I cannot believe I just discovered your livejournal, with its wealth of fanfic tidbits! And how delightfully you include bits of fic even in the comments -- where do you ever get the time?!
(I'm discovering that newly-married life, as wonderful as it is in most ways, leaves very little time for reading fanfic, let alone writing any. Thankfully, I have a daily Metro commute and can access FF.net on my cellphone! So am slowly but surely reading through your stories -- I realised that I'd forgotten the context of TSG Part I, originally read in carefree pre-wedding days, so I went back and read through the whole thing. Considering that I have only just reached Ch. 9 in TQSiT, I should have the sense not to start in on this extra reading matter on your LJ, right? But then, whoever accused me of having sense?)
Anyway, I have actually acquired for myself an LJ account, purely to comment here.
I love the census tidbits. Do, do use them somewhere. I guess your inspiration is from the currently ongoing US census process, but let me offer you additional sources of inspiration. The Indian census started on April 1, and this time around we're counting over a billion people! There are 2.5 million census workers who will fan out all over the country, including urban slums like Dharavi, (crammed with over a million people in just 0.7 square miles), as well as primitive Stone Age tribes scattered over thousands of square miles of militia-infested jungles, who never meet modern civilisation otherwise.
We're also starting a National Population Register, which will get fingerprints and other biometric data of every single Indian above 15. (Yes, this is causing a lot of controversy.) On a side-note, what would be the Narnian equivalent of fingerprints, do you think, as a means of identity and evidence?
Why I really started on the Indian census, though, is because of the whole issue of caste-classification. It's an interesting paradox -- caste is officially non-existent in India, the Constitution forbids any discrimination on its basis. However, the fact remains that so-called backward castes have been downtrodden and oppressed for centuries, so the govt has instituted affirmative action -- mostly by way of reservation for certain castes in jobs and educational institutions. However, the census is not allowed to ask caste questions, so no one really know what is the percentage in population of any of these castes anymore. There's been a huge controversy over the last few months. I thought it was interesting in light of the "preferential treatment" referred to in autumnia's original comment fic. Think of it in Narnian terms -- do some territories/species require additional attention from the monarchy? Then shouldn't we know how many of them there are and where they live? But supposing you weren't allowed to disclose your species/territory in the census, simply because that could be discriminatory? It's a tangled web.
Similarly, with your whole question of "are the cheetahs Great Cats?" Suppose biology says one thing and convention says another? In caste terms -- Dalits or outcastes have been the worst treated, and so get the most preferential treatment from the state. However, over the years, some Dalits have converted from Hinduism (which started the caste system) to Christianity and Buddhism which promised them freedom from caste. Accordingly, the state decided that converts wouldn't have Dalit status. But now many Christian communities have also started implementing caste in their social conventions -- so converts have the worst of both worlds. So now they are actually clamouring for "outcaste" status, so that they can avail of govt reservations and grants. So should they be classified as what religion, govt or they themselves claim they are?
(There's more, but LJ says this comment is too long, so will write another.)
no subject
(I'm discovering that newly-married life, as wonderful as it is in most ways, leaves very little time for reading fanfic, let alone writing any. Thankfully, I have a daily Metro commute and can access FF.net on my cellphone! So am slowly but surely reading through your stories -- I realised that I'd forgotten the context of TSG Part I, originally read in carefree pre-wedding days, so I went back and read through the whole thing. Considering that I have only just reached Ch. 9 in TQSiT, I should have the sense not to start in on this extra reading matter on your LJ, right? But then, whoever accused me of having sense?)
Anyway, I have actually acquired for myself an LJ account, purely to comment here.
I love the census tidbits. Do, do use them somewhere. I guess your inspiration is from the currently ongoing US census process, but let me offer you additional sources of inspiration. The Indian census started on April 1, and this time around we're counting over a billion people! There are 2.5 million census workers who will fan out all over the country, including urban slums like Dharavi, (crammed with over a million people in just 0.7 square miles), as well as primitive Stone Age tribes scattered over thousands of square miles of militia-infested jungles, who never meet modern civilisation otherwise.
We're also starting a National Population Register, which will get fingerprints and other biometric data of every single Indian above 15. (Yes, this is causing a lot of controversy.) On a side-note, what would be the Narnian equivalent of fingerprints, do you think, as a means of identity and evidence?
Why I really started on the Indian census, though, is because of the whole issue of caste-classification. It's an interesting paradox -- caste is officially non-existent in India, the Constitution forbids any discrimination on its basis. However, the fact remains that so-called backward castes have been downtrodden and oppressed for centuries, so the govt has instituted affirmative action -- mostly by way of reservation for certain castes in jobs and educational institutions. However, the census is not allowed to ask caste questions, so no one really know what is the percentage in population of any of these castes anymore. There's been a huge controversy over the last few months. I thought it was interesting in light of the "preferential treatment" referred to in autumnia's original comment fic. Think of it in Narnian terms -- do some territories/species require additional attention from the monarchy? Then shouldn't we know how many of them there are and where they live? But supposing you weren't allowed to disclose your species/territory in the census, simply because that could be discriminatory? It's a tangled web.
Similarly, with your whole question of "are the cheetahs Great Cats?" Suppose biology says one thing and convention says another? In caste terms -- Dalits or outcastes have been the worst treated, and so get the most preferential treatment from the state. However, over the years, some Dalits have converted from Hinduism (which started the caste system) to Christianity and Buddhism which promised them freedom from caste. Accordingly, the state decided that converts wouldn't have Dalit status. But now many Christian communities have also started implementing caste in their social conventions -- so converts have the worst of both worlds. So now they are actually clamouring for "outcaste" status, so that they can avail of govt reservations and grants. So should they be classified as what religion, govt or they themselves claim they are?
(There's more, but LJ says this comment is too long, so will write another.)