2022-02-28 16:03:54 ¶ ●

on the page right after talking about lowly Pages and noble Lords, Caliborn does drop this line pretty clearly in support of keyword theory:

> uu: WHEN I SAID “MEANT TO SERVE”. SERVE MEANT MORE THAN ONE THING. YOU KNOW. LIKE KICK MY ASS??

it’s, ironically, a very literalist permutation of keyword theory - in Calliope’s paradigm a Page serves their aspect, while to Caliborn a Page merely serves, full stop - but it certainly seems to put a big roadblock in the way of the many interpretations theory of classpect.

but the fact that Alternia’s entire society is built on this idea of pompous, regal Princes and servile Pages and Maids still feels quite explicit in its implications about Caliborn’s perception of class, i.e. that he sees “class” in literal terms, as a synonym for “caste”. I guess it’s possible Calliope and Caliborn merely have different headcanon “keywords” for each caste, but it’d be hard to believe unless we had a case where they openly disagreed with each other on the interpretation of a class…

i guess it’s also worth keeping in mind that Calliope and Caliborn’s interpretative modes are still different: Calliope observes while Caliborn authors (the fact that this is sort of the inverse of what one would instinctively assume about the twins is worth thinking about). so when Calliope “observes” the Prince as a destroyer class, she’s actually re-interpreting the vision of the Prince imposed on reality by Caliborn. as long as we’re still tentatively comparing class and gender I’ll be annoying and pull out the quote for the millionth time:

> oUr view of hUman cUlture indirectly inflUenced alternia’s development, which in tUrn affected yoUrs […] it’s all so very circUitoUs and arbitrary.