fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Monday

Entry tags:

practical philosophy

Practical Philosophy, Monday

"Last week, some of you wound up talking about moments from home you miss," Ender said, once everyone had filed into the classroom - and sat down in the circle. "And that the formative years of our lives - the places we grew up in, the things we did - determine so much of how we see the world that comes after it."

He smiled briefly.

"For a lot of people, high school's the moment they really get tossed out into another world," he continued. "Especially here, at this boarding school, where people from all universes and times and places wash up on the shore and go to class. It's a shock to the system, a readjustment of your vision-- everything is new or different, and yet a lot of things might not be."

He sat forward. "So what I'm curious about," he said, "Is the things you miss, and the things you don't. The things you can adapt to, and the things you can't. This is your point of comparison towards the life you used to know, and I know all of you think about these comparisons, maybe even every day, every hour, every minute."

This was where a normal teacher would have probably dug into his own experiences in order to share, but Ender was not as inclined to do so. Instead, he said, "So talk to me. What's new and what's old? Does it mean anything? Or is it just a new background stapled onto your old reality - just an extension of the life you used to know?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

About change and moving on into the next stage of your life. Or maybe about all the things that are similar. Or maybe about something else entirely.

"Aside from all the weirdness, high school itself isn't all that different," Sparkle decided. "Bunch of people coming and going, and maybe I get to know some of them, maybe I don't. I still have to share a room, and I know I'm not going to be here forever. People with authority telling me what I should and shouldn't do... The only real difference, I guess, is that I have a job here. And sometimes weird shit happens, but that usually goes away on its own."

A beat.

"And the heat."

That was going to be a sticking point, probably. There were other differences, but nothing he seemed terribly inclined to volunteer out of the blue.

"Do you feel like the job's a real change?" Ender asked. "Or is it just... a thing to do?"

Sparkle actually thought about that answer for a moment before putting words to it.

"I just sit around staring at clothes all day," he noted. "Sometimes I dress for it, and in weather like this I couldn't be bothered, and shit, I'm even getting paid for it. Biggest change is that someone trusts me alone with the merchandise and the cash register, I think."

... In fairness, Sparkle had a bit of a history with shoplifting. But he kind of took pride in the fact that he was employed. Stealing from Demon Marcus was the last thing on his mind.

"That's always worth something," Ender said philosophically. "Trust, I mean. I think it's probably one of those things that guides a child into adulthood-- people learning to trust you with responsibilities."

Mind, for Ender, that had started at age 6. But he wasn't going to share that.

Sparkle raised his eyebrow just a little.

"Is it other people who have to learn to trust me? Always had it spoon fed the other way around, I have to prove I'm responsible before anybody's gonna take the chance."

And so he'd kind of given up trying to prove it, and just went ahead and did whatever the hell he wanted, screw them. Why should he try to make them happy, anyhow?

"It's not that simple," Ender replied. "Responsible behavior does breed trust... but you also need to be given the chance to prove yourself before you can do so."

He'd learned that the hard way. And then he'd taught Bean the hard way. He knew a few things about it.

"The other party has to be willing to give you that shot."

"Instead of running you out of the damn neighbourhood."

Sparkle? Bitter? Never.

"All I know is, here's not all that different. A place is a place and a school is a school, and routine is routine, you'll fall into it if you're looking to fall into it, whatever. But the people aren't the same."

"You're not looking to fall into it?"

It was more of a rhetoric question - or a prompt, really - than anything else.

"What would the point be? I'm only going to be here a little while, and then it'll be something else, some other routine to try to fall into." Sparkle shrugged. "I can learn the motions without getting too comfortable. It's not like I'm going to start calling this place home or anything. I do that, it'll just suck too hard when I have to like pack up and go, again."

It always did.

