[LMB] re Bujold characters

[Dorian E. Gray]

Elizabeth said...
>
> Did women on Barrayar not get schooling?  I was
> thinking of a Regency/Victorian sort of parallel,
> where women were educated to a point - were expected
> to be literate.

I can't remember if there's any textev for this (probably not), but I always 
have the impression that the Barrayaran female (unless of the poorest 
classes) is educated to the point where she can read, write, and keep the 
household accounts.  If she's Vor, or of a family aspiring to that milieu, 
she will probably also get enough of a general education to enable her to 
converse sensibly on a variety of topics, plus "accomplishments".

So, yeah, pretty much Regency/Victorian.

> I would admire her dignitas more if it didn't look...
> like a battle tactic.  And if I thought there was
> something other than strength of character underneath
> it. I feel that if she has care for others and warmth
> and humour and compassion and curiosity and other
> qualities I care about, we don't get to see them. I am
> left to guess, and in absence of evidence, I see her
> as cold and self-important.

I don't see her as cold and self-important, myself.  More as duty-driven, 
the more so as she has lost her husband.  She puts everything into her "job" 
as Imperial Hostess.  I do think she softens a little round the edges once 
she and Illyan get together, though.

(BTW, what does "namaste" mean?)

Until the sky falls on our heads...

Dorian.
--
Dorian E. Gray
israfel at eircom.net
http://dorianegray.livejournal.com

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte