DE: Lean times

[yakalskovich]

 Sorry, I forgot the DE yesterday as I was in Salzburg with my mum and completely failed to realise it was an ordinary Tuesday.

Today, Lent starts, which means that I am going vegan until Easter. According to some sources, Lent orginally came about for a pre-Christian and quite rational reason -- in early spring, most of the winter supplies were already eaten or didn't keep much longer while it was vital to not eat the first fresh produce and meat of the year because it needed to grow and come to fruition later. Hence, people tried to stretch their resources as far as possible.

Do the worlds of your canon(s) know such lean time, and what do your characters do to stretch their resources? On the other hand, of your character lives in plentiful circumstances, do they do anything to consciously reduce their ecological footprint and/or refrain from certain foods for cultural or religious reasons?

Comments

[sdelmonte]

My pups live in fairly flush times. But having the Avatar of the Green in my set means that I have one pup who really wants everyone to do what they can to roll back man's abuse of the world before the Green rolls back mankind.

[2goodarms]

.......Yup, this is another DE where I look at Curtis and just start laughing hollowly.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen and Fawkes hear you, bro.

[tu_vas_triompher]

I think for my French guys, a lot of the frustration with Lent rules comes precisely because they were familiar with lean times--in a situation where society had had plenty of time to figure out lots of loopholes for wealthy people to keep on living very comfortably indeed while ostensibly keeping Lenten rules. Feuilly, for instance, is already always stretching his resources year-round.

Hugo gives a pretty good summary of how Marius, for instance, eats on a very strict budget; you can also look at Eugène Sue's character Rigolette explaining how she lives on what comes to half of Feuilly's daily wages:

Listen closely: a pound of bread is four sous; two sous’ worth of milk, that makes six; four sous for winter vegetables, or fruits and salad in summer; I love salad, because just like vegetables it’s clean to prepare, it doesn’t dirty your hands; there’s ten sous already; three sous for butter or oil and vinegar for seasoning, thirteen! A voie [two buckets] of nice clean water, oh! that’s my luxury, that makes fifteen sous, if you please… Add to that, every week, two or three sous of hemp seeds and chickweed as a treat for my birds, who ordinarily eat a bit of bread and milk, and that’s twenty-two to twenty-three francs a month, no more and no less.”

“And you never eat meat?”

“Ah! Meat…! It costs ten or twelve sous a pound; can I even think of that?

[bjornwilde]

I think the best pup to answer this question is Izana. About a hundred years before they were born, a guana managed to land within Sidonia and killed 90% of the humans aboard. In a mad dash to bring up the numbers of humans, a series of cloning was done, as well as genetic engineering. In order to not over tax resources and the adults that remained, many of the children were aged rapidly and every child born from then on primarily relies on photosynthesis for food.

Now everyone aboard photosynthesizes and some families still chose to do the rapid aging, in fact the Honoka sisters I've mention in OOMs are actually only 5 years old.

[no_vampires_plz]

"But the food we've stored is runnin' out, and we can't grow in this cold..."

[clayforthedevil]

*points up at Feuilly's answer* Yeah, that.

Joly and Bahorel aren't generally the most strapped resource-wise, but there's still certain limit to access built into their society. They're both just fine about trimming sails and going without when there's a genuine shortage; Bahorel in particular really does come from a farm family and has solid experience with lean seasons (and with preparing for lean seasons, which is its own whole event). But it's a fact of their society that rules governing consumption of "luxuries" have been explicitly used to enforce the class structure, and are de facto used to profit the powerful at the expense of the lower classes. (Aaand there's also the huge cultural issue for them in particular, as republicans, of the Catholic church and its rules still being seen as tied to monarchy and the ancien regime, so Lent in particular is a super loaded issue. Do Not Ask Bahorel About Lent.) So ritualized or formalized self-denial usually seems either redundant or suspect to Bahorel, and redundant or irrelevant to Joly.

They are actually concerned with resource and environmental management, though! To an extent that was pretty unusual for their society, even. Environmentally- compatible infrastructure and waste management are really pretty high among their social concerns! Unfortunately petitions to have such social issues addressed were not well-received by the current government. Ahem.

