The Triumph Of Style Over Substance

Genesis, PART ONE, VI.

The opening paragraph:

"Seventeen hundred years later, a thing occurred that lived in people's memories for generations, until life-ways changed too much for them to make sense of it." (p. 57)

A change happened, then the changed situation became so much a part of the way people lived that they would no longer have understood what the change had been. How long would that take?

In Chapter V, the global population, advised by post-organic intelligences, had debated planetary policies for the next nine or more millennia. In VI, society seems to be long on ceremony and short on anything else:

Regnant

Chief Consort

heir apparent

Chief Enactor

Council

senior guardsmen

clan captains, stewards of the Games

one wearing the Cloak of Darva and holding the Staff of Supremacy

magnates

commanders

landkeepers

Games players

guilds

educators

Magnificos

Torchmen

Falcons

philosophers

Terspsichoreans

Honorables

Hierophants of God the Dreamer, Mother, Summoner or Lover

Holy Interpreter

Have all these people nothing better to do than to play fancy dress? As a philosophy graduate, I am pleased to see that philosophers are a recognized social group, wearing:

"...hooded gray robes trimmed with iridescent flickercloth." (p. 58)

However, philosophers need to work with scientists to try to understand reality and consciousness. not just to display their robes at public events.