Nobody's Child, Everybody's Children:

Second Coming of Age in Samoa: An Anthropological Fable & Other Fictions – How Novelists Look at the Topic of NRTS

The Second Coming of Age in Samoa, set in a future society after a world catastrophe, looks at a community in which sexual reproduction with random, freely-selected partners is taboo. Some adolescent promiscuous sex-games (such as “virtuals in the Post-Office”) are allowed. However, instead of couples starting a family together by various means, a sterile, closely supervised system, “The Process,” selects young women and men when they reach age sixteen. (The story does not mention whether the present sixteen-year-olds themselves were conceived through the selection Process). The system is meant to produce a “healthier” society than the flawed one of the past, which allowed rape, sexual abuse, and birth defects, as well as the messiness of ordinary sexuality. The story is told from several characters’ points of view.

This piece has been described as “reminiscent of [Margaret] Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale…a glimpse into an alternate future of sexless reproduction in ceremonial style.”  It can also be seen as a cautionary tale against teenage experimentation and pregnancy—seen from the perspective, not of traditional morality, but of this regimented, post-disaster future. Language itself is a casualty of the new society, as are the “old books” and many species of flora and fauna which have disappeared or mutated.

In the workshop, we will share and discuss the story (approx. 6000 words). We will look at how the imagined “Process” relates to current genetic research and technology. We will also consider a few earlier stories and novels, including The Handmaid’s Tale, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Judith Merril’s “Only a Mother.”  We will look at the way fiction, especially “science” and “speculative” fiction,” uses, questions, and re-invents scientific and political ideas.  Some questions to discuss include the following:

1. Do fictional works on NRGTs need always be dystopias, or can they (in the non-ironic words of Miranda in The Tempest) explore a “brave new world” still respectful of the individual and family in the use of genetic technologies?

2. Do fictional dystopias protect individuals in society, challenging them to think/feel for themselves?

3. Or are these works too pessimistic, hindering popular acceptance of new values and technologies that could benefit humanity?

(Text of story will either be distributed to participants before the workshop or published online).