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Authors: Emily Tilton
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one, about the culture of the novel from 1700 to 2100, was led by a woman of Erika Wendt’s generation, the third generation born aboard Athena. “It seems ridiculous, now,” she said, “doesn’t it? The idea that a man and a woman could be expected to find lifelong happiness in exclusive cohabitation only with each other?”
Martin remembered thinking, Must we throw the baby out with the bathwater?
“That’s why the early novel,” the discussion leader continued, “for all its pleasures, can never do more than give us an index to how oppressively the patriarchy ruled the lives of its women. It is a fiction—of course—but its charm for us today lies not in the way it can let us escape from the tedium of life aboard a space station as much as in the way it allows us to understand how badly, for example, Samuel Richardson’s readers longed to believe that traditional marriage could bear the terrible weight that society placed upon it.”
Martin remembered Heather and Diana nodding in unison at that. Nor could he deny his own assent to the egalitarian principles that undergirded the relations of the sexes aboard Athena, among the elites themselves.
Those principles would start to apply also to Gretchen after two years, when the term of service Martin had just purchased ended. She would become a free relict, then, allowed to learn and to work as she chose. If she bore four children and passed her citizenship exam, she would become a full Athenian citizen. Why would she want to be his wife when, like other Athenian women, she could choose her own path, in a society where women who cohabited with men could be tried, convicted, and lose their citizenship?
Another discussion session, this one concerning the history of social laws from classical times to the laws of Athena itself, led by Fred Gramling’s father, an aged lawyer, sprang to Martin’s mind as he tried to discover why this moment, with Gretchen kneeling before him, seemed so fraught with meaning and with risk.
“The beauty of the social law,” John Gramling intoned, “from Augustus Caesar’s laws about adultery to our own laws about cohabitation—and even this proposed law for the Taking of girls from Earth to boost our birthrate—lies for me in the way it exposes how very unnatural a thing liberty is. To create the liberty of all Athenians, men and women, to pursue their individual wills, Athenian law does not provide for marriage, and penalizes the failure to maintain separate domiciles. To create the liberty of all Athenians to reproduce, we now contemplate taking young women into sexual servitude—and we promise them their own liberty, as Athenians, if they serve well.”
“But,” Martin asked, “surely now that traditional marriage has not existed among us for hundreds of years, if a man and a woman wished to cohabit it couldn’t harm their liberty, or anyone else’s?”
Old Mr. Gramling chuckled. “A romantic, I see.” The class had laughed. Martin particularly remembered the slightly shrill sound of Diana’s laughter. “Ms. Feld,” he said. “I wonder if you have an answer.”
Heather looked coldly at Martin. “It would certainly harm my liberty, if you told me I needed to move in with you.” A chill of anger and embarrassment went through Martin: he had been sleeping with Heather for a month at that point, and they had fucked wildly, angrily, long into the previous sleep period.
More laughter ensued. “But that’s not the point,” Martin protested. “What if both—”
“Look around,” Heather interrupted. “Do you see anyone who might want to move in with you?”
He and Heather hadn’t slept with each other after that.
Martin looked over to where little Beth had begun to learn how to go down on her mistress. Heather smiled down at the brown-haired girl, and murmured words Martin couldn’t hear, undoubtedly about the Maenad Club and what Beth’s life there would be like. Beth had closed her eyes, and the
Martin remembered thinking, Must we throw the baby out with the bathwater?
“That’s why the early novel,” the discussion leader continued, “for all its pleasures, can never do more than give us an index to how oppressively the patriarchy ruled the lives of its women. It is a fiction—of course—but its charm for us today lies not in the way it can let us escape from the tedium of life aboard a space station as much as in the way it allows us to understand how badly, for example, Samuel Richardson’s readers longed to believe that traditional marriage could bear the terrible weight that society placed upon it.”
Martin remembered Heather and Diana nodding in unison at that. Nor could he deny his own assent to the egalitarian principles that undergirded the relations of the sexes aboard Athena, among the elites themselves.
Those principles would start to apply also to Gretchen after two years, when the term of service Martin had just purchased ended. She would become a free relict, then, allowed to learn and to work as she chose. If she bore four children and passed her citizenship exam, she would become a full Athenian citizen. Why would she want to be his wife when, like other Athenian women, she could choose her own path, in a society where women who cohabited with men could be tried, convicted, and lose their citizenship?
Another discussion session, this one concerning the history of social laws from classical times to the laws of Athena itself, led by Fred Gramling’s father, an aged lawyer, sprang to Martin’s mind as he tried to discover why this moment, with Gretchen kneeling before him, seemed so fraught with meaning and with risk.
“The beauty of the social law,” John Gramling intoned, “from Augustus Caesar’s laws about adultery to our own laws about cohabitation—and even this proposed law for the Taking of girls from Earth to boost our birthrate—lies for me in the way it exposes how very unnatural a thing liberty is. To create the liberty of all Athenians, men and women, to pursue their individual wills, Athenian law does not provide for marriage, and penalizes the failure to maintain separate domiciles. To create the liberty of all Athenians to reproduce, we now contemplate taking young women into sexual servitude—and we promise them their own liberty, as Athenians, if they serve well.”
“But,” Martin asked, “surely now that traditional marriage has not existed among us for hundreds of years, if a man and a woman wished to cohabit it couldn’t harm their liberty, or anyone else’s?”
Old Mr. Gramling chuckled. “A romantic, I see.” The class had laughed. Martin particularly remembered the slightly shrill sound of Diana’s laughter. “Ms. Feld,” he said. “I wonder if you have an answer.”
Heather looked coldly at Martin. “It would certainly harm my liberty, if you told me I needed to move in with you.” A chill of anger and embarrassment went through Martin: he had been sleeping with Heather for a month at that point, and they had fucked wildly, angrily, long into the previous sleep period.
More laughter ensued. “But that’s not the point,” Martin protested. “What if both—”
“Look around,” Heather interrupted. “Do you see anyone who might want to move in with you?”
He and Heather hadn’t slept with each other after that.
Martin looked over to where little Beth had begun to learn how to go down on her mistress. Heather smiled down at the brown-haired girl, and murmured words Martin couldn’t hear, undoubtedly about the Maenad Club and what Beth’s life there would be like. Beth had closed her eyes, and the
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