a sensible default assumption is not invalidated by a minority of counterexamples
I have been trying and failing to come up with a comparable situation, and the best I can do is the position of ‘ordinary’ pupils in relating to the Taylorite Brethren girls at school. Joan’s assumption that Martha will not study medicine is along the same lines as never asking a Brethren classmate what she was going to study at university. One does not expect what never happens, even though there is the possibility that it might. A housemaid is a housemaid, and C_ C_ was going to be married with several babies by the time she was 22. We didn't need to ever actually discuss it to know that there was no other option for her than the people-carrier and the pram.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-05 03:23 pm (UTC)I have been trying and failing to come up with a comparable situation, and the best I can do is the position of ‘ordinary’ pupils in relating to the Taylorite Brethren girls at school. Joan’s assumption that Martha will not study medicine is along the same lines as never asking a Brethren classmate what she was going to study at university. One does not expect what never happens, even though there is the possibility that it might. A housemaid is a housemaid, and C_ C_ was going to be married with several babies by the time she was 22. We didn't need to ever actually discuss it to know that there was no other option for her than the people-carrier and the pram.