MODES OF THOUGHT IN ANTERRAN LITERATURE

c667, 2nd year classics

file: 105

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Professor: Yeah, that last one kept making that crazy sound. Remember? From the first day?

Raquel: Good, I got it.

Professor: Cool? You’re good? 

Raquel: Yeah. Awesome. 

Professor: Alright, thanks. Okay, hi everyone. Hello. Good. Let's just jump into it, shall we? Okay, we've talked so far about a couple of instances where Anteran literature engages this concept of knowing versus not knowing. It's a central core to their modality of thought that we're gonna move into and through in this video. As we approached the end of the second empire. We had Teotia, the divine human female, mother of earth and heaven, who was alone and knew she was alone, right? And then we had the world that would reset if no one was there to see it.

So they made the thousand eyed god, Ekopaa, to watch. And we also had the man who knew about the plot to kill the king. And when the king didn't want to hear about it, he figured out that he actually knew less as a result of knowing about the plot. Well, in the early literature of Anterra, this concept goes to an even crazier extreme in the story of the Idiot King.

I'm reading now from Ra Tafani the first. Ra Tafani's writings focus on history and politics  in the very beginning of the Second Empire. Oh. Okay. So, you're probably wondering why we're only talking about the Second Empire so far. That's because there is no First Empire. In all the histories we have, the beginning of the culture, back when the society seemed to be a loose coalition of some tribes,that's the first empire, even though it wasn't actually an empire, right? So most of us only use the empire demarcation starting with the second empire, which is really the beginning of the overarching political system that built Prime A into the city that it became. And all of this, all of this starts with one insane story. Or, or experiment maybe. Um, and that's the story of the Idiot King.

Quote, Under Ekopaa’s thousand eyes, Teotia and her children blossomed and their descendants fed on the animals of the plain and reaped the grain in the valley and the fish in the sea. When the people met in the market, They honored each other and made fair trades. But Teotia was old and at the age of 437 she told her children, I am near the darkness.

Listen to me for I am old and I am the mother of earth and the heavens. We know our valley and we know our plains. We know the lakes and the rivers and the great seas without end. But we come from darkness, and to darkness we will return. And the darkness must be praised and honored like a king. So I tell you this, you will take a child, from the day of their birth, you keep them in a dark room.

Teach them nothing, but keep them fed and well cared for. And when our city meets the darkness, This child will have the answer. This is my wish for my family and my people. End of quote.

 So it appears that this may have actually happened. In the main civic complex in the old city, there's a building, still largely intact, Which seems to have a series of rooms within rooms, like, like a Russian nesting doll, sort of.

And at the center is a very large room that could well have been the home, well, the prison, really, for the Idiot King. Now, I get that that's a pretty wild leap, so, you know, I wouldn't bet my life savings on it or anything, but it seems odd that in the exact symmetrical center of this massive palace, there just happens to be a room big enough for a man to live his whole life without ever coming in contact with the outside world.

So yeah, maybe they did.

Now Ra Tafani, Ra Tafani was working during the very earliest days of the second empire, so roughly 73, 500 BCE. And this appears to be the time that the culture,, you know, probably a tribe or clan of sophisticated hunter gatherers with some early agricultural capabilities, this is when they formed their first government or social structure.

And the thing that bound them together, the idea that unified them into the second empire was this notion of the Idiot King. The ultimate tabula rasa, right? The blankest of blank slates. So Ra Tafani writes, quote, as happy children of the mother of earth and heavens, our people did as Teosha commanded.

Bones were gathered and marked. One of them had on it the mark of Teosha and every woman of child bearing age was gathered and had to choose a bone. And the woman who picked the mother's bone was named Rahayela, a strong young woman who was new to the blood. So we think that this just means she, she just got her period, right?

The phrase is new to the red moon water. So, you know, I think we're talking about a very young girl here. Well, Rahayela became pregnant. And when it was time, The elder woman took her to the dark chamber where she brought forth the king of unknowing. Oh, okay. Another thing here, pronouns, pronouns, as we're seeing now and have seen throughout the history of the spoken word, gender and language are just completely enmeshed in a way that's so deep and central to our view of the world, it's just impossible to extricate.

The way we think of society from the language we use to describe it, right? There's been a lot on that. Um, in, in Terran linguistics, there's this natural fluidity of gender that we really haven't seen in other cultures. All children have gender neutral pronouns. Um, and most possessives are gender neutral.

So they had a way of saying, uh, like, this pen is his, without indicating any gender at all. The way that we've come to use the plural, like, this pen is theirs. Right? And then, at marriage, citizens would choose between the honorific ‘Ra’ or ‘Mem,’ which do indicate gender, like, like, Mr. or Mrs. So everyone's individual gender was a choice and no notions of gender were put on the children until they chose at marriage.

