Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media book Club book Club, book Club book Club.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome Nicols on Media book Club, the only
Speaker 1: book club that you don't have to do the reading
Speaker 1: for because I do it for you. And we are
Speaker 1: on week five of her Metica by Alan Lee. And
Speaker 1: if you're just tuning in now, why why would you
Speaker 1: do that? Why would you do that to yourself? Why
Speaker 1: would you do that to the text? Why would you
Speaker 1: do that to Alan Lee? And why would you do
Speaker 1: that to the world? Why would you start at part five?
Speaker 1: Have you been so ruined on narrative and linear storytelling
Speaker 1: by shows that are where you just pop in wherever
Speaker 1: you want? Is that what happened to you? Are you sad? Anyway?
Speaker 1: You can listen wherever you want. I just my brain
Speaker 1: doesn't let me do that. But this is week five
Speaker 1: of her Medica by Alan Lee. Alan Lee is the
Speaker 1: specfac pen name for Peter Gelderlos and where we last
Speaker 1: left our hero days Days followed a hunch through the
Speaker 1: rain and onto the rooftops, finally understanding the big reveal
Speaker 1: you all been waiting for. The sky is real sort
Speaker 1: of a reverse Truman show. As it were running along
Speaker 1: the rooftops, they see endless neighborhood blocks, stretching towards a
Speaker 1: horizon that curves down, not up. They're not on a spaceship.
Speaker 1: They've just realized they must still be on earth. In
Speaker 1: this great moment of revelation, the safety drones catch up
Speaker 1: to Days, knocking them out as they fall off the barricade.
Speaker 1: Just as a heads up. This episode contains an extended
Speaker 1: digression of our protagonist arguing as someone about biological gender,
Speaker 1: and you know, so that's where we're at. Days came
Speaker 1: too in pieces. As the sedatives wore off, Their hands
Speaker 1: started working, first, probing an amusement at body parts that
Speaker 1: were alienated, unfeeling not yet plugged back into the neurological network.
Speaker 1: What's this, the hand seemed to say? A leg, a pelvis,
Speaker 1: a torso, placed right within arm's reach. To whom does
Speaker 1: it belong? Days laughed along with their hands, who had
Speaker 1: left a leg there? What were their hands doing? They
Speaker 1: could not say. They were not yet present enough to
Speaker 1: feed them a purpose. The hands seemed to have a
Speaker 1: purpose of their own. Why should Days be telling the
Speaker 1: hands what to do? There was a sudden tingling, not
Speaker 1: entirely pleasant. Was that leg? Day's leg? Oh, why were
Speaker 1: fingers poking at their leg Days was back at the office. No, No,
Speaker 1: that wasn't true. There was a plexi on one side,
Speaker 1: There was a plexi on the other side. There were
Speaker 1: plexies on every side. Where were their instruments? This wasn't
Speaker 1: the office. Days tried to sit up. Days came to
Speaker 1: in pieces as the sedatives wore off. First, their eyes opened.
Speaker 1: Their head didn't feel great. Their stomach didn't either. Their
Speaker 1: legs were tingling uncomfortably. Their hands seemed to be asleep.
Speaker 1: There was a memory the sky. A tear formed in
Speaker 1: their left eye. Where were they? They sat up slowly.
Speaker 1: It was some kind of holding cell. A metallic column
Speaker 1: in one corner pinged. A small door flush with the
Speaker 1: column's curve, slid open. A cup of water was revealed.
Speaker 1: Within days drank it down. They replaced the cup. The
Speaker 1: door closed. A moment later it opened again. The cup
Speaker 1: was full. Days drank. There was a toilet in the
Speaker 1: far corner. Days sat down. The plexies phased opaque. It
Speaker 1: took a while, but they were finally able to piss.
Speaker 1: They staggered back to the bed. The plexies went transparent again.
Speaker 1: The column pinged, the door opened, There was a tray
Speaker 1: of food this time and mre in principle, but but
Speaker 1: different from any emory they'd eaten. They felt weak. They
Speaker 1: wanted the food, but their stomach roiled as they ate.
Speaker 1: They lay back down on the cot. When Days awoke,
Speaker 1: there was a person on the other side of the plexi.
Speaker 1: They wore strange clothes of a thick material, plaid red
Speaker 1: on top, blue bottoms, and their skin was as pasty
Speaker 1: as John Wayne's. The person was eyeing Days suspiciously. You up.
Speaker 1: In response, Days pulled themselves into a sitting position high.
