An unflattering description of the first Man that Barbara has seen:
broad shoulders, not unpleasing, but ugly narrow hips;
yellow hair cropped short;
lean face;
too much nose, chin and bone;
too little flesh;
inhumanly deep voice.
"She remembered from the old stories that Monsters had many shapes, but some of them looked like deformed humans." (p. 45)
Deformed!
That this Man or Monster belongs in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History is confirmed by the first thing that he says:
"'Holy Cosmos, what's going on here?'" (ibid.)
Barbara then lassoes him and drags him behind her.
The story begins as it will continue. Landing on a planet of women is not necessarily what a man might think.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course a planet with only men or women for centuries would have no real idea of what the other sex would be like. VIRGIN PLANET has to be one of the earliest SF stories I know of examining that idea.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, if they didn't have recorded sight and sound, they'd have no idea of what the other sex looked like. Information that's passed on verbally tends to 'degrade' down to the noise level of the society in question. Poul noted that explicitly in THE SADNESS OF ODIN THE GOTH, too. It didn't matter what "Odin"-Wotan said about, say, China, because it would decay to the general information level of Gothic culture, which was pre-literate.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, the Goths of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" would more clearly recall the stories Carl told about Diocletian and his stern laws than they would tales about China because the Roman Empire was an actual, next door reality. China was so far away that tales about it would soon "degrade" the way you described.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I also thought about Cordwainer Smith"s "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal," one of his Instrumentality of Mankind stories. It's a grimmer story than VIRGIN PLANET about what a planet settled only by human males might be like.
Ad astra! Sean
Re: Planet settled only by males.
I should find Cordwainer Smith's story to compare to L. M. Bujold's story "Ethan of Athos". She was more optimistic about what an all male world would be like, though she doesn't portray it as a *good* idea.
In a comment about it, she said she thought about all male societies on earth, prisons, military, and monasteries. She decided something modeled on monasteries would be nicer to live in than the other two.
Kaor, Jim!
I do recommend Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind stories. And planets settled only by males or females is not a good idea. Men and women are made for each other, to supplement/complement each other. People on single sex planets could reproduce only by cloning, which has obvious disadvantages.
Of course a well run Benedictine or Trappist monastery is vastly better than prisons. I would add that not all are called to become monks. Stephen King's novel SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION gives readers a grim picture of how bad prisons can be.
I would guess all male military organizations runs the gamut from not too bad to horrible.
Ad astra! Sean
"People on single sex planets could reproduce only by cloning"
In Bujold's story Athos has a supply of 'ovarian tissue' which supplies ova to be fertilized by sperm from a man of Athos. The fertilized ovum is then gestated in a 'uterine replicator'. However, the supply of ovarian tissue doesn't last forever, which makes Athos dependent on worlds that *do* have women, in the long run & leads to the events of the story.
Kaor, Jim!
That seems both weird and needlessly complicated! If the men of Athos has contact with worlds having normal populations of men and women, how long would many of them agree to not having normal interactions with women?
The scenario seen in VIRGIN PLANET is more logical, a shipful of women was accidentally stranded on Atlantis, and had to make the best they could of their new home. Reproduction via parthenogenesis/cloning was a poor second best, forced on these women by sheer necessity.
Ad astra! Sean
"how long would many of them agree to not having normal interactions with women?"
It is portrayed as being quite a few generations, mostly because of ideological indoctrination. Due to events of the story it looks like the barriers against questioning the indoctrination will come crashing down over the next generation or two.
Kaor, Jim!
I sort of thought it would be something like that: political/ideological indoctrination of men into believing having women was bad. Good, such an unnatural setup should be undermined!
Ad astra! Sean
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