Imagine a world with no titles, it’s easy if you can
I’m working on a new story – high fantasy – and it’s giving me a problem. The problem is RESPECT.
Let me explain: titles are used to show respect. In fantasy ‘master’ is a very common way to show respect, but when you say ‘master’ that puts you in an extremely subservient position. I mean, who are you master to? You’re master to your dog.
Looking around, respect seems to always be tempered by subservience or submission. For instance, we don’t call our parents by their names, we call them mom, dad – TITLES – to denote their importance. You have an adult and a child, the adult expects to get respect out-of-hand. The child’s has to earn that respect. Equally, the president of a country, let’s say, gets respect out-of-hand, while a person who washes dishes in a restaurant doesn’t get that much respect. And that happens because we think some jobs are more important than others, and it’s true, some jobs are more important than others, but that doesn’t mean that the person who does the important job is more important than the person who does the less important job. I mean, you have someone who serves you food, do you have to think of them as the servant?
Well, in my new story I propose a slight paradigm shift. Imagine a society of women, warriors, fierce, and so on, where they are all equally important, where they treat one another with respect, regardless of job, status, ability etc. All jobs are worthy of respect. And no unnecessary jobs, like press secretary… The leader of this place, aka the President, if you will, is not more important than the cook, or the ones who serve the food, wash the dishes, milk the goats, etc. It’s great to have a president, but if you don’t have a cook to feed the president, you have a big problem. If you don’t have people cleaning the dishes, you have another big problem, and so on.
Ok, so if you have a society like this, everyone equally important and respected, then what titles should you use? My story is about 2 women, one older, one younger, one’s the teacher and one’s the pupil, and the pupil calls her teacher ‘My Lady’. And that’s natural. But that’s, as I said, subservient. So how should the pupil call her teacher? Or how would her teacher want to be called?
So I’m sitting here trying to look for a title to show respect without subservience, but you know what? Titles are the problem. There should be no titles! They should just use their names. Respect is earned by who you are and how you act.
See you,
Misty
I’m working on a new story – high fantasy – and it’s giving me a problem. The problem is RESPECT.
Let me explain: titles are used to show respect. In fantasy ‘master’ is a very common way to show respect, but when you say ‘master’ that puts you in an extremely subservient position. I mean, who are you master to? You’re master to your dog.
Looking around, respect seems to always be tempered by subservience or submission. For instance, we don’t call our parents by their names, we call them mom, dad – TITLES – to denote their importance. You have an adult and a child, the adult expects to get respect out-of-hand. The child’s has to earn that respect. Equally, the president of a country, let’s say, gets respect out-of-hand, while a person who washes dishes in a restaurant doesn’t get that much respect. And that happens because we think some jobs are more important than others, and it’s true, some jobs are more important than others, but that doesn’t mean that the person who does the important job is more important than the person who does the less important job. I mean, you have someone who serves you food, do you have to think of them as the servant?
Well, in my new story I propose a slight paradigm shift. Imagine a society of women, warriors, fierce, and so on, where they are all equally important, where they treat one another with respect, regardless of job, status, ability etc. All jobs are worthy of respect. And no unnecessary jobs, like press secretary… The leader of this place, aka the President, if you will, is not more important than the cook, or the ones who serve the food, wash the dishes, milk the goats, etc. It’s great to have a president, but if you don’t have a cook to feed the president, you have a big problem. If you don’t have people cleaning the dishes, you have another big problem, and so on.
Ok, so if you have a society like this, everyone equally important and respected, then what titles should you use? My story is about 2 women, one older, one younger, one’s the teacher and one’s the pupil, and the pupil calls her teacher ‘My Lady’. And that’s natural. But that’s, as I said, subservient. So how should the pupil call her teacher? Or how would her teacher want to be called?
So I’m sitting here trying to look for a title to show respect without subservience, but you know what? Titles are the problem. There should be no titles! They should just use their names. Respect is earned by who you are and how you act.
See you,
Misty