It's fascinating, right? Okay, but as a result, because of that, we don't know what gender the Idiot King was. And the word king itself, it's really kind of a shitty translation, um, was also gender neutral. The word for king and queen are the exact same, Gejah. So, the Idiot Gejah, is raised in the dark room, contacted only by the elder women of the city, who would care for the child and raise them and ask questions when they needed advice.

And it seems like this is how the first days of Anterra went: a group of the town's elder women, running the show, with advice from a child who had never seen or heard or had any contact with the outside world and the city flourished.

Ratafani says, The child who was a shadow in darkness guided the people through time in many forms, rough time and smooth time, sad time and time of joy. And the flowers grew and died and grew again over and over again for a thousand years. And Teosha's children found their path and the Dark City grew.

So that's, that's the name that we've come to know Prime A by, right? Dark City. And it's based on this myth of the Idiot King. Ra Tafani has outlined the birth and the golden age, really, of the Second Empire here. 

Chris: But is it? 

Professor: Sorry, what?

Chris: I'm saying, is it really a golden age if it's built on the back of an enslaved kid?

Professor: Well, yeah, exactly, Chris. You tell me. Seems like a barbaric practice that probably shielded the ones who were really making decisions from responsibility. And the shield they used was the light. And not just one child. The reign of the idiot king lasted for 1, 200 years. It was an entire lineage of children who never saw the outside world and only talked to each other and the elder women.

The ones they called the diviners.

[inaudible]

Oh, way before him, my man. But here's the thing. Okay. We're talking about modes of thought, not political ethics, though. That's a fascinating angle on the story of the 88 King and not a lot has been done on it. So that could be your term paper thesis right there.

Because the question becomes this. If you could create peace. Civilized peace that provided security and stability for your people. At this point, thousands and thousands. We think the population of Dark City was 60, 000 people around this time. Plus the outlying tribes. Is that worth the sacrifice of these individual kids?

I mean the quality of life of one kid in exchange for the quality of life of an entire nation. It's not an easy call, or is it?

Hai Rong: Utilitarianism says yes. 

Professor: Exactly. Enlightenment thinking and the utilitarian ethical approach says absolutely. If it's a genuine one for one trade, then by all means, it's not only ethical, it's obligatory.

Raquel: That thinking is wrong, though. 

Professor: How? How is it wrong?

Raquel: Well, it seems trite, maybe, but say, in the protests we've seen over the past couple of years. Popular slogan is no one's free until everyone's free. But there's a logic there too, which is that if an arbitrary group has freedom, but another arbitrary group or even an individual doesn't, then doesn't that alter the definition of freedom?

Professor: Well, that's a great point. And if I go to a fancy restaurant, And there's a booger in my soup. That one booger pretty much spoils the whole bowl of soup, doesn't it? That's what we call the ‘booger in the soup principle.’ It hasn't really caught on yet, but, you know, I'm working on it.

Okay, we're leaving it there for today. Um, thanks for your discussion, guys. Let's have more of that, right? Also, we should be meeting to discuss your thesis papers. So, set a time. Okay, you have my office hours. All right. Good class today, everyone. Cool.

Raquel: Professor. Yeah. So I went out with Hai Rong.

Professor: You're, you're sur?

Raquel: a hundred percent. Yeah. She's from Vancouver. Moved here. 

Professor: So she wasn't like cagey or surreptitious. I mean, she was forthcoming.

Raquel: Oh, she forth came alright. 

Professor: Fuck Jesus, Raquel. You know what I mean? Right. Come on. 

Raquel: Yes, I do. And I'm telling you, she's a student. That's all. Her parents are like chemical engineers, her sister's a dentist. The whole family is like a poster for the model minority, okay? Zero spy shit. 

Professor: Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Oh man, I haven't been sleeping. These headaches are killing me.

Raquel: Oh, I can fix that. Here, take a couple of these. But, you know, I'd wait till you get home.

Professor: I probably shouldn't be taking prescription pills from students. 

Raquel: Dude, they're nothing a doctor couldn't prescribe for you. Just take them and get a good night's sleep, okay? I'm serious, you look like shit. 

Professor: Alright, well, I guess I'll give it a try. I really can't sleep, so Thank you. 

Modes of Thought in Anterran Literature. This podcast is made possible by Harbridge University, a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Peeler Prize in Archaeological Literature, and the Harbridge Family Trust. With an in-kind donation and production assistance from Wolf at the Door Studios. For more information and a reading list, please visit wlfdr.com.