[starrydome]

Elrond is privileged and Rivendell is an affluent community. But everything is still tie to nature and natures resources. There is bounty and there is scarcity and that is the way it is. The way I picture his childhood, at the very least the years spent with The Sons of Fëanor have been very lean indeed.
He knows how to make do. And how to do without.

[never_shall_yield]

*points at Feuilly's, Bahorel's and Joly's answers*

I mean, Javert and Valjean observe Lent for religious reasons - or did, in the case of Javert, who likely won't bother this year. But he's poor anyway, and stretches his resources all year 'round. Valjean lives on nothing by choice, despite being financially comfortable. He'll give up meat for Lent unless Cosette or Joly insist that he doesn't due to recent happenings. He is very well aware of what happens when resources are low thankyouverymuch, lol can we say bread thief and yell 'NINETEEN YEARS' at him, y/y?

And Courfeyrac - well, he's from a wealthy family but he's obviously not oblivious to the suffering of others! He has views much the same as Bahorel on this matter. Like, why should the church insist people who already have nothing, choose to have even less? It does not compute to him. Let people live! Get with the times, yo.

Gene, Moriarty and Pearly couldn't give a toss about any of it. Bruce Wayne makes sure Wayne Enterprises is environmentally-friendly all year 'round. Banner has green issues of his own to worry about. And Aubrey knows a bit about poverty and a bit about wealth, and much prefers the excesses of the latter, thank you. He doesn't stretch his resources so much as borrow off Stephen and take out loans when things get rough.

[ceitfianna]

Will has always observed Lent in his own way, the church is such a big part of his era that he can't ignore it, but he grew up in lean, lean times. As a Merry Man, they lived on the edges and helped those holding on, he looks skeptically at how some members of the church and society treat penance and giving up when they've never been hungry. Now that Robin is in power, the balance is working a little better in Nottingham but there's a constant awareness of being prepared for the lean times.

William is another who lives his life around lean times, the movie canon happened because Dan owed money due to a lot of bad seasons. One reason that William is grateful for Milliways is it helps through the lean times but even that way, he works hard. He doesn't like having to take charity, which is why he works in the stables. His family's not Catholic, so Lent isn't an issue for him, but he's always preparing for the next storm or disease or some other issue. Growing up during the Civil War as well made him aware of how quickly everything can come apart.

Jane is from a family that's doing well but not with a lot of space as is seen in how the daughter's dowries are presented. Jane knows how to do housekeeping in terms of being thoughtful with money and its something she's aware of even when she'd rather not be. Her father's a vicar so the religious seasons are part of her life.

Moist grew up in a privileged position but since he's lived on the road, he's become more aware of the various lean times and a lot of his most reliable tricks are about getting warm and fed.

Tumnus is always aware of how bad a winter might be and while Narnia is in a golden age, I don't think he's the only Narnian who is always overly prepared for winter and lean times.

Demeter as a goddess is tied to the agricultural calendar and one thing she strives to do for her people is help them through those lean times. When she travels, she often finds ways to boost what's there and help a crop do better.

Quentin has never had to worry about being fed and warm, but spending time with Toby has taught him about other kinds of want such as belonging. He's seen too the choices Toby's made to have her own freedom and not rely on a knowe or a court to keep her safe. As someone living on the West Coast, he's very aware of environmental thoughtfulness though as a Fae, I think he looks at it with a bit of curiosity but does what he can.

Ivan and Charles have never known truly lean times but they're aware of them in their own ways. Charles grew up during the depression and World War II and his telepathy has helped him be more tuned in. He tries to be thoughtful and reach out how he can and for what he takes, put something back. Ivan is part of the military and so is clued into the balance of what's needed and what's used. As someone from a time of spaceships and terraforming, he tries to be thoughtful about environmental resources but he doesn't go out of his way with it.

Sameth also hasn't known many lean times but the Old Kingdom has and as prince, he's been taught to care for his people. His work repairing the Charter Stones is part of helping the Old Kingdom to flourish and have the best resources.