that the books can show, since that's mostly not what they are about; I'm generally more interested in exploring the impacts of novel technologies, since they fall on the just and the unjust alike. That's the sort of thing that really changes worlds, often in subtle or subliminal or unnoticed ways that add up chaotically, in both the mathematical and common senses. Worked example: the entirety of human history on Old Earth. "Technology changes the ambit of the possible," would be my most succinct way of putting it.
I think of technology in the broadest sense, here; agriculture is a technology; armies are a technology, and so on. A combination of social organization and tools, combined to produce novel outcomes.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Natalia Panina
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hello, Lois! First of all I want to thank you very much for the Vorkosigan Saga. I read it first more than 20 years ago, in Russian. I just swallowed it overnight and hunted down all published books written by you. Right now I am reading Miles's story for the fourth time and can't sleep if not finish it overnight ))) My question: do you ever feel scared or stumbled when starting a new story? How do you manage?
Pamela Woodard
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I just finished my second reading of Penric's Demon. I loved it! There was just enough enough foreshadowing to make some accurate predictions but not so much that I could guess the ending. Do you have any plans to expand it into a full length novel? It's been so long since the last World of Five Gods book, and I so need another story to read from that particular world.
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