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Arts and Majesty

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Revision as of 11:52, 14 August 2020 by LadyLameness (talk | contribs) (A few small wording changes for clarification purposes - you switch male/female to female/male which is a bit jarring, if I remember correctly this would generally take the same pattern before and after the semicolon.)
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Arts and Majesty
World of Origin Roshar
Universe Cosmere


Arts and Majesty is an ancient work of Rosharan literature that has come to define the Vorin ideas of masculine and feminine arts.[1] It defines certain topics and practices as feminine or masculine; the feminine arts are generally those that can be practiced with a single hand, while the masculine arts involve both hands, associating delicacy with women and brute force with men.[2] The idea of the safehand comes from this distinction between one-handed and two-handed arts.[1] In modern Vorin culture, practices that are not explicitly mentioned in the book (and are distinct from those that are included) may be properly performed by anybody.[3]

History

Arts and Majesty was written by a female artist[1][2] well before the Day of Recreance.[4] It may not have had much influence on culture before the Recreance; soon afterward, however, some men in power came across it and began emphasizing it to justify keeping Shardblades and Shardplate away from women.[5][6] As retaliation, a movement of women caused writing and literacy to move into the domain of women.[1]

The division between masculine and feminine arts became part of Vorin culture over the next few decades[4] and remained solidly in place thousands of years later, with the safehand and the femininity of writing being especially prominent in day-to-day life. Arts and Majesty itself also stayed well-known despite its age, at least among upper-class lighteyes.[3] In some cases, the distinction between the arts moved beyond a mere cultural norm and gained religious overtones; men who could write, for example, could actually be seen as blasphemous and not just strange.[7]

Arts

Unspecified

  • horseback riding and the care of horses[3]
  • knitting[8]
  • singing[9]

Feminine

  • reading and writing[10]
  • painting and drawing[11]
  • science[10] (e.g., zoology, botany, and natural history[12])
  • logic[10]
  • playing musical instruments[9]

Masculine

Trivia

  • The idea of the safehand and the division between one-handed and two-handed arts arose from Brandon's fascination with different taboos across real-life cultures.[5]
  • LEGO building would probably be considered a feminine art; since it is difficult to do one-handed, though, it might end up being mostly done with two hands behind the scenes anyway.[19]

Notes

  1. ↑ a b c d Words of Radiance Seattle signing
    — Arcanum - 2014-03-08#
  2. ↑ a b Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A
    — Arcanum - 2010-12-01#
  3. ↑ a b c Words of Radiance chapter 25#
  4. ↑ a b Firefight Phoenix signing
    — Arcanum - 2015-01-21#
  5. ↑ a b Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing
    — Arcanum - 2016-12-01#
  6. ↑ FanX Spring 2019
    — Arcanum - 2019-04-19#
  7. ↑ Words of Radiance chapter 12#
  8. ↑ Calamity Chicago signing
    — Arcanum - 2016-02-22#
  9. ↑ a b The Way of Kings chapter 57#
  10. ↑ a b c The Way of Kings chapter 3#
  11. ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 5#
  12. ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 7#
  13. ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 26#
  14. ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 28#
  15. ↑ Oathbringer chapter 39#
  16. ↑ Oathbringer chapter 65#
  17. ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 31#
  18. ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 8#
  19. ↑ General Reddit 2019
    — Arcanum - 2019-10-11#
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