Themes for Crooked Wings
TODO:
-add/remove/edit elements on the document
-WEIGH elements on the document
-how can the protagonists and other characters push these elements?
-how can events and choices push these elements?
Frequency is roughly done as a percentage score but that's not very necessary
| STATEMENT | IMPORTANCE | FREQUENCY | DIRECTNESS | Q&T notes (to process) |
| "free" unregulated markets allow actors with power to limit freedoms of others | Less Important | 25 | Subtle | |
| your worth transcends a paycheck | More Important | 10 | A Little Subtle | |
| socioeconomic class is not divinely (or morally) fated | Much More Important | 20 | Direct | |
| passing down wealth without property taxes (??) | Much Less Important | 5 | A Little Direct | |
| ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied | Much More Important | 40 | Very Direct |
| QUESTION | IMPORTANCE | FREQUENCY | DIRECTNESS | Q&T Notes (to process) |
| 'usury' might be a useful financial technology, but... | Much Less Important | 2 | A Little Subtle | The interesting thing about usury, is it is NOT a positive technology. At a certain level of debt in the population, return on investment goes to zero anyway. That's why Jubilee. |
| WHAT'S WITH PRIVATE PROPERTY, ANYWAY?! property as refuge property as 'I can kick you out' property as 'I get access to the resources here' |
Important | 8 | Direct | I have a podcast for you on this: It's the socialism series by Matt Breunig. Podcast is the Breunigs. In fact his writing might be the best guide to property arguments. (I'll give away the end: It's philosophically indefensible, if you're premises are "liberty" or "utility" or "just desserts"...We can talk more. |
| what is the difference between luxuries and goods? | Less Important | 5 | A Little Direct | It depends what you mean by luxuries and by goods. Anything bought and sold on the marketplace can be a commodity. Even a luxury good. It follows commodity logic. (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/commodity.htm) Where non-luxury commodities differ from luxury is in how they are priced, and how they are viewed. |
| the real enemy isn't some individual person as much as it is INSTITUTIONAL ROT? | More Important | 42 | A Little Subtle |
This question is CRUCIAL. Unfortunately, I don't believe it actually has much depth, as a question. What makes it interesting, to me, is that our society tends to view problems with Capitalism itself, as problems with institutions not working as they should. My firm position is that institutional rot is never the deep problem within capitalism. The problem is that "rot" is built in. Take Wall Street circa 2008....Can we say that it was institutional rot, or that the institutions were functioning as they tend to function over time? So, I would say that all the things that LOOK like institutional rot are in fact features of the whole system. There is no parallel universe with an ethical wall street, or even one where there aren't giant devastating crashes. Capitalism is fueled by disaster. |
| IN A CAPITALIST ENVIRONMENT: is the literal possession of money/capital INHERENTLY not-good? [does the money corrupt them?] | Less Important | 3 | Subtle | Yes. Bad. Accumulation of wealth bad...for an individual or cadre. For the public, accumulation is quite good. Can't have bridges without accumulation. |
| Is property theft? | Much Less Important | 1 | Very Subtle | Yes. But whyyyyy? |
| What is 'disability'? | Much Less Important | 6 | A Little Direct | I like this. I don't know how to answer. |
| How does one want their society to react to 'disabled' people? | Important | 20 | Direct | |
| when can an individual throw up their hands and say 'this is not my problem'? | Much More Important | 13 | Very Direct | THIS. I think this is one of the strongest parts of your story: complicated calculation of "should I act". heroism vs. complicity. |
| THEME | IMPORTANCE | FREQUENCY | DIRECTNESS | Q&T notes (to process) |
| ABSURD/SLAPSTICK HUMOR | Much More Important | 35 | Very Direct | |
| Satirical humor | Much More Important | 19 | Direct | |
| exploring how institutions influence and coerce individuals | Less Important | 15 | Moderate? | |
| you just know that some things are right (slavery was bad) [HEROISM] | Much Less Important | 10 | Subtle? | |
| moral complexity! | Important | 21 | A Little Subtle? |
...do 'themes' need to be ranked ordinally with each other?
Unsorted notes:
-people second-guess themselves about their difficulties?
EXEMPLIFICATION SPREADSHEET
| CHARACTER(trait) OR INTERACTION OR EVENT OR STORY-FEATURE OR GAME MECHANIC OR DESIGN-FEATURE | THEME||QUESTION||STATEMENT TO EXEMPLIFY | HOW IT IS DONE | Q&T notes (to process) |
| Veezal's problems with ADHD | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Kaiyara's problems with depression and burnout | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Zelrik's problems with being exiled and physical malformations | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Tawnette's problems with aphasia | 'What is 'disability'?' | ||
| Sedrin's wariness of how slow institutions are to change (which leads him to erroneously pessimistic conclusions) | 'ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied' AND 'moral complexity!' | ||
| Salamin's zeal and connection to the emotions of popular (which leads him to erroneously theory-driven conclusions) | 'ideals that stray from reality can no longer be meaningfully applied' AND 'moral complexity!' | ||
| Rrajak's promotion to a leadership role due to his excellence in engineering, in spite of his lack of interest (and incompetence) in management | |||
| Lornix's ??? | |||
| Pryden's ??? | |||
| Kechi's ??? | |||
| Ahamefula's ??? | |||
| Onyeka's ??? | |||
| Khanda's ??? | |||
| Zikora's ??? | |||
| Arudow's ??? | |||
| Vritak's ??? | |||
| Gritak's ??? | |||
| Tomil's ??? | |||
| Alondr's ??? | |||
| Jiwa's ??? | |||
| Huitzi's ??? | |||
| Zephyx's ??? | |||
| The public understands the flourishing of Blight Elementals as an unfortunate consequence of Violet Fulgurite production. However, the truth of the matter is that a nonzero amount of industrialists and politicians find this 'unfortunate thing' as an actual boon. | "free" unregulated markets allow actors with power to limit freedoms of others |
is idea may have been jettisoned. I'm not sure. If not, I think it could be a good vector for exploring your themes. This touches on the institutional rot question. This is also a great historical reference. Many of the things that people have seen as unintended by capitalism are, in fact, intended...or at least the worst things are ignored. Homelessness, alcoholism, war environmental disaster.... | |
(repeats of any item in the spreadsheet are okay)
Link to general theme page