This is all interesting to me - it would never have occurred to me to dislike or distrust Diora because of her appearance -- to me, for her, the appearance, the cultural survival implied by being beautiful or graceful, is a trap; it's something you perpetuate to survive. Being desired or wanted makes you more valuable to people who have power, yes -- but in a stark sense, it's not who you are, and not, in the end, what she valued about herself; she understood its value to others, and understood that to have no value was... bad. It's not something that Margret understood initially either, and Margret and Diora despised each other when they first met.
The Leontines, though, are easier for me to see -- kateelliott did a list a while back of things she doesn't feel she's good at as a writer. I would have snagged "sex" as something I'm terrible at, but someone else had already grabbed it (I think it was papersky. The Leontines have an interesting social structure (more of which in the 4th book, which I'm writing now), but it wouldn't have occurred to me to use them in that fashion.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-04-04 03:03 am (UTC)The Leontines, though, are easier for me to see --