Speaker 1: Their voice creaked, and their heads spun a little. They
Speaker 1: rubbed their temples until the feeling passed. Just get in,
Speaker 1: I guess, so they sedate. Newcomers me, I've been here
Speaker 1: a while, but they transferred me from another block. Days
Speaker 1: looked around to see walls on all six sides. The
Speaker 1: floor lateral sides were transparent. Plexi two had breathing holes
Speaker 1: and looked out on the narrow corridors that flanked the cell.
Speaker 1: The other two looked into cells just like the one
Speaker 1: they occupied. The person with the funny clothes was in
Speaker 1: a cell. I'm Days, that's your name. Days, nodded, What
Speaker 1: a strange person, Robert, Nice to meet you. Robert let
Speaker 1: out a quiet snort, but they smiled amiably. Days peered
Speaker 1: around between the lighting and the way the block was built.
Speaker 1: They couldn't see if anyone was in the cells across
Speaker 1: the corridor, nor how far down the corridors extended. You're
Speaker 1: not from around here, are you? Days remembered what they
Speaker 1: had discovered running atop the wall fleeing from their block.
Speaker 1: None of it seemed real anymore? Could it be possible?
Speaker 1: Such a big lie? I guess not? Where are we?
Speaker 1: Got me there? Days hesitated? Is this her medica? Where's
Speaker 1: that East Coast? Robert did not know what her Medica was.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. Robert scrunched up
Speaker 1: their face. What about you? Where are you from? Oregon? Oregon?
Speaker 1: East coast? Those sounded like Terran references. It was too
Speaker 1: much evidence to deny the articles from twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: from Terra mentioning the pandemic and nothing about extra system
Speaker 1: travel the block on their communication when they were about
Speaker 1: to measure the corialis force. The realness of the sky,
Speaker 1: the view from atop the wall not consistent with a
Speaker 1: concave curving platform. Her Medica had never left. He had
Speaker 1: been on Terra the whole time. Could it be possible?
Speaker 1: The magnitude of the lie was dizzying. Days craved confirmation,
Speaker 1: but how to ask without sounding completely bizarre? They needed
Speaker 1: more information. What's Oregon like? They asked, innocently. Our community
Speaker 1: is nice, peaceful, no crime, all god fearing men and women.
Speaker 1: We've got fifty thousand acres timber corn potatoes. We bring
Speaker 1: in a good crop. Robert had a strange way of speaking. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: they understood most of it, and none of it sounded
Speaker 1: like life on a spaceship, not any ship that Days
Speaker 1: could imagine. But they wanted to make sure. Do you
Speaker 1: have mountains? Mountains? You bet we do. Have you been
Speaker 1: to the sea the Pacific? I've been there, but I
Speaker 1: don't travel much mountains and ocean. It would be quite
Speaker 1: a feat to get those on a ship that settled
Speaker 1: it unless Robert were lying. And they could not guess
Speaker 1: what the motive the other prisoner might have for such
Speaker 1: a bas lie. They were on Tara, they had always
Speaker 1: been on Tara. None of them were going to colonize
Speaker 1: a new home world. None of them would ever get there.
Speaker 1: Tell me Days. You're not from the secession? Are you?
Speaker 1: The secession? Oh boy? The secession? The Second Civil War?
Speaker 1: Do they not teach you people about any of that? Sorry?
Speaker 1: Days shrugged, The fake virus, the totalitarian coup, none of
Speaker 1: that ring a bell. We had a virus. You think
Speaker 1: you did. I'm sorry to break it to you, but
Speaker 1: where you grow up, that's a totalitarian society. They made
Speaker 1: a fake virus to try and keep everyone locked up,
Speaker 1: but patriots fought back and we won our independence, took
Speaker 1: half the country with us. Honestly, I'm not surprised they
Speaker 1: don't teach you about us. Yeah, I guess there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things they didn't teach us. The line about
Speaker 1: a fake virus reminded Days of something in one of
Speaker 1: the articles. You seem all right, even if you are
Speaker 1: from the other side. How'd you end up in here?
