Wonderful

A hundred years ago, Kipling published “The White Man’s Burden”. Selene muses that her white side has more than carried out its burden to cleanse her “savage” side. She muses on what “civilization” even means, and in one breath also criticizes the Chinese definition of civilization “literature and enlightenment”. To be “civilized” is to have literary talent and manners, or “refined clarity”, or “the mark of understanding”. She laments that she cannot express everything that two simple Chinese characters can mean. Words are powerful and shape the world. Once one is civilized and noble, the other savage and debased, power is out of whack. She suggests that the latter describes unchecked femininity.