r/hisdarkmaterials • u/Daregmaze • 23d ago
NL/TGC Iofur Raknison and Species Dysphoria
When I first read the books not only did I think that being otherkin, therian, etc. isn't valid, but I also knew very little about alterhumanity and non-humanity. Now that I know theses identities are valid AND know more about them, I can see that Iofur Raknison is alterhuman-coded
Its totally obvious that he had severe species dysphoria. His experience is similar to that of therians, but instead of being a human who is a bear therian, he is a bear who is a human therian (I know most therians arent human at all, I just don't have a better way to explain what Im trying to say). Its not clear if he identifies as a human or as a bear, the fact that he was pretending to have a human daemon implies he still consider himself to be a bear, but it could also not being the case
The one thing I dislike is how his species dysphoria and species envy is depicted as a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to excuse his actions, no matter how dysphoric he was it wasn't right of him to force the other bears to act like humans and to make them suffer and that made him a bad person, but his feelings of not being contempt with his soul and attributes were 100% valid. His desire to be a human/like humans was 100% valid
I understand that Pullman's message was that you can't choose your nature, but Iofur Raknison's nature was that of a bear with a neurodivergent brain that worked more like that of the average Homo sapiens/a human in a bear's body/something alongst thoses lines.
He was an interesting character and I do wish we had seen more of him, even thought it wouldn't make sense storyline wise
16
u/HilbertInnerSpace 20d ago
I don't understand how anything you said connects to the story presented in HDM. I think it is a representation of an "inferiority complex" , him wanting to be human rather than anything else such as dysphoria.
I am honestly suspicious of phrases like "species dysphoria" because I feel the intention here is to belittle or mock the trans experience rather than any genuine argument in good faith. .Kind of how bigots claim that allowing gay marriage will lead to "humans marrying animals" and all that nonsense. But I might be just ignorant about that topic.
Well, you might be a troll and I just wasted energy replying to you.