Speaker 1: What you do across the border? I was running, I
Speaker 1: went over the wall. Yeah, we don't take too kindly
Speaker 1: to people going over that wall. But don't you worry.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they'll send you back in no time. And
Speaker 1: when they do, you make sure you tell your people
Speaker 1: about what really happened. There never was any virus. So
Speaker 1: we're in the secession. Now. Days's head was reeling. Their
Speaker 1: grasp on what was fact and what was fiction had
Speaker 1: already been seriously loosened, and their interlocutor in the next
Speaker 1: cell didn't exactly inspire confidence. It was not the oily
Speaker 1: feeling of a well designed lie that Emil had omitted,
Speaker 1: but rather the blind self assurance that whatever happened to
Speaker 1: be the most convenient was an unquestionable truth. That was
Speaker 1: the impression Days got, and now they knew better than
Speaker 1: to discount their intuition. Don't know where else we'd be,
Speaker 1: Robert shrugged. Matter of factly. They looked around at the
Speaker 1: PLEXI walls. Though this is definitely not our local jail.
Speaker 1: Tell you the truth. I don't like it one bit.
Speaker 1: No lawyer, no phone call. This is how I imagine
Speaker 1: jail looks like outside this secession. Didn't think we were
Speaker 1: supposed to have facilities like this for illegal sure, but
Speaker 1: for citizens maximum security I suppose, They chuckled, showing an
Speaker 1: ironic pride. Days failed to understand. So how'd you get
Speaker 1: in here? A shot a man? Robert said, plainly. Oh,
Speaker 1: Days struggled to fathom exactly what that would mean neuromuscular incapacitation, infection,
Speaker 1: prone puncture wounds, uncontrollable nausea, a radiation, dismemberment, fatal blood loss.
Speaker 1: They decided against inquiring after the technology level of ranged
Speaker 1: weapons in the secession. Besides, Robert's vocabulary was thoroughly quaint,
Speaker 1: and Days wasn't sure they'd understand anyway. And you don't
Speaker 1: know when you'll get out. Nope, I've barely seen any guards.
Speaker 1: Definitely haven't spoken any officials, not since the sheriff turned
Speaker 1: me over to those marshals. This place is high tech.
Speaker 1: I tell you that practically runs itself. First I was
Speaker 1: in a block with other people from the secession. Then
Speaker 1: they moved me. Honestly, you're the first person I've seen
Speaker 1: from the outside. I mean, not counting when I'm on
Speaker 1: border patrol. But we don't talk much with the illegals
Speaker 1: when we see them, he choked back a laugh. Don't
Speaker 1: you worry, though, We only shoot the bad ones. The
Speaker 1: good ones. They're looking for freedom Christians who are being persecuted.
Speaker 1: We give them a chance if they work hard. Asylum.
Speaker 1: You know, there are plenty of communities that would take
Speaker 1: in someone like you, but our community is a bit special,
Speaker 1: a lot of veterans from the war, so we get
Speaker 1: final say on who moves in. Well, you wouldn't exactly
Speaker 1: fit in, Robert chuckled, pointing at Days as though it
Speaker 1: was self evident. Days nodded like they understood. But do
Speaker 1: you know what else is self evident? Do you know
Speaker 1: what else you cannot? As though you understand the products
Speaker 1: services that support this podcast. That's right, every single one
Speaker 1: of them you already know. In fact, you might already
Speaker 1: know them so much. They might be so self evident
Speaker 1: that you reach down to your phone and you press
Speaker 1: that forward fifteen seconds button a couple times. Do you
Speaker 1: hear the music come back in? Or you can listen
Speaker 1: to the ads. It's really up to you. That's freedom
Speaker 1: for you, the right to choose that particular tiny thing.
Speaker 1: Here's the ads, and we're back. The day wore on.
Speaker 1: They ate when the next food tray arrived, Days decided
Speaker 1: not to confide in Robert about her medica. Robert was
Speaker 1: condescending enough already, and Days did not want to give
Speaker 1: them any ammunition. He's got those friends. How many of
Speaker 1: them knew the truth? It was possible that none of
Speaker 1: them did. They trusted Zip absolutely. They wouldn't lie to Days.
Speaker 1: They had grown up together. In fact, Zip had been
Speaker 1: helping them get a better sense for their place on
Speaker 1: her Medica. Someone from Safety had probably paid them a
Speaker 1: visit before they could carry out the experiment. Days wondered
Speaker 1: how Zip would have reacted and somehow they knew the
Speaker 1: Safety team member. They would have said Days had suffered
Speaker 1: a mental breakdown, that they were becoming obsessed, denying the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation. After that, even though Zimp's intensions
Speaker 1: were good, catering to that paranoia, they would call it
Speaker 1: a paranoia was only encouraging the behavior. Then Zip would
Speaker 1: receive a reminder to uphold the new safety and not
Speaker 1: spread need to know information. Whatever setup they'd put together
Speaker 1: to carry out the experiment would be confiscated. The next
Speaker 1: day at work, they'd get a challenging new assignment that
Speaker 1: would keep them busy. When they checked, Days would be
Speaker 1: classified as permanent reconciation. Would that be enough? Would Zimp
Speaker 1: make their peace and say goodbye without ever knowing what
Speaker 1: had really happened to their old friend. It seemed so absurd.
