Meaning of のもののこと

Question

In the story I'm reading right now I found this sentence:

近年入社してくれる若い人間たちなどは、私の姿が自分たちとずいぶん違うことにも気がつかないようだ。異形のもののことを、あえて忖度しない、というよりも、気に留めようともしない、らしい

I'm not sure about the meaning if のもののこと: should I read it as の者のこと, so something like "It seems they didn't deliberately make guesses about strange-looking people, or rather they don't pay attention to them"? (This is translated as "I don't think they consciously decide not to wonder about me, why my form is so unlike theirs; they simply can't be bothered").

Also I'm not sure about とも in the last part; I don't think it matters in understanding のもののこと, but just in case I prefer to stress it.

Answer 1

One of the cool things about 「もの」 is that it can refer to a person (者), OR to a thing (物). And depending on how you use it, it can even be used in a sense to refer to both at once, or even to something as both.

When I read:

異形のもののことを、あえて忖度しない、というよりも、気に留めようともしない、らしい。

I get the sense that, by going out of their way to use もの instead of 者, the speaker is almost grouping him/herself together with 物, and it gives the feeling that he/she is looking down on him/herself. The speaker could have used 者, and it wouldn't have looked wrong.

So

"From what I hear/gather, it's not that people go out of their way to not take considerations for odd-looking/grotesque 'things', rather they don't even try to pay attention (to them)."

the 〜ようともしない can be translated into English as "don't even try to 〜". Shout out to Chocolate in his/her comment to the OP for explaining this in more detail.

For example,

隠そうともしない → not even try to hide (something)