A Hard Choice
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Not long ago I finished reading my latest purchase, "The Dubious Hills" by Pamela Dean. It is an interesting story about a society that has been created by a series of wizard spells. These spells were put in place to avert war and suffering and as a result various types of knowlege and experience are strictly parceled out. These gifts of insight and magical birthright come at the onset of puberty, so only the Physici knows about, and can experience pain, only the Gnosi knows how to teach, only a certain individual can know what is truly beautiful or ugly etc. As an example, when a child falls out of a tree and breaks their arm they do not feel the pain, only the Physici feels the pain.
Into this society comes questions in the form of shape shifters who live beyond the hills. These wolves are not bound by the spells laid on the Dubious hills and have the power to bring others out of those spells into a world of direct experience and learning, into a world with pain and strife as well as beauty.
Given the world we have grown up in I think it may be difficult to imagine a world so different. But if you could... if you were given a choice between these two worlds, what would you choose? And if someone else was trying to make that choice for you, how would you react?
Into this society comes questions in the form of shape shifters who live beyond the hills. These wolves are not bound by the spells laid on the Dubious hills and have the power to bring others out of those spells into a world of direct experience and learning, into a world with pain and strife as well as beauty.
Given the world we have grown up in I think it may be difficult to imagine a world so different. But if you could... if you were given a choice between these two worlds, what would you choose? And if someone else was trying to make that choice for you, how would you react?
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