Speaker 1: They were so smart, how could they not know? But
Speaker 1: Days remembered how They'd been educated plenty of formula and equations,
Speaker 1: but all the experiments were done on simulations. They were
Speaker 1: asked to complete mathematical proofs to test the technical knowledge
Speaker 1: they'd been given, but never to test the story of
Speaker 1: who they were, where they were, how they'd gotten there.
Speaker 1: It was masterful misdirection. They'd been given the tools to
Speaker 1: take apart their world, all of them, but they'd also
Speaker 1: been given a more interesting project to put those tools
Speaker 1: to use on. So they put their shoulders to the wheel,
Speaker 1: and the world stood unquestioned. What about EMMYL, the putative
Speaker 1: inter block rep. Did they know? Days assumed they did.
Speaker 1: Surely EMMYL had actually been a safety investigator. But the
Speaker 1: more they thought about how ZIP had been fooled, how
Speaker 1: they themselves had been fooled, the more doubts appeared. If
Speaker 1: EMML was willing to accept that their job consisted of
Speaker 1: protecting compartmentalization, of making sure no one tried obtaining knowledge
Speaker 1: outside their professional assignment, of checking up on anyone flagged
Speaker 1: for abnormal behavior and making a simple recommendation whether that
Speaker 1: person could be trusted to follow the rules, whether they
Speaker 1: needed a temporary reconciliation process, or whether they presented a
Speaker 1: permanent danger. They really didn't need to know anything. All
Speaker 1: they had to tell themselves was that sabotage was a
Speaker 1: threat to her Medica, and anyone violating compartmentalization was enabling sabotage.
Speaker 1: The articles that for Days had triggered so many questions
Speaker 1: for EMIL probably just tripped an alarm unauthorized sensitive information
Speaker 1: that had to be controlled. Days thought about how no
Speaker 1: one they knew worked in a field that gave them
Speaker 1: proof her Medica existed. Sure there was someone who worked
Speaker 1: in propulsion, but they were pretty sure that person just
Speaker 1: ran models on improving the efficiency of fusion reactions. They
Speaker 1: never would have seen the engines and didn't know how
Speaker 1: their results were actually put to use. Everyone had such
Speaker 1: a small part of the picture, and it was the
Speaker 1: system itself that fed the bigger picture back to them.
Speaker 1: They all trusted that the information they produced was being
Speaker 1: put together in a sensible way. As for the millions
Speaker 1: of passengers, who knew how many of them were real
Speaker 1: people from what Days had seen on their run, there
Speaker 1: were thousands, for sure, all living and working in identical
Speaker 1: blocks covering at least twenty five square kilometers somewhere with
Speaker 1: a naturally flat terrain, but no one knew more than
Speaker 1: a couple hundred people for real. The majority of those
Speaker 1: millions who were active visible on socials could have been artificials,
Speaker 1: there to confirm the alibi everyone was so intent on believing.
Speaker 1: Days felt sick most of all because on some level
Speaker 1: it wasn't a surprise the world had always felt empty.
Speaker 1: Something moved just to the edge of their field of vision.
Speaker 1: Days turned nothing for a moment. They thought, hoped it
Speaker 1: was snookums, but snookums couldn't find them there, which is
Speaker 1: a tragedy because they could use a good cuddle. They
Speaker 1: curled up on the cot you got the blues, Robert called,
Speaker 1: Days sat up and shrugged. They had been napping lightly,
Speaker 1: an onearic distortion of the last day's revelations rolling through
Speaker 1: their head. They felt lethargic, like there wasn't any need
Speaker 1: to grab on to one of the coherent versions of
Speaker 1: reality that suggested itself, Like it didn't even matter that happens.
Speaker 1: You gotta be patient in here. They gave a compliant nod.
Speaker 1: Robert mistook their silence for a request to force them
Speaker 1: into a state of cheerfulness. This won't last forever. Soon
Speaker 1: you'll get to go back and be with your people.
