7 réponses à ce sujet

[MissCurlsbel]

Usually manifestos are written in order to inspire great numbers of people to support your opinions, correct?

I have to ask: Besides nobility and merchants, how many people in Kirkwall would actually know what Anders was writing about?

There are obviously a lot more people occupying the lower classes and (just a guess but I believe it to be accurate nonetheless!), only the nobility and merchants would have money to be taught their letters and hire tutors.

How do you inspire a revolution among people who don't understand its purpose? The answer is "You don't".

How come this was never pointed out in the game?

[Ferretinabun]

The obvious response is that Ferelden does not correspond exactly to medieval Europe. Just because literacy was low irl, doesn't mean that is the case in Ferelden. I believe illiteracy is only actually encountered in the DA world when you teach Fenris to read.

However, that aside, historically reading was often considered a rather sociable activity rather than something you did alone (probably because literacy levels were low). Wandering minstrels, town criers, clergy, etc., would often read to groups as a pastime. That does, of course, still leave the fact that Anders' manifesto is controversial stuff, but then that wasn't a problem for Martin Luther and the Protestants in the 16th century.

The short answer is that I don't think low literacy levels is the barrier to the spread of ideas you might imagine.

[MissCurlsbel]

Ferretinabun wrote...

The obvious response is that Ferelden does not correspond exactly to medieval Europe. Just because literacy was low irl, doesn't mean that is the case in Ferelden. I believe illiteracy is only actually encountered in the DA world when you teach Fenris to read.

However, that aside, historically reading was often considered a rather sociable activity rather than something you did alone (probably because literacy levels were low). Wandering minstrels, town criers, clergy, etc., would often read to groups as a pastime. That does, of course, still leave the fact that Anders' manifesto is controversial stuff, but then that wasn't a problem for Martin Luther and the Protestants in the 16th century.

The short answer is that I don't think low literacy levels is the barrier to the spread of ideas you might imagine.

It is precisely because it was controversial stuff that it didn't get spread around. Anyone who openly shows support for the mage cause would be hanged. The manifesto was obviously being spread under a false alias so Anders wouldn't be caught.

My guess is that, due to so many people not being able to read it, is the reason why he couldn't get enough support.

Besides, we are discussing Kirkwall in particular, not Ferelden but I'd guess that Kirkwall is as good as any example about the education levels in Thedas. There is the Chantry as a place for you to learn, of course, but who would want education from religious institutions besides those who believe and actually want to join the religion?

I never heard about any public schools who taught free of any religion while I was roaming around the Thedas world. People who are taught in free institutions like that since childhood are not as likely to become religiously biased as opposed to those taught by the Chantry.

[Ryzaki]

Ferretinabun wrote...

The obvious response is that Ferelden does not correspond exactly to medieval Europe. Just because literacy was low irl, doesn't mean that is the case in Ferelden. I believe illiteracy is only actually encountered in the DA world when you teach Fenris to read.

However, that aside, historically reading was often considered a rather sociable activity rather than something you did alone (probably because literacy levels were low). Wandering minstrels, town criers, clergy, etc., would often read to groups as a pastime. That does, of course, still leave the fact that Anders' manifesto is controversial stuff, but then that wasn't a problem for Martin Luther and the Protestants in the 16th century.

The short answer is that I don't think low literacy levels is the barrier to the spread of ideas you might imagine.

That and I'm also pretty sure fereldan has a high literacy rate. There's signs telling the elves not to wield weapons (what good is such a sign if they can't read it), the CE has no problem reading the treaties, Hawke gets letters from other people in Fereldan that are not of noble class and so forth. Also there's codex books lying around in the alienage.

Modifié par Ryzaki, 04 novembre 2013 - 03:35 .

[Dean_the_Young]

This is probably one of those concessions to modernity that is implicit in video games. Anders' manifesto is probably expected to be read for the same reasons most of the cast adheres to broadly identifiable modern western liberalism viewpoints: because the players expect it from their own lives.

[MisterJB]

It is worth noting that "Asunder" actually approached this topic. In that book, we are shown how most signs in Orlais are not written in the common tongue because a great many people can't read and also that this amazes the mages because it is an elementary skill in the Circles.
It could just be that Anders is mirroring this outlook.

Modifié par MisterJB, 05 novembre 2013 - 05:06 .

[Gfletch]

Because Anders assumed everyone could read, because he's an arrogant b*tch, is why.

[CrimsonZephyr]

Varric is able to maintain a career as a writer of dime novels...in a medieval German city-state analogue. No, the overwhelming literacy rates in Thedas are definitely anachronistic. The reason, for example, that the Italian Wars of the 1500s have a huge number of accounts written by average soldiers was due to the Renaissance restoring scholarship and education to a large part of Europe. Before that, books written about society and history were written by and for the nobility and the clergy.