Re: Kiln People [spoilers] (was Re: Soooo...)

[Jim Sharkey]

>I would also guess that color assignment was based mostly on whimsy,
>with some sensitivity to stereotypes. The thing that struck me
>about the black/white dichotomy is that it's a reversal of
>traditional Western bigotries, which assume that white =
>intellectual and black = oversexed. Of course, white is also the
>dominant "beauty-paradigm" in Western and many other colors, so that
>may have had an influence on the choice of color for sex-dittos.

I thought about that too. Though the truly pale white as a sex symbol has been out of fashion since the Victorian days, Nicole Kidman notwithstanding. :-)

>
>Maybe a gray ditto represents a balance between the above extremes
>and so represents a "normal" state of rig-representation, as much an
>agent as a servant of the rig.

Interesting thought. The gray certainly seems to have the most expected of it, though I saw it as more of a "formal" ditto, not unlike wearing a suit in modern days.

>I can't think of any reason to make green dittos the laborers, except
>that "It's not easy being green."

I thought that was far to go for a single joke, but that's not stopped the illustrious doctor before, has it? ;-)

>Aren't there some other colors, too, for factory workers and
>specific professions/hobbies?

That's not too well defined in the book, that I recall. For example, the Red golems aren't well-explicated, nor are Beta's yellows.

Jim

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