The story "Day Million" By Fredrik Pohl is an interesting take on the future development of the human race. Pohl asserts that one day we will have moved beyond the restrictions of gender and become a species that doesn't have any need for conventional reproduction. At our present point as a species our only real purpose in life is to reproduce. Freud saw this and developed his entire method of psychoanalysis upon it. The idea that reproduction is the only real driving force behind human beings makes sense when you really think about it. What other purpose do we all have on this earth other than to make more humans? We certainly didn't get to this point because we dreamed that one day we could all communicate with eachother worldwide through a vast network of interconnected computers and hypertext documents. We got here because there is an innate animal like desire to keep the species going. All other thoughts and dreams are secondary to that primary desire. That being said it is interesting to think about a world like Pohl's where human beings have moved beyond that innate desire to reproduce and can identify as male or female without persecution. Pohl's world is one where like in the case of Don and Dora, one can identify as male and the other as female or vise versa without it mattering to anyone.
"When it changed" by Joanna Russ is a story that has become cliche over the years. The overwhelming theme in all of these stories is a society of women encounters the first men they've ever seen and chaos reigns. What makes this story a little different is that the possibilty of human parthenogenesis is added to the equation which cuts out any need of men for reproduction. I found that the question posed in this story is whether or not men and women need to exist together. If reproduction is possible in a single gender race then why should bipolarity need to exist? I don't think the author is stating that men don't need to exist. She is only posing the question as to whether men are needed in a society of all women.
Wow, Joey, you handled the Freudian approach like a boss! I can understand your position on Day Million and the aspects of reproduction. For those that believe in evolution, the notion of self-preservation and multiplying one's species to greater numbers is a self-evident truth. The encounter of Dora and Don does bring up a certain perspective that magic was in the air, that attraction played a part in their desire of sexual stimulation. Is this the causality of millions of years of evolution? Where reproducing is no longer needed and that sexual desires are fulfilled with technological advances? Frederick definitely shot in the dark on this one, but his conveyance of the story was rather entertaining. I did notice though that you left out the word, or should I say, the description of "love." Do you agree that this was a hybrid love story for us sci-fi buffs? To me, it was in a way an interesting take on what love and how it can be practiced on different worlds. It's an extreme hypothesis, but one that is delightfully unique in his approach of preparing the reader for a not-so-typical love story. An interesting read overall! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteWell, I have to say that Freud was definitely one of the first things coming to mind when I read the story. I get a sense that humans since their creation has felt a need to always give themselves either a specific reason or purpose for being alive without any reason other than a world in chaos without one. I personally believe that we don't need a predestined reason to live and purpose our lives around, we just live. The idea that we have to follow a specific path or do a specific thing is a dated thought process usually going back to religion as the catalyst for this belief system. The idea that we want to reproduce in my mind is more a chemical reaction to our brains when we have sex. I agree that some feel the need to reproduce for many other nefarious reasons but I believe that humans have an ability to choose to ignore that predestination of reproducing for their future. It adds such a unique context to the story causing myself to re-evaluate the general notion as to what our purpose is or that the idea that humans are meant to have a purpose in the first place. Great post bud, keep up the good work.
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