Ah, I just wanted to pipe up and say, don't discount social pressure hard-coding thoughts into your character's heads. As above, the reason for the belief is probably derived from some form of pattern recognition turned up to 11, and then diluted and mutated as the culture has different needs over the years. The reason the person is following the belief is because they've heard and enacted these strictures since before they hard hard and fast rules about how the world works (childhood,) AND because their family and friends all believe this too. The people they love and trust are cross checking the character's subjective reality according to how are all taught. The religion reinforces the social structure reinforces the religion, etc, etc.
Homer though the seas were wine dark, because ancient Greeks didn't want/need the concept of blue. Their 'objective' reality and ours are totally different, but within their own culture everyone is reinforcing that reality. Your character may not see the other option, because there IS no other option in their worldview.
Uh, hi... do you still care?
Date: 21 Mar 2013 03:52 am (UTC)Homer though the seas were wine dark, because ancient Greeks didn't want/need the concept of blue. Their 'objective' reality and ours are totally different, but within their own culture everyone is reinforcing that reality. Your character may not see the other option, because there IS no other option in their worldview.