Esui
From The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin:
"The Darren language has a word for the attraction one feels to danger: esui. It is esui that makes warriors charge into hopeless battles and die laughing. Esui is also what draws women to lovers who are bad for them - men who make poor fathers, women of the enemy. The Senmite word that comes closest is "lust", if one includes the variations "bloodlust" and "lust for life," though these do not adequately capture the layered nature of esui. It is glory, it is folly. It is everything not sensible, not rational, not safe at all - but without esui there is no point in living." (pg. 231-232)
"'You should leave this place, T'vril. Find yourself a good woman to take care of you and keep you in silks and jewelry.'
T'vril stared at me, then burst out laughing, not strained at all this time. 'A Darre woman?'
'No, are you mad? You've seen what we're like.'"
Those are two passages that stood out to me. I enjoyed the fact that different cultures in the world of this book had different gender-power dynamics. I especially enjoyed the fact that they weren't explained or preached about, but just presented in the same way as any other details about the different cultures. This normalized the matriarchy of Darr, so that I hardly thought about it. It had an aura of "the-way-things-are-and-should-be". This also made the Senmite prejudice seem equally normal, and thus the main Darre character could question it. I feel like this is the way it would be written if its readers came from a world where matriarchies, patriarchies, and mostly gender-equal cultures all co-existed (as they do seem to in this book, and not always peacefully).
"The Darren language has a word for the attraction one feels to danger: esui. It is esui that makes warriors charge into hopeless battles and die laughing. Esui is also what draws women to lovers who are bad for them - men who make poor fathers, women of the enemy. The Senmite word that comes closest is "lust", if one includes the variations "bloodlust" and "lust for life," though these do not adequately capture the layered nature of esui. It is glory, it is folly. It is everything not sensible, not rational, not safe at all - but without esui there is no point in living." (pg. 231-232)
"'You should leave this place, T'vril. Find yourself a good woman to take care of you and keep you in silks and jewelry.'
T'vril stared at me, then burst out laughing, not strained at all this time. 'A Darre woman?'
'No, are you mad? You've seen what we're like.'"
Those are two passages that stood out to me. I enjoyed the fact that different cultures in the world of this book had different gender-power dynamics. I especially enjoyed the fact that they weren't explained or preached about, but just presented in the same way as any other details about the different cultures. This normalized the matriarchy of Darr, so that I hardly thought about it. It had an aura of "the-way-things-are-and-should-be". This also made the Senmite prejudice seem equally normal, and thus the main Darre character could question it. I feel like this is the way it would be written if its readers came from a world where matriarchies, patriarchies, and mostly gender-equal cultures all co-existed (as they do seem to in this book, and not always peacefully).