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--- lb:opinion:experience.aesthetic [2025-10-21 09:12:24] – removed - external edit (Unknown date) 127.0.0.1
+++ lb:opinion:experience.aesthetic [2025-10-23 11:45:11] (current) – [What do I mean?] ninjasr
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+====== Experience or Aesthetic? ======
+This is an opinion piece that is mostly tied to roleplaying, but can apply to storytelling in general.
+{{tag>musing opinion}}
+===== What do I mean? =====
+The gist of this is the question: are you more interested in the //experience// of being something or in its //aesthetic//?
+This is mostly in relation to [[lb:Islam]]. To recap what I write there, Islam is the subject of a lot of Orientalism, which results in Islam being treated more like an aesthetic than actual...y'know, Islam.\\
+In a roleplaying sense, this can manifest as players complaining that they can't play a Muslim vampire for example. Or complaining that they can't have female Space Marines. Both very uncontroversial subjects of course. In both of these situations, players are more concerned with the //aesthetic// rather than the actual //experience//.
+There are other ways this manifests as an issue. See for example the [[1d6>Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition#The_Tasha_Controversy|Tasha Controversy]] where the point of having multiple races was rendered moot.
+The reason I place the question at the forefront is because if you ask a player like this, they may end up answering that they're obviously interested in the former (the experience)...but then most of their justifications are related to the latter.\\
+To give an example based on the Muslim vampire concept((:fn:>For those wondering //why// I'm using it as an example, it's because I initially thought about it in relation to [[1d6>Kindred_of_the_East#The_Fan_Attempts|this section]] on 1d6chan. All that matters is the last sentence: <q>"The fact that one can actually play a Muslim hungry dead PC that //doesn't immediately seek to destroy themselves in glorious martyrdom for being an affront to Allah// is a big deal here. "</q> I didn't think much of it at first, but now I take a lot of issue with it. Islamic 'doctrine' (at least as far as I understand it) actually aligns with the idea of destroying yourself. So failing to destroy yourself means that you can't be a good Muslim.))...if you've read my [[lb:wnotes:vampires]] article, you'll probably be aware that I speculate vampires would generally dislike Muslims and vice-versa. Thus, the likelihood of there being Muslim vampires is quite low. This is because of the nature of the Islamic faith. The Quran is absolute and, being absolute, that means re-interpreting it is...to put it //very// lightly, frowned upon. Islam does not, as expected, look favorably upon supernatural entities. So a Muslim becoming a vampire could not (realistically speaking) remain a Muslim as long as he is a vampire. That either means a worrisome approach to problem-solving (self-destruction) or a not-as-worrisome approach (abandoning Islam).\\
+Though this can take multiple different forms, of course. He may conclude that he has to 'cure' himself as soon as possible.\\
+The point is that while a Muslim vampire's instinct isn't to immediately kill himself, his life would feel pretty miserable. At no point would a Muslim vampire conclude that being a vampire is good in some way whilst remaining a Muslim. This is just the nature of the Islamic faith.((:fn:>Though I may be wrong, so I will do research //at some point// to make sure.)) For example, consuming blood is haram. Now what does the Muslim vampire do?\\
+However, some players may want to play a Muslim vampire without focusing on this religious torment. In that case, I'd argue they're more concerned about the aesthetic...which means that they've kinda missed the point? At that point it doesn't really matter that they're specifically 'Muslim', does it?