Re: Talk.

endsthegame - 2012-07-09 14:29 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk.

myownface - 2012-07-09 14:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk.

endsthegame - 2012-07-09 15:03 (UTC) - Expand

"It was hard at first," Cassidy finally said. "Because things are much different here than they are back at home. I've had to figure out what works and what doesn't."

"So what have you learned?" Ender wondered.

Cassidy smiled. "Protocol exists here in some ways, but that it's different than back home."

"You know, that's an interesting thought," Ender said. "We don't have Protocol as writ in books - at least not officially. But we've all got our own rules."

He quirked another smile. "Is there a particular example you can think of?"

She laughed. "I don't have any males here that think they need to know why I'm doing what I'm doing at all times."

"That has to be both a relief and disorienting," Ender mused.

She nodded. "It really can be sometimes. I mean, I enjoy the freedom and knowing that if something happens, there are people here that I can go to. On the other hand, I'm so used to things being a certain way at home that I can still get confused. Oh, and phrases that mean one thing at home in Kaeleer can mean something completely different here so I have to be careful what I say sometimes."

Ender nodded. "That makes sense," he said gently. "Have you ever run into trouble that way?"

Re: Talk.

nothornlessrose.livejournal.com - 2012-07-09 14:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk.

endsthegame - 2012-07-09 14:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk.

nothornlessrose.livejournal.com - 2012-07-09 14:43 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk.

endsthegame - 2012-07-09 15:04 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk.

nothornlessrose.livejournal.com - 2012-07-09 15:07 (UTC) - Expand

For a long time, Topher wasn't sure that he was going to speak. He knew Ender, and anyway he didn't really do this sort of... introspecting-out-loud thing. But after a while, he shrugged and gave it a shot.

"It's different in some ways, and other ways not," he offered. "It's a school where I barely learn anything in my classes, that isn't new. But the people are different--" take the wolf puppy he had with him-- "and there's way more stuff to learn that doesn't come from classes than you'd get at a normal school, like... coping with being almost wiped out of existence or something." He shrugged. There was more he had in mind, but he didn't know how to say it without exposing more of himself than he'd like to. So he just settled on, "And I guess I see how people say this place gets you to form attachments. Because of all the weirdness. And the people."

"The people," Ender echoed. He had a tiny smile on his face. "They're different-- how?"

And just like that, Topher was reminded of why you didn't just say something to Ender Wiggin that you didn't want prodded at.

"Um," he said, struggling to put into words what it was about the people at Fandom that made him like them more. "More... civilized? It isn't... I mean, people don't do the whole stupid xenophobic high school thing you get anywhere else." That felt dangerously close to an admittance that he'd been hurt somewhere else, though, so he segued quickly. "And people here are smarter, too. Way fewer idiots."

"Thanks," Ender said dryly. "I suppose we're not like the stereotypical high school, though." Not that he knew what that was like. "Those of us who are a little different from the norm can make space much more easily."

"Well," Anna said, slow and careful, "I wasn't exactly in a normal existence before. So this is...very different. I don't think I've adjusted as well as I could have."

"What do you think could have gone better?" Ender asked.

Thomasina worried at her lip as she waited for her turn to speak. "When I first arrived in this century," she began, "I missed the people of my life most of all. My mother and father, my brother, Septimus my tutor. All the house servants." Septimus most of all, she refused to say aloud; and that door in her head she closed firmly.

It was no use dwelling, not now, not when Septimus was centuries and a hermitage away.

"But the people are almost the least of it, now," Thomasina continued. "There are so many new experiences -- technology has advanced so much over two centuries, and so quickly in the last, there's so much to learn. There are things I miss, too, though. Something as simple as a tomato -- all we have now are balls of soggy pasteboard. And it... smells differently, now. Water comes bottled, even though it runs from faucets on every floor of a building. We know more about our past than I'd ever dreamed possible, but it seems as though fewer people care about it. Everything happens so quickly now."

She quirked a smile, looking around the class. "Really, it's almost a surprise that we still speak the same language, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only