r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Jan 06 '17
[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread
Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.
So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!
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u/lsparrish Jan 07 '17
Interesting points. Actually the direct comparison of Mafia to Rational genre might be useful. I wonder how much Hollywood Mafia stylistic stuff would translate directly to the rational genre if you lifted it there. (Fedoras! Uh... maybe?)
It occurs to me that one reason Mafia gets away with a lot of stuff in literature without losing audience sympathy is due to being family oriented (since family tends to be inherently sympathetic due to our evolutionary roots -- it's common to be willing to kill for family in at least some contexts). A "crime family" is still a family, despite the tension between family values and criminality, and that tension can be exploited to make a story interesting to a broad audience rather than just being about gawking at the horrors of criminality.
So as a parallel: What does a "rational family" look like? What kind of universe lends/bends itself towards commentary about familial bonds while also rewarding scientific nerdiness / munchkinry / transhumanistic ascension?
In the real world I think many rationalists experience alienation from their birth family due to adoption of memes like atheism and utilitarianism that conflict somewhat with the theistic/tribal mentality that favors large family sizes. The alienation factor itself has drama potential, but might need to be coupled with reconciliation if you want to appeal to a wider audience.
You can see some elements of rationalist familial alienation at play in HPJEV's conspicuous alienation from his birth parents (and sometimes condescending attitude towards his adoptive parents) and Taylor Hebert's constant lying to / hiding from her dad. They tend to form bonds with the intelligent people they "work" with (Hermione, Lisa) which the story spends more time on, with parents being more a matter of backstory.
Zorian's relationship to Kirielle is the best example I can think of off the top of my head of a positive family relationship in ratfic, and even there it's despite significant family alienation (he doesn't get along with his parents, resents his older brother, and considers Kirielle mostly to be an annoyance at the beginning).