From: BrendaWriter@yahoo.com   
      
   On 10/19/2014 4:54 PM, J.Pascal wrote:   
   > On Sunday, October 19, 2014 3:38:37 AM UTC-6, Jymesion wrote:   
   >> On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 22:44:36 -0400, Brenda Clough   
   >>   
   >>   wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>> Mmm, then that gives you an opening. The local baron is oppressed by   
   >>   
   >>> three older sisters, who boss him unmercifully, drink all his wine, and   
   >>   
   >>> spend far too much of the barony's income on fashion. All his   
   >>   
   >>> neighboring barons are either viciously ambitious, so that he does not   
   >>   
   >>> dare to empower them by handing off a sister in marriage, or already   
   >>   
   >>> happily married and so unavailable. What he needs, yes! is a convent.   
   >>   
   >>> Essentially a socially allowable way to get his sisters to live   
   >>   
   >>> somewhere else. And look! here is a handy foreigner who is anxious to do   
   >>   
   >>> business. For the mere founding of an Abbey dedicated to St. Catherine,   
   >>   
   >>> sir, you got a deal.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Brilliant! I'm sure that scenario could be written very convincingly.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Sadly, not by me. I could never make it ring true because my real-life   
   >>   
   >> experiences (I had two older sisters) are so very contrary:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> 1) If they're bossy, how does the baron force them to move into a   
   >>   
   >> convent?  Through bribery, coercion, or guile, I can sometimes get a   
   >>   
   >> man to do something that wasn't his idea, but I can't imagine making a   
   >>   
   >> woman do anything she didn't want to do.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> 2) I've never known anyone to quickly change ingrained attitudes. I   
   >>   
   >> can't see three of them go from spending wads on fashion to wearing   
   >>   
   >> the same robes every day, year in, year out.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> 3) If they did, for some reason, go into a convent, they'd soon be   
   >>   
   >> running the joint (any Mother Superior strong-willed enough to keep   
   >>   
   >> them in line wouldn't stand for neon pink, sunglasses, and jodhpurs).   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> I know I often seem like one, but I'm not a total idiot. When a woman   
   >>   
   >> is making my life difficult, the last thing I want to do is give her   
   >>   
   >> an army of minions. Those three in charge of young nuns and novices   
   >>   
   >> would make life in the region miserable.   
   >   
   > This is not a bug... it's a feature.   
   >   
   > I have this problem when I write, too.  I want everyone to be reasonable and   
   make informed choices.  In real life they don't always do so.   
   >   
   > In the culture described a man would have the power to exile his sisters. In   
   the scenario described it may seem like the perfect solution. He may not even   
   care, really, if they carry on in a very un-nunlike fashion just so long as   
   they're out of his    
   hair and not married to his rivals. The sisters may allow themselves to be   
   exiled because they see the end result better than he does.   
   >   
   > What it does give you, though, is the introduction of a number of variously   
   strong personalities who will insist that they don't belong in the background   
   of the story, silent and passive, allowing an excuse that the convent was   
   established.   
   >   
   >   
   >> 4) If they emptied the baron's strongbox buying clothes and wine,   
   >>   
   >> they'd be insatiable when they have a whole convent to outfit and run.   
   >>   
   >> The traveler has a lot of gold and silver (and plundering another   
   >>   
   >> Incan storehouse takes just a day or two), but he's only going to be   
   >>   
   >> there ten years. How will the baron support them when he leaves?   
   >   
   > Ah... the sisters don't need to be naturally careless with money, only   
   spending it on fripperies and vice because they are so very bored, and it's   
   not their money.  They may well be fierce businesswomen at heart if given the   
   opportunity.  I'd always    
   had the idea that most monasteries and convents were economic entities,   
   breweries or something else, and often had significant incomes.  I haven't   
   been following closely, but I'm assuming some cloth making, dyeing and weaving   
   technology has been    
   introduced. The sisters (as interesting in clothing and understanding the   
   market for fabric as they do) seem perfect to control those proprietary   
   processes and work toward becoming something of an economic power rather than   
   dependent on their younger    
   brother...   
   >   
   > Something that he may well regret in the long run.   
   >   
   >   
   > -Julie   
      
      
   It is not all that difficult to conjure a rationale for anything you   
   want to do. But you can't conjure a rational for -everything-. You have   
   to pick and choose, budget your fictional drive. And then you have to go   
   with what you pick. If it's not a book -about- the convent then it is   
   not worth wasting time on it. You spend lots of fictional capital on   
   what is important (to you) and less on what is not so important, until   
   finally you are spending zero energy on what you don't care about. This   
   is why there is no discussion of finances in LOTR, and why there are so   
   few women. That wasn't what Tolkien was interested in.   
      
   Brenda   
      
   --   
   My latest novel SPEAK TO OUR DESIRES is available exclusively from Book   
   View Cafe.   
   http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Brenda-Clough/Novels/Speak   
   to-Our-Desires-Chapter-01   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)