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Post by erin on Aug 5, 2008 13:14:38 GMT -5
I can't remember. What's the youngest age a person would be accepted as a candidate at StarRise? Is 11 too young? Do they have to be 12 or 13?
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Post by Anna on Aug 5, 2008 14:42:23 GMT -5
The age range was 12 to 21.
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Post by erin on Aug 5, 2008 15:31:17 GMT -5
Well, hmmph! That pushes my timeline back a while year. Then again, I suppose dragons don't know when your birthday is so a person could get searched a bit before 12 and just not be allowed to officially be a candidate until 12... yeah...?
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Post by Anna on Aug 5, 2008 16:45:20 GMT -5
Oh, sure! Dragonriders aren't likely to loose track of good Candidates! The Weyr would definitely make a note of who's a likely Candidate and either go back and get them when they're old enough, or go ahead and bring 'em into the Weyr immediately, with parental permission. It's the people, not the dragons, who determine the acceptable age range. Although, it's been proven that the older a person gets, the less adaptive and flexible their mind is. Like, children are a lot more creative than adults, a lot more impressionable. That could have an impact on Impression. But that's getting off the subject a bit...
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Post by Chantal on Aug 5, 2008 21:07:48 GMT -5
And didn't we at one time extend the age range for goldrider candidates to 24? Did we raise it to 18-24?
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Post by Anna on Aug 5, 2008 21:48:44 GMT -5
No, that was prudish me imposing my will on the clubs I was leading because I got squicky at the thought of 14 year old girls participating in mating flights. So I changed their Impression ages to 14 - 22. But that was my willfulness alone, not any commonly accepted rule in fandom, or in Canon.
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Post by Hope on Aug 8, 2008 20:03:07 GMT -5
I don't think of myself as prudish, but I do set age of consent no lower than 16...so, personally, I'd prefer Queenriders to be 14 plus at actual impression. Besides, you need a lot of willpower to handle a Queen, and how many of us had that in our early teens?
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Post by Anna on Aug 8, 2008 20:07:34 GMT -5
I certainly didn't!
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Terry
Weyrling
OTMR
Posts: 15
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Post by Terry on Aug 8, 2008 21:38:28 GMT -5
I didn't necessarily have willpower but I can say i was pretty willful at that age<g>
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Post by Uncle Bob on Aug 10, 2008 14:08:54 GMT -5
Leave it to me to swim against the current (and most likely drown ).... We should remember that Pern society is not 21st Century earth – western society. I seem to remember one of my old college Professors really highlighting the point that the trend of “extended childhood” began in post WWII USA. Case in point, rural US early 1900’s; it was not unusual for young women to be married at 14. My grandmother was married at 14 and my oldest uncle was born the following year. Her youngest brother is younger than her youngest child is. In an agrarian based culture, the norm is a long way from what we accustomed to today. I guess the final breakdown is the balance between what would logically be happening on Pern and what we consider fun to write. I admit that I tend to land too far on the logical side and forget that no everyone sees that as fun. Read too many, Joseph and Frances Gies type books.
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Post by Anna on Aug 10, 2008 14:17:28 GMT -5
Uncle Bob,
I haven't forgotten the logical aspects of an agrarian society. I know now, and I knew then, that girls were wed and bred almost as soon as their menstrual cycles began in most agrarian societies. That's why I said I'd changed the ages for just my groups because of my personal preference. Accepting something intellectually and accepting it in reality are two very different things, sometimes. :-)
And, too, we had younger members joining the groups at that point. While 100 years ago - or even 50 or 60 years ago - girls were mentally mature enough to be wives and mothers, society today doesn't force them to mature that quickly. I know MY neices aren't/wont' be prepared for it at that age, and I didn't want what's being written here to be misunderstood by a hormonal teenager to be okay and acceptable in today's world. Teenagers can often get fantasy and reality muddled in regards to what is acceptable behavior and what is not.
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Post by Hope on Aug 10, 2008 15:59:33 GMT -5
Reality, like "natural", is a tool, not an end. ;> While it would logically follow that children marry and breed in a society like this, Pern varies from Earth in many important ways, and we don't have to follow logic...at least, not slavishly. Children having children contributes greatly to maternal and infant mortality rates, and the Pernese are pragmatic enough to try to prevent it solely for that reason.
I come back to a quote from the beginning of Romeo and Juliet: "Too soon marred are those so early made."
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Andy
Dragonrider
Posts: 75
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Post by Andy on Aug 11, 2008 22:35:07 GMT -5
In North Dakota kids can start driving at 14...I do not thing I want to share the road with a 14 yr. old...
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Post by Anna on Aug 11, 2008 22:49:02 GMT -5
I was driving at 12.
Of course, it was a golf cart....
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Kelli
Weyr Representative
Ista & Telgar
Posts: 116
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Post by Kelli on Aug 12, 2008 1:55:26 GMT -5
Hah hah golf cart!
I realized I had a character who stood at 24, so I went ahead and changed it to that it was an accidental Impression if that's cool (he won't be at StarRise yet but he's part of Savante's background).
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