milliways_bar | (no subject)

After some in-bar discussion earlier, Ray retired to his room to check on some experiments and make up for lost sleep. He's awake properly now, and wearing the equations T-shirt. And he's got dinner and a couple of small grey possibly electronic things on his table, along with the creepy green opalescent soda stuff. Come say hi!

[Summary: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBABYDINOSAURSEEEEEEEEE!!! Ray once again displays all the survival instincts of an eggplant as he finds first one, then two, then three baby Utahraptors clustering about his table. They get fed, watered, and played with, and then momma shows up, so she gets fed too. The babies get named Scribble, Kona, and Tiger, and Scribble decides that she likes playing tug-of-war with Ray, which is good, because he likes playing it too.

Donatello shows up at the sight of Ray's T-shirt, and there is discussion of general geekery, then ghost geekery, before Donatello realizes who Ray is. Then Ray breaks out the Map of Milliways Patrons' Worlds and OMG TECHNO FOO. Slowtimed for now.

And Lysistrata comes around, and she and Ray chat, and the possibility is planted in Lysistrata's mind of visiting New York City. Ray indicates that the status of women in his time is fairly high compared to Athens in Lysistrata's day. There is also much discussion of the fact that the Greek playwrights and philosophers are still remembered and taught in the schools in Ray's time, which pleases Lysistrata to no end.]

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"All of them," Ray says with a smile. "Although we only have a handful of the works of Euripides and Sophocles, I'm sad to say. They're good ones, though- good enough that they've been translated into languages from all over the world, although of course that loses some of the power of the playwright's word choices. And Aristotle? His work formed the basis of both science and Western philosophy for a good thousand years or more. They still study him in the schools. I personally liked Plato's works better, but that's my preference..."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is. The school is named, um..." Another pause as he mentally rearranges things into Greek. "πανεπιστήμιο Cολuμbια. Which in English is Columbia University. We've got several thousand students, all for studying math, philosophy, any of the arts you care to name and a lot of the ones you probably don't know about yet... separate schools for the study of things like medicine and law, too."

Strata blinks at this.
"*Thousands* of students? I think I ould like to go there. I would have liked to have had the chance to learn. A chance to study rhetoric and literature, and mathematics. Unfortunately, my brother was too young to study when I married, and we didn't have enough money to pay for good tutors. I'm one of 7 girls, you see."
"Which works of Euripides did you like? Elektra? The Bacchae?"

"Ouch. A family of that size would be expensive to care for even in my day," Ray says, shaking his head ruefully. "You'd probably have to go to the public schools when you were younger, all of you- we have schools for young children and unmarried young men and women, paid for by taxes on property, but otherwise pretty much free of charge. It's a popular way for people who can't afford private tutors or religious schooling to educate their children."

He thinks for a bit. "I kind of liked the Trojan Women, actually. I remember seeing that one performed in Central Park- that's the big green space in the middle of my city, with a lawn big enough to seat... oh, man. What's the biggest number you know, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Yours sound like a more enlightened time, in many ways. I think I would like to see it. Free schooling sounds amazing, the chance to learn new things.
And what of women of your time? How are they treated?
"As to the Trojan Women, I was unfortunately sick that day of the festival with a horrible fever and could go nowhere. My sisters recounted it for me, though, with much hilarity. Arete was especially wonderful, mimicing all the voices for me."
She gets a wistful, faroff look and rubs her necklace.

"I'd be happy to take you," Ray says. "It'd certainly be a workout for my conversational Greek. Although I should warn you that the cities of my time barely even resemble the cities of your own. New York- my own city- completely covers two islands, takes up part of a third, and still has part of itself on the mainland. There's just that many people living and working there- and before you ask, the farms are very far outside of town, though they do bring in lots of fish and other foodstuffs through the main island's ports."

"Women? In my day- at least in my part of the world- women can own property, vote in elections, and keep their own family names if they marry. Although that last is still kind of a new thing. They can inherit, too, if their father's will deeds them the family property in preference to their brothers. Um, they can work outside their homes, although if they have children that's not always easy..." A thought strikes him. "The highest court in the country is composed of nine judges. Of those nine, two of them are women. The head of our government is a man, but the laws are mostly made by an assembly called the Congress, and there are women as well as men in Congress."

He smiles a bit and almost says something about finding a play in New York, but notices the look in her eye. "I'm sorry you can't go home, you know. It must really stink, being stuck here."

Strata's mind can't even to begin to fathom how many people live in a city like that.
"I think I would like to see this New York myself. To experience such a place where women have so much more power. Women can't seak in the Assembly. We can't really do much of anything, I'm afraid. So wommen do work outside of the home? They are free to leave their homes unescorted, and to learn and become scholars? and become actors too? I always found it absurd when male actors would play women. They always get it horribly wrong. The gestures, the voices. Real women don't act like that.
And does your time have theatre too, like ours? I think I would like to see that. I do miss theatre; my husband refused to take me to see it last year at the City Dionysia."
"And I can go home; it is not in the least pleasant. I am not Bound hre like other patrons are. But I think I would like to explore, now that I am fre to do so."

"It's taken our women a long time to win this many rights," Ray admits. "Something like... I'd say maybe a hundred and fifty years ago, they started pushing for the right to keep their own property when they married, and for rights like the vote, and other things like that. They've come a really long way since then, though. They've had the vote in my country for more than eighty years. That's helped a lot." He grins. "They're free to go about on their own, yeah- I won't lie to you, that can be dangerous sometimes, but in a big city it can be dangerous for men to go around unescorted too. The αστυνομία can't be everywhere." (The word he uses means 'police' or 'guardsmen', so far as he knows.) "And, yes, women scholars, women actors- very respected actors at that."

"Do we ever have theatre! You won't recognize it as being quite like your own, I'll admit- other than the Greek plays, most of ours take place over different times and places and scenes, but it's still the theatre. And New York City is the city with the most and best theatre in all of the United States! Most of it's in English, admittedly, but still..."

He nods. "Oh, I can definitely understand that. I guess I just thought you were Bound, that's all. My apologies, ma'am."

Strata's face lights up at the thought of going to the theatre.
"Where atre you staying? Here at Milliways, or can you go back to your own time?"

"I bounce back and forth between the two. Right now I'm staying here because of a project a friend of mine and I are working on, but I'll be heading home soon enough. Could take you then, if you wanted."

Then he glances towards the stairs. "Take your time and think it over. Unfortunately, I have some stuff I need to attend to in my rooms- I'll talk to you when next we meet, okay?"

"Alright, good night."