[Report This]Date: October 10 2014 5:01 PM Title: Chapter 8
This chapter gives me a lot of questions I'm not sure have been answered yet so here I go!
1. What's the legal age for men to become healers and what's this draft? It sounds mandatory are there legal reprocussions if a man refuses?
2. Do men go to school? I think you might have answered this but I'm not sure. Ash seems pretty smart and he does have a job. I just wonder how security works for young boys at school it seems they would be at very high abduction risks for women who are willing to wait a few years.
3. What's the lifespan of a man compared to ascended women? Luna may have to come to terms with severly out living Ash.
4. Why is Regan so against Ash having ice cream? I mean come on?!
5. Are there men not monitored by the system? It seems pretty totalitarian and I know I would not be on board for any of that shit. How has Ash not snapped yet? [I know the answers Luna :) ]
6. Where does male homosexuality fall on all this? I know it's not very likely in this society but still possible and I worry for the gay man a little.
That's enough for now I broke my promise and did another long post. I only ask these questions because you're doing such a good job world building it's becoming more fleshed out which only leads to more questions.
Author's Response:
I can only answer based on information provided in the story thus far:
1. "it required a Healer, a male within three to four years of the recipient. The male had to be at least twenty-two years old, the age when the dormant virus activated." So we can assume 22 is the legal age. Younger males lack the active form of the Ascension virus. As for second question, we're not sure. We can speculate based on similar situations in our world: Penalties for failing to register for the military draft (i.e., Vietnam War) included 10 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.
2. Yes. Ash attended college as mentioned in chapter 1. In chapter 3, Jamie mentions 4 boys at her school. As for security, I imagine it has escalated over the years. Ash mentions he "sat beside the teacher for protection, never attended recess"
3. Good question. Hopefully we'll find out.
4. Lol. Refined sugar is bad for your health. Either that, or she took her job as Guardian too seriously. :)
5. Another good question. We don't have an answer but we know some things. There are very few men compared to women (1% estimate). Also, Ascended women have natural, easily accessible, methods of seducing men. Ash hasn't snapped because he loves Luna. As for other men...so far we've only met Harold. :)
6. The Procreation Edict requires marriage, and although the story didn't specify heterosexual marriage, it seems unlikely two men could marry each other (exclusively) in this universe. I'm just speculating. I could be wrong.
Great questions, and thanks for the review!
[Report This]Date: October 10 2014 3:29 PM Title: Chapter 8
What is going on!? This is the third story that I've commented on within the last week, where the author not only addressed my questions and comments in the review section, but acknowledged and answered my questions and comments IN-UNIVERSE! This is seriously pretty cool; I feel like I'm actually helping stories improve!
I really liked how you addressed something that I totally forgot should exist in this world. You mentioned the fact that men are sometimes maritially enslaved to Amazons, and are unable to escape much of the time. This is an interesting direction to explore. Maybe Luna and Ash might have to contend with this aspect of their new lives, and their relationship might change. I thought this chapter was really interesting.
But now I have four questions to ask, three of which relate to the world you've built: 1) How tall is Regan? (The unimportant question) 2) Why is the population of the world so small now; there's less than 2 billion people? 3) Does natural reproduction still exists? 4) How come artificial insemination never yielded male results?
Author's Response:
Since authors are addressing you're questions, that must mean you have some good questions!
As for men being maritally enslaved, we know a couple of things so far. Men are forced to marry before 25, but they get to choose who they marry. However, once married, a man cannot get divorced without the wife's consent (unless there are extenuating circumstances such as abuse).
1) We know "her head nearly reached the top of the twelve-foot doorway" from chapter 1. So we can assume she's over eleven and a half feet tall.
2) We know the world population 'in real life' was 2 billion in 1927. We also know the first Ascension event occurred in early 1800's in this story. Perhaps that reduced population growth. Perhaps food supply had an effect (it can be assumed Ascended eat more).
3) "As a result, due to the scarcity of heterosexual intercourse during those years, very few men were born." So, it can be assumed natural reproduction (i.e., heterosexual intercourse) still exists and is, in fact, the only way to have a chance of giving birth to males.
4) Good question. Also, assuming a roughly equal ratio of male/female before first Ascension event, why would 'natural reproduction' produce fewer males? We don't know the answers. Yet.
[Report This]Date: October 10 2014 3:15 PM Title: Chapter 8
Aww poor regan getting ganged up on. Ash and luna should do something nice for her and addi.And that fara lady seems horrible, i bet it sucks to be Harold. Stop being a baby and take it like a woman. .haha i see what you did there. I love this story.
Author's Response:
Yeh, Regan really tries. I agree, a gift would be nice.
As for Fara, she does seem pretty intolerable. Does she represent the typical wife in this world? We're not sure.
Glad you're enjoying the story!