Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 287
"New beliefs. New religions. New economics, new
science. And not just as a process of reform or nation-building.
Rather as a single artistic whole. During her reign Galas has
viewed her nation as an artistic medium to be shaped."
She shifted uncomfortably. "That’s... horrible."
Armiger seemed surprised. "Why? Her impulse has
been to improve things. And she’s almost never used force,
certainly not against the common people. Her actions are
reminiscent of those of the Amarna rulers of ancient Egypt...
sorry, I keep referring to things you can’t know.
"Anyway, what she did was give her people a completely
new, and all-encompassing, vision of the world. Nothing has
been left unchanged--art, commerce, she has even tried to
reform the language itself."
Megan laughed. "That’s silly."
Armiger shrugged. "She’s failed at a lot of things. In
terms of language, she tried to ban the use of possessives when
speaking of emotional states, motives and people. So that you
could not say, ‘he is my husband’ for instance."
She glowered. "That is evil."
"But you could also not say that something is his fault, or
her fault. She wanted to remove assignments of blame from
speech and writing, and refocus expression on contexts of
behavior. To eliminate victimless crimes, crimes of
ostracization, for instance the ‘crime’ of being a homosexual.
Also to move the emphasis of Justice away from blame and
punishment to behavior management. Far too ambitious for a
single generation. So it didn’t work.
"But no one on Ventus has ever thought of these things
before. Galas is entirely original in her thinking."
"So why are they out there?" She pointed to the
windows.