we have brains

blinded by the light

July 19, 2004 08:03 AM posted by victoria : track it (2)

I thought I'd do something this time that's both fun and serious. I recently reread Sheri Tepper's book, Gibbon's Decline and Fall." In the story, right wing men are trying to take over the world and put women back "in their place." But during the story, a "plague" hits people, where women's breasts shrink and they stop menstruating and getting pregnant, and men stop wanting sex and their genitals shrink. It turns out, well, I won't say who/what is responsible, or why, but when it's over, the creatures give the main characters in the book the following choice:

If you choose the ruby light, then in all future time only pairs mated for life will breed once in a decade. A woman may have one child or two. Rarely, three. Never more than that. Your numbers will fit themselves into the wholeness of life. There will be room for other life than yours and better perception than now.

If you choose the topaz light, you will be come like us, parthenogenetic, mothers and daughters, with a few males born only each eighth or ninth generation. There is an advantage to our way. Where men are many, they fall easy prey to creatures like [the enemy.] And where there are only women, you need only half as many.

If you choose the emerald light, all will be with you as it was before, except that no woman will ever conceive unless she chooses to conceive, unless she is ready in mind and body and heart and has chosen so over long and careful time. No pregnancy can be forced upon any woman. If this light is chosen, no woman would say, 'Be it done unto me.' Each woman would have to say, 'I want this for myself.'

If you choose the sapphire, you will return to your former nature except in one regard. Men and women will mature quickly, almost overnight, but not for thirty years. Some creatures take that long to mature; it is not a great change. Think of a long and lovely childhood, a long and lovely youth in which to learn and travel and work, learning of oneself and of the world, followed only then by a brief reproductive maturity. Think of a life with no adolescence, a life in which only the mature may bear.

And last, if you choose this lapis light, you will be as you were, your world will be as it has always been. Remember the stories you have told me of yourselves, remember the stories I have told you of others. Remind yourselves how your world has always been. Much was His fault, but as much was not.

The group of women who hear these choices leave it to one woman in their group to decide and you never find out what her decision is. And of course, the question for this collab topic is, which light would you choose and why?

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your comments : post a new comment

My response is up right here.

Posted by: Natalie on July 22, 2004 04:20 PM |

My response is here.

Posted by: Morgaine Swann on July 27, 2004 02:22 AM |

Ruby: everyone who wants kids has to "mate for life." Too restrictive.

Topaz, and I'm stuck in a world full of women. No thanks. I don't think women are in any way morally or socially superior to men. I'm not a big fan of patriarchy and some men are asses, but in general, I like them. I'd like to see more balanced leadership, not a role reversal.

Emerald...sounds pretty good. That's what we'd have if birth control worked perfectly and we had a wise and stable society. An earlier poster mentioned that there's still the potential for error, but hey - isn't there always? We're human, after all.

Sapphire... sexual relationships delayed until your 30s. No thanks. It's too much pressure to have kids at a certain time, and you'd miss out on a lot of fun in your teens and twenties. Even through being the physical and social equivalent of an 11-12 year old for 2 decades could be fun in some ways (I know I enjoyed those years), it wouldn't work for everyone.

So, I've got to say Emerald. That also happens to be the choice that we can approximate without divine/alien intervention.

Posted by: Dee on August 8, 2004 10:48 AM |

Neither men nor women are perfect. WE are human. Greed and jealousy do not discriminate. Souls are neutral beings randomly distributed into male or female forms, and only for a short time.

Posted by: Morgan on September 11, 2004 04:08 PM |