 December 30, 2011 - 5:46am | I woke up this morning with my brain awirl, the subconscious was concerned over something that I had written last night that the implications of it were that it set up a false archetype for the yazirian. So i lay there composing the following material in my head and eventually got up to type it lest I loose it. Funny thing, though, I cant find any material that I posted that could be pointed to as the cause for this. Non the less, I post the material for the worthy consideration of my fellow Frontiersman. (and no I did not watch a certain over played movie/play this year- if you are wondering) Clans of any size appoint clan stewards who oversee assets and manage property. Clan stewards have developed a stereotype of being fastidious at collecting every credit of rent due. Humans, naturally, resurrected the ghost of literature past and dubbed this stereotype the yazirian miser or Ebenezer. This truth is that a clan steward is not really a greedy miser. As a matter of honor he feels he must be a good steward of clan property and assets and that means obtaining fair market value or (perferably) better for them, especially from non clan members. He's greatly concerned with his legacy and wants to discharge this responsibility with great fidelity. He may even leave a clan member "hanging" if he believes they are well able to do for themselves, usually this is a youthful clan member and its motivated by both good stewardship and the desire to instruct the youth in self reliance. Because the saying, "If you dont get the joke, its probably about you." is classic in yazirian society since meeting the other three major space faring races. Yazirians have investigated the source of the Ebenzer reference in case it was an insult that required action. They have seen the play. Yazirian cultural glasses cause them to view it differently. Ebenezer is to be commended as a dutiful steward of clan property. His actions are very admirable. His lack of generocity to the clanless is perhaps too strict but his honor in discharging his stewardship as clan steward is untarnished. The change that comes over him at the end is perhaps too extreme, generocity to the poor and clanless is a yazirian cultural value and shows the greatness of a clan that performs it. The excess presented in the end of the play is understood because of the presence of the Clan Spirits. Modern yazirians can be a little supersticious concerning spirits of the dead and clan spirits even though they profess to not beleive in the crude beliefs of millenia ago. They all assume that the visitation of clan spirits warrents the excess even while they do question some of it. They all wonder what a Christmas Goose tastes like and assume it must be a sweet meat. They pity the the Cratchet clan for having slipped so low socially and economically that the cub Tiny Tim would find some vile dralasite pudding appetizing- this brings a strong reaction in yazirian audiences. Often a Yazirian audience will errupt quite vocally in hoots and lip buzzes (yaz booing) at this point in the play. Some wonder if Ebenezer's Life Enemy is frivolity or something similar. Those that wonder this assume that the Clan Spirits needed to intervene to tell Ebenezer that his life enemy is defeated and allow him to bring greater ballance to his life by championing generocity. Ebenezer is to be admired that he would fight his life enemy even beyond defeating it. Very commendable in deed. Ebenzer's nephew is viewed with some disgust over his frivolity but the repectful attitude toward his uncle is commended. Some think he should throw down and challenge his friends that mock his uncle and others despise him for not doing so. Yazirians wonder that the Scrooge/Christmas Clan is so small and what its ultimate fate should be, since the nephew is obviously an adult and has not sired any cubs, shameful, unless he cannot then its just tragect. Over all the yazirian view of Ebenzer is a heroic and honorable. his behavior before and after the clan spirit visitations is commendable, though with some slight hesitation on how far it changes after the visitation. Some find his actions during some of the visitations troubling (fear and trembling) but then visitations by clan spirits is something to be feared even while most assume they will stand up to it better then ebenezer did. Ebenezer is held up as an example of finding balance. The play often provokes debate among yazirians over what the future of the Scrooge/Christmas clan could or should be. Many think that Ebenezer should or will adopt the Cratchet clan to breathe new life and blood into the clan and possibly to save the cubs from eating vile dralasite pudding. There are now college level courses being taught on planets like Yast and Hargut on the literature of Dickens. Clan structure and values are being read into Victorian society and some professors now insist that you have not read Dickens unless you've read him in the original Yazirian. A new view of humanity is evolving that they have lost thier prior clan structure to their society, its taken as a morality tale of what will happen to yazirian society if it continues to be too much influenced by the values of the other races. The Family of One has seized on this and suddenly in a reversal of his stance on "A Christmas Carol" has suddenly embraced the play and its message, though only with yazirian actors performing it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 30, 2011 - 9:01am | Nice analysis of the story from a Yazirian viewpoint. BTW, it's Dickens not Copperfield. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 30, 2011 - 9:11am | Nice analysis of the story from a Yazirian viewpoint.
