All we humans do have a challenge with outliving our pets and other animals, but perhaps a character as long-lived as an HL immortal has such a different timescale in mind that getting attached to a short-lived animal is too much to ask.
On the other hand, that's nearly the definition of the line between an evil immie and a good immie in that story universe: one who defines non-immortal humans as short-lived nothings, versus those who value non-immortal human lives. Characters like Duncan and Cierdwyn -- and, yes, Methos, despite his best efforts -- love and love again, and hurt and hurt again, because it is ultimately worth the price. Villains don't. Should animal lives count, too, in their way, for that story point? Just pondering...
There's a C.S. Lewis line that I can't quite remember, something about seeing everyone as their imperishable eternal selves, not their passing mortal shells, and treating them accordingly... was it, "Imagine, what if everyone you meet is going to live forever, how would you treat them?" ...Of course Lewis is talking theology, not HL story interpretation! :-)
Now that I am looking for animals in the story universe, I am seeing the places that they are not, but could be. I'm not saying they need to be inserted! Only that I suddenly see a dearth in HL, and equally a comparative plenty in FK, and both were creative choices, whether on purpose or by omission...
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All we humans do have a challenge with outliving our pets and other animals, but perhaps a character as long-lived as an HL immortal has such a different timescale in mind that getting attached to a short-lived animal is too much to ask.
On the other hand, that's nearly the definition of the line between an evil immie and a good immie in that story universe: one who defines non-immortal humans as short-lived nothings, versus those who value non-immortal human lives. Characters like Duncan and Cierdwyn -- and, yes, Methos, despite his best efforts -- love and love again, and hurt and hurt again, because it is ultimately worth the price. Villains don't. Should animal lives count, too, in their way, for that story point? Just pondering...
There's a C.S. Lewis line that I can't quite remember, something about seeing everyone as their imperishable eternal selves, not their passing mortal shells, and treating them accordingly... was it, "Imagine, what if everyone you meet is going to live forever, how would you treat them?" ...Of course Lewis is talking theology, not HL story interpretation! :-)
Now that I am looking for animals in the story universe, I am seeing the places that they are not, but could be. I'm not saying they need to be inserted! Only that I suddenly see a dearth in HL, and equally a comparative plenty in FK, and both were creative choices, whether on purpose or by omission...
Just thinking! :-)