Now that I'm thinking about it, I think the precise quote is extracanonical, and part of the confusion comes from her working out her ideas throughout the course of the series. One of the most clearly expressed thoughts on the subject is Aral's, who says "all true wealth is biological." Which is not quite the same thing, but very close when you work it through -- the real things of value are the things we inherit despite ourselves.
It's a delicate balance she runs with Miles her champion of mind over matter -- or more accurately mind over society. But she has a healthy respect for the power of biology in our lives, including how we think and feel, which is something a lot of people are in denial about. In A Civil Campaign Count Vorbretton asks Miles if biology is still destiny, and Miles says "not anymore." The whole thing suggests a fine gradation of meaning -- there is destiny in the personal term, in the sense of what your life will be, and there is destiny in the contextual form, this is the context on which this life can play out. The ultimate message, as expressed at the end of my post and better by a commenter above, seems to be that our freedom lies in how we choose to meet the things we cannot change, our destinies biological and otherwise. Which is close, but not quite the same thing as a simple “biology is not destiny.” Now that I'm thinking about it, I think the precise quote is extracanonical, and part of the confusion comes from her working out her ideas throughout the course of the series. One of the most clearly expressed thoughts on the subject is Aral's, who says "all true wealth is biological." Which is not quite the same thing, but very close when you work it through -- the real things of value are the things we inherit despite ourselves.
It's a delicate balance she runs with Miles her champion of mind over matter -- or more accurately mind over society. But she has a healthy respect for the power of biology in our lives, including how we think and feel, which is something a lot of people are in denial about. In A Civil Campaign Count Vorbretton asks Miles if biology is still destiny, and Miles says "not anymore." The whole thing suggests a fine gradation of meaning -- there is destiny in the personal term, in the sense of what your life will be, and there is destiny in the contextual form, this is the context on which this life can play out. The ultimate message, as expressed at the end of my post and better by a commenter above, seems to be that our freedom lies in how we choose to meet the things we cannot change, our destinies biological and otherwise. Which is close, but not quite the same thing as a simple “biology is not destiny.”
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momijizukamori and
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Date: 2006-09-04 03:40 pm (UTC)It's a delicate balance she runs with Miles her champion of mind over matter -- or more accurately mind over society. But she has a healthy respect for the power of biology in our lives, including how we think and feel, which is something a lot of people are in denial about. In A Civil Campaign Count Vorbretton asks Miles if biology is still destiny, and Miles says "not anymore." The whole thing suggests a fine gradation of meaning -- there is destiny in the personal term, in the sense of what your life will be, and there is destiny in the contextual form, this is the context on which this life can play out. The ultimate message, as expressed at the end of my post and better by a commenter above, seems to be that our freedom lies in how we choose to meet the things we cannot change, our destinies biological and otherwise. Which is close, but not quite the same thing as a simple “biology is not destiny.”
Now that I'm thinking about it, I think the precise quote is extracanonical, and part of the confusion comes from her working out her ideas throughout the course of the series. One of the most clearly expressed thoughts on the subject is Aral's, who says "all true wealth is biological." Which is not quite the same thing, but very close when you work it through -- the real things of value are the things we inherit despite ourselves.
It's a delicate balance she runs with Miles her champion of mind over matter -- or more accurately mind over society. But she has a healthy respect for the power of biology in our lives, including how we think and feel, which is something a lot of people are in denial about. In A Civil Campaign Count Vorbretton asks Miles if biology is still destiny, and Miles says "not anymore." The whole thing suggests a fine gradation of meaning -- there is destiny in the personal term, in the sense of what your life will be, and there is destiny in the contextual form, this is the context on which this life can play out. The ultimate message, as expressed at the end of my post and better by a commenter above, seems to be that our freedom lies in how we choose to meet the things we cannot change, our destinies biological and otherwise. Which is close, but not quite the same thing as a simple “biology is not destiny.”