Sunday, 2 August 2015

Laurie And Jorith

(Timecycles fly by antigravity, not with jets or rockets like the one on this cover.)

Carl Farness says that he loved his fourth century leman, Jorith, and also loves his twentieth century wife, Laurie. Similarly, one of Steig Larsson's characters has both a husband and a long term lover. Yes. Human beings are not naturally monogamous. Anderson describes a naturally monogamous race in "The Ways Of Love" and its behavior is entirely different.

Among human beings, incest taboos grew for biological reasons and patriarchal monogamy was imposed so that male property-owners would be able to bequeath their herds and slaves to identifiable, "legitimate," male heirs. But marriage has changed through history and is changing now.

The Farnesses grew up in the 1960's and '70's but a Time Patrol doctor based in 2319 remarks that, "'Fashions come and go.'" (Time Patrol, p. 375) We do not know what kinds of morality will prevail in later centuries or millennia of the Time Patrol timeline. However, Patrol agents must surely be able to develop some sort of objectivity and detachment towards historically specific value systems?

No comments: