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White Roses
 Jan 13, 08 - 12:00 PM |
Age and Aristasia
The following comment was posted at The Aristasia Diariesand it seemed to us so important that we have reproduced it here. It is a rather interesting beginning to answering some questions that many of us have had in the backs of our minds! ___ As for age: a number of Aristasian personae have ages lower than their chronological ones (though I can think of several who are older than their chronnies as well). I, as you may know, seem to have a persona stuck at around 15 in all but intellect and it affects all of me (I have no grown-up "workable persona" in Telluria - and believe me that can be inconvenient!) I am an odd case and nothing to measure anything else by. I think the conditions of my Exile were a bit cranky! But why the less Plenary, or more minor age-shifts? A phenomenon I have noted is near-plenary young-adult personae. They are not as awkward as mine because they are functioning adults, but they decidedly affect the whole person. So you would NOT be alone even if your persona were more plenary than it is. Why is this? I could suggest several reasons. 1. Many Aristasians continue to be regarded and treated in ways that would be considered childlike in Telluria. This is not unusual for even Tellurian traditional people. General MacArthur, upon occupying Japan, said the average Japanese had the mind of a twelve-year old. Japanese at that time considered that a compliment - indicating innocence and purity. 2. Aristasians live longer and, as adults - say over forty - will tend to look, and effectively be, around half the age, or less, of a Tellurian of the same age. 3. I think there may be other reasons connected with not having lived so long in Aristasia. So why, then, are some Aristasians-in-Telluria older than their chronological age? The answer to this, I think, is that in post-Eclipse Telluria the concept of the adult has been radically undermined. While many Aristasians are childlike, some are True Adults in a sense that has scarcely existed in Telluria since the 1970s when "youth culture" pervaded the whole of society. The idea of a mother in jeans, for example, would be shocking to an Aristasian, not only because the clothes are unAristasian, but because a mother must bear the archetype of The Mother. This is fundamental to the wellbeing of the child. Interestingly, to return to Japan, people who do not marry and have children are never considered full adults. In Aristasia it is a bit similar, but marriage is by no means the "default state" as it is in Telluria. Which means that a large section of the population is never considered "truly adult". This is an oversimplification, of course. An unmarried college principal is considered truly adult, while some blonde mothers (especially those living in an extended family with their own blonde mothers) may never really achieve that status. In other words "adulthood", which in recent Telluria has become increasingly a matter of mere age, in Aristasia has much also to do with personality-type. |
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White Roses
Jan 14th, 2008 - 9:26 PM |
Re: Age and Aristasia
Lily-san wrote: What an enlightening comment! I understand and can relate to what you write about age in traditional societies being more than a matter of chronological age. It seems a curious paradox to me that Western Tellurians seem to view traditional societies as straitjackets restricting their precious individuality - while, at the same time, they insist that every thirteen-year-old, every thirty-year-old and every octogenarian must conform to the same mould dictated solely by chronological age. Oh well, I leave it to the Tellurian persona to make sense of that! Speaking of personae, I noticed your use of "near-plenary" and personae being "more plenary than...". To me, this indicates a sliding scale of plenarity (is that even a true word?) instead of a black-and-white separation into, pardon the crude terms, "real" and "unreal" personae. Do I understand this right? Madonna-chei replied: Oh dear. I sometimes write a little loosely. "More plenary than..." would undoubtedly earn me a black mark in any Aristasian class! Obviously a persona is either plenary or it is not. "More plenary than" is as bad as "very unique". What I should have said really was "Closer to plenarity" (if plenarity is the word!) A truly plenary persona would obviously be the sole persona, just as a "plenary blonde" would have no brunette personae and a plenary Aristasian no non-Aristasian personae. In this sense (to take the mere self as an example) I am both a plenary blonde and a plenary Aristasian. I am not a plenary fifteen-year-old because I have personae in other ages (most prominently younger). However the fifteen-year-old persona is central. It is the "default persona" I and my younger sister are the only personae who dream, for example, and though other personae may visit they never occupy for too long. So perhaps I should use "central" rather than "plenary" in this sense. Everyone I know who has multiple personae has one central one or occasionally two co-central ones (in "real life", as opposed to Elektra, my younger "sister" often comes close to being co-central). To take another example, I have friend - a plenary brunette - who has three strong and very fundamental personae. Each is very real and alive One is 20, one is 12 and one is very grown up - perhaps 45 in Tellurian years. The 20-yera-old is the central, or "default" persona, although the body is older than 20. She is the organised, efficient, sometimes moody, everyday persona. The 12-year-old is a very close second, a cheerful, boisterous, somewhat "rough" brunette who is present much of the time. The third is the Elder of this "family" (and indeed of the actual household). She is present less than the other two, but equally "solid" and the final decision-maker. (There are other personae but they are only occasional "sidelights"). The younger two have different personalities to the extent that they often disagree, do not always like each other and have continuing disputes over things like how their room should be decorated (austere Art-Neo vs bright colours and aeroplanes!). Such divisions were very common in pre-Bridgehead Telluristasia and continue to be common now, but they have never been the "rule". Some people have a single plenary persona, or a persona that I think can properly be called "near-plenary" - that is to say, while it is not technically plenary because there are other personae, the others are mere "sidelights" that have no fundamental influence over the "person" as a whole. I hope this helps to clarify. PS Oh - I meant to say also that my brunette friend is a very good example of the tendency I noted earlier of central young-adult personae. Her central persona is grown-up and efficient but just under the age of majority. 18-20 in Tellurian age-terms seems to express the condition of the average unmarried pette with no highly-authoritative function in Aristasia. This is not to say that some Telluristasian pettes are not very adult, even though, in some cases, chronologically quite young. I know a blonde in her very early 20s who is very much an Elder figure in all her personae. Much, of course, depends on who one is! |
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