All tagged world building
In an attempt to understand it and make our peace with it, countless stories about the death and afterlife have been told and retold, with each of them employing different perspectives and techniques to give shape to the shapeless. This is where symbolism comes into play.
No text is created in a bubble; it is a response to the reality that created it. As such, a story about rigid, alien depictions of gender roles could actually be closer to home than at first glance.
In many science fiction stories, some creators rely on “info dumps,” large portions of text that describe or explain the world to the reader either through direct narration or by proxy through a character by means of dialogue. “A Royal Affair” does neither.