Ooooops! I'll fix that when I get home as the phone is not letting me edit that post without great difficulty, talk about a brain fart with Copperfield this morning, my only excuse is I was still on one cup of coffee at that point.BTW, it's Dickens not Copperfield. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 30, 2011 - 4:57pm | I enjoyed your analysis. Idea: Let's write the Yazirian version and publish it in the 2012 Christmas edition of the Star Frontiersman or as a little extra is the SFMan does not have a November or December release. -iggy |
December 30, 2011 - 5:25pm | Well we have the new article heading, "Yazirian Files" which is really a sub heading of the core four article heading. I am a loss to write a yazirian version though, yet the idea is intriguing. I just had to work in the reference to the original Dickens as a montage to Star Trek. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 8, 2012 - 1:12pm | A Yazirian Christmas Carol performed by clan Shaggsmane at the Stellar Theater on Hargut. Its a clan tradition that we go to it every winter solstice. Of course clan ticket rates and reservations must be inquired at the box office ahead. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 27, 2012 - 4:32pm | Wow, that's a great interpretation. I can see the attitudes toward Ebeneezer being more complex than ours. However, I think most Yazirians would also be disgusted by his excessive unproductive wealth. "Only the serpent can wrap its heart around money" - so says the ancient Yazirian proverb (insert Yazirian word for slimy snake-like creature, renowned for its deadly sneakiness.) In the end, the redemption is as jedion describes. A great treatment of Yazirian attitudes. The interpretation as Clan Spirits is especially strong in this story. I can see the Yazirians taking the visions of the Ghosts extremely seriously. Messages from past Clan Leaders and Elders must be relatively common. Certain hypnosis rituals attempt to conjure up these Spirits for consultation, but no one has yet mastered the practice reliably. |
September 9, 2012 - 11:26am | I enjoyed your analysis. Idea: Let's write the Yazirian version and publish it in the 2012 Christmas edition of the Star Frontiersman or as a little extra is the SFMan does not have a November or December release. Well is September, which for me means we're in the home stretch for Christmas more or less. I dont know that anyone would really want to read a full length version of "A Yazirian Clan Carol" I think perhaps a yazirian character giving commentary on the story might work as well as shorten it to fit into a fan zine. Looking at it now Clan spirits work but also the "ghost of clan hero's past" certainly work. The original Dicken's story is very powerful and comes to its second "Door of no return" in the story with the Ghost of Christmas future who is also a dead ringer for the grim reaper sometimes, but I wonder if the story would not work better from a yazirian perspective with all three spirit visitations being ghost of leaders past. In the Dickens story each spirit has a point they are driving home so what might be the points that the yazirian spirits are trying to drive home? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 9, 2012 - 10:04pm | I must say that I have never read the actual Dickens story. Too many movie versions of it out there for consumption. I imagine the story is a full book. Maybe we can find a children's or reader's digest version of it that we can work from. As for the ghost of Christmas future I think we should stick with a death oriented persona. Coming to grips with death does cause a great deal of direction in life. How do the yazirians view death? -iggy |
 September 9, 2012 - 10:25pm | The Hero of Christmas past would be the harbringer of the yazirians life enemy. Maybe the pursuit of the life enemy is not really what the yaz is suppose to do, but they are bound with time and tradition. The future ghost shows what would happen if the yaz was defeated by their life enemy. So the ghost is trying to convince the yaz to not pursue life that way? Basically, if you continue on this path you will die and this is what you will leave behind, more death. |
September 10, 2012 - 4:23am | Wow some deep stuff to think on, so the spirits are trying to modify how the ebenezer character is living or trying to get him to drop his life enemy? I think a vision of the future with his clan completely wiped out and gone would be shocking- as it would mean that all the clan heroes go un-sung which would be very tragic. BTW I love the idea of the Cratchet clan being so small and poor that "Tiny Tim" is in such poor health that all they can afford to feed him to keep him alive is vile dralasite pudding. Its sort of comical in a way. I think I'll look for an electronic copy at Geutenberg Project; it must be public domain, I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 4, 2013 - 6:39pm | whoa just had an idea concerning the Ghost of Christmas future- since yazirians put their spin on Dickens its the Spirit of Yazira- sort of an enternal spirit present in yazirians Past is a legendary hero from the clan's past Present it a clan elder that the main character doesn't know just died Future is the spirit of yaziria some yazirian scholars writing about the play claim or assert that all three are really the spirit of yaziria. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
