Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Is Bernie damaging Clinton's chances in November?

Well it's primary day, though the chances for Sanders winning the nomination look slim. This has led many to assert that, by staying in the race, Sanders is hurting Clinton's chances of beating Trump in the general election.

So I'll ask an honest question: Is there any evidence whatsoever that Sanders is damaging Clinton's chances at all by staying in the race? Or is it just pure speculation phrased in terms of what "everyone knows"? As far as I can tell, it's the former. This campaign has already lasted a year; let it last a few more months until the convention, and then let's talk about the general, OK?

Monday, May 9, 2016

On Empathy and Drow

I have spent a large amount of my free time recently ravenously reading through the archives of the webcomic Drowtales ("drow" being a type of elf from Dungeons and Dragons; more info here). If you yourself happen to have a large amount of free time, or will have free time in the future, I highly recommend checking it out (start here); while it's extremely long, it retains a very high quality throughout. The reason I'm writing about it here, though, is because I want to talk about the feature of the webcomic I find most compelling. First, though, let me talk about my favorite character: the main character Ariel's mother, Quain'tana.

The story takes place mainly in the underground city of Chel'el'sussoloth (yes, there are a lot of apostrophes in the names). While the city is officially ruled by the Sharen clan, there are eight other major clans, each of which have a fair amount of power and authority. Quain'tana is the leader of the Sarghress clan, a relatively new entrant onto the scene. The Sarghress clan is quite controversial due to the fact that it's made up of mercenaries and other commoners, so the nobles of the other clans see their rise to power as a threat to their rule. Their fears are justified because Quain'tana's stated goal is to overthrow the rule of the noble class and give freedom to the commoners.

Quain'tana has many admirable qualities. She built the most powerful clan in the city literally from scratch--she's an orphan who gained the allegiance of many mercenaries due to her strength, intelligence, and charisma. She is confident, courageous, and honorable, willing to fight with her soldiers on the front lines. Her goals are justified; not only are the Sharen an oppressive upper class who believe all commoners are inferior by birth, but their leaders committed a great crime in the past (I won't say more in case of spoilers) that they've hidden from the rest of the city. Ariel almost worships her mother and it's easy to see why.

On the other hand, she also has many despicable qualities. She is, to be frank, a terrible person who does not understand how to give or receive affection. Her confidence too often becomes arrogance and a refusal to admit any mistake. This comes out clearest in her relationships with her children, whom she does not hesitate to punish and abuse if they fail to live up to her extremely high standards. Even though Ariel worships her, by any objective standard she is treated horribly, and Quain'tana treats the daughters who don't worship her much worse. Quain'tana doesn't have friends so much as she has allies, and while she objects to the Sharen's rule she runs her own clan in a dictatorial manner. It gets to the point where several characters rightly question whether a Sarghress victory over the Sharen will really improve things for the majority of commoners, or whether it will merely replace one ruling class with another.

What fascinates me the most about Quain'tana, though, is that her positive and negative qualities are inextricably linked. Her life experiences which enable her to be a "living legend," a figure behind whom thousands can rally to defeat a thousand-year-old empire, are precisely what prevent her from having meaningful relationships with other people. She is my favorite character not because I like her as a person--there are many characters who are far more likable--but because she's fascinating as a character, as she is an essentially broke individual who because of that brokenness is able to do great deeds nobody else can.

In this way, Quain'tana almost represents the quality of the webcomic I find most compelling. After consuming a new piece of entertainment (or often while consuming it), I like looking it up on TvTropes to see what others have said about it. Here's one thing an anonymous editor of the wiki said about Drowtales:

While Drow society does operate on a different moral wavelength from humans, slavery is still tolerated by almost everyone, everyone is a huge racist (or speciesist more accurately), and -- if female -- a misandrist to boot with few exceptions, and their culture is plagued by violence and self-centered debauchery. Several readers have expressed the thought that most characters could die and they wouldn't be that bothered by it or that the setting's degenerate society could collapse and they wouldn't mind either in the sense that whatever replaces it can't be any worse.

All this is quite true. (Clarification: Drow society is matriarchal, seemingly at least partly because female drow are actually bigger and stronger than male drow on average. Almost all female drow see males as inherently inferior.) Not to mention that most of the main characters, including the protagonist Ariel, commit at least one morally repugnant deed during the course of the story. Normally in a situation like this, fiction makes people root for the protagonists by making the antagonists clearly and obviously evil. What I find most fascinating about Drowtales is that it doesn't take this roue. Rather it expects, or requests, that the readers sympathize with the characters regardless of these massive moral defects--even the villains.

While there are many comparisons one can make between Drowtales and the A Song of Ice and Fire series (perhaps better known these days through its "Game of Thrones" TV adaptation), as they're both sprawling fantasy epics with gigantic casts and dark tone, this is a major difference. There are many characters in Ice and Fire who are just straight-up sociopaths the reader is expected to hate while alive and rejoice when killed. Drowtales, though, doesn't really have anyone like that. Even the ones who are most villainous and despicable have redeeming, or at least sympathetic, qualities that make their actions understandable from their own point of view. Even the comic itself makes this point, when it has an omniscient narrator say:
[T]here is no hero nor villain in these drow tales, only actors in history, wearing their masks and playing their roles.
This made me think about empathy--understanding someone else's perspective, seeing the world through their eyes. I think most people would agree that empathy is an important virtue. But most people seem to refuse empathy to certain people, people who commit crimes so repugnant that they're considered unworthy of empathy. What these crimes may be varies from person to person--holding a different political opinion, being a bigot, molesting a child, committing mass murder--but this line always seems to exist somewhere, beyond which someone becomes a nonperson, unworthy of empathy, fit only for opposition and destruction.

I strongly believe that everyone, regardless of their crimes, deserves empathy. This does not mean they should go unopposed. Some people must be fought. But as we fight them, we must do our best to understand why they fight, what drove them to commit the acts they did. To do otherwise is to ignore the darkness in our own souls, not to mention the darkness in the souls of our idols. At its best, fiction like Drowtales can give us experience at viewing fatally flawed persons who commit morally horrendous acts, forgiving them, and rooting for their success as they claw their way toward doing good.