Speaker 1: Days nodded again. I'll tell you what I sure miss
Speaker 1: my wife, wife wife. Days remembered encountering the term in
Speaker 1: old literature. It was something along the lines of either
Speaker 1: a friend or servant. Should they ask, they might as
Speaker 1: well indulge in their curiosity a little. If Robert was
Speaker 1: going to make avoiding a conversation impossible, what do you
Speaker 1: miss about them? Days? Hope the question was neutral enough
Speaker 1: that the answer would reveal the words meaning who what
Speaker 1: miss about who? Your wife? You just said you missed them?
Speaker 1: I only got the one. We're not polygamists now. Days
Speaker 1: was thoroughly confused, Right, your one wife? What do they
Speaker 1: do you mean? She? Robert looked at Days like some
Speaker 1: insult had been proffered. She Days vaguely remembered the earth
Speaker 1: from some old novels that hadn't been translated into modern English,
Speaker 1: one of a class of obsolete pronouns spurred on by
Speaker 1: Days's blank look. Robert Turtle, She he you know? Okay?
Speaker 1: Are you telling me? You don't say? He? And she
Speaker 1: In an unguarded moment, Days snapped back at Robert's scorn, Well,
Speaker 1: they are archaic. Oh for crying out loud. I heard
Speaker 1: stories about this, but it had to be a tall tale.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me you people pretend men and women don't exist.
Speaker 1: This had taken an interesting turn. Days figured they could
Speaker 1: either lay back down and put an end to the conversation,
Speaker 1: or make it a little less one sided, giving the
Speaker 1: likelihood that they would be stuck in it, willing or not,
Speaker 1: for the next several days, and finding out more about
Speaker 1: Robert's world might answer some questions they had about their own. Well,
Speaker 1: it's certainly a classification system that once existed, a classifer.
Speaker 1: How are you going to deny what's in front of
Speaker 1: your very nose? Since crashing out on the aptitudes, Days
Speaker 1: had not felt confident talking about scientific matters with their peers.
Speaker 1: Prior to that, though, they had been a voracious student,
Speaker 1: and in the short time they had known Robert, they
Speaker 1: had already shaped under their condescension. Days was certainly a
Speaker 1: capable mind when compared to Robert. Maybe they were even
Speaker 1: intelligent when compared to her America's brightest. They realized a
Speaker 1: blossom of warm confidence spreading through their chest. Of all
Speaker 1: the cohort mates they had been deferring to these last
Speaker 1: years of their life, who had been sent on to
Speaker 1: prestigious work assignments. None of them had been smart enough
Speaker 1: to figure out it was all a lie. It was
Speaker 1: time for Days to start trusting in their hunches. And
Speaker 1: do you know who else is smart enough to figure
Speaker 1: out that it's all a lie? I don't know either,
Speaker 1: But here's ads and we're back. Robert presented an interesting challenge,
Speaker 1: like running into a modern day Aristotle and trying to
Speaker 1: explain how atomic theory was more practical than the notion
Speaker 1: of five elements. The objection Robert seemed to be raising
Speaker 1: was not terribly complex. The challenge consisted of fitting in
Speaker 1: about two years of primary school rudimentaries into a single conversation.
Speaker 1: But it seemed like they had time. Days clasped their
Speaker 1: hands and shifted into a posture that was neither confrontational
Speaker 1: nor dismissive. Facing Robert, but not quite head on. Have
Speaker 1: you thought about your approach? I don't know why you
Speaker 1: need to divide the human species according to a classification
Speaker 1: system that goes beyond current functionality, I mean, job descriptions.
Speaker 1: It seems like a dodgy enterprise. But if you're going
Speaker 1: to insist. Maybe we can agree that the fundamental feature
Speaker 1: of the system should be clarity, no room for ambiguity.
Speaker 1: Robert was taken aback by this sudden change in register,
Speaker 1: but they not at all the same, that's right. Clarity
Speaker 1: Days continued well on those grounds. It seems the notion
Speaker 1: of men and women would have to be rejected Robert's sputtered. Pullah,
Speaker 1: it's me sputtering. It's not in the text. It wasn't
Speaker 1: written out like Pooluh, but I was trying to do
Speaker 1: my example of a sputtering. Chromosomatic different is not binary.
Speaker 1: You were aware of that, right, Hormones, genital development, none
Speaker 1: of it is strictly binary. And it's dangerous to establish
Speaker 1: a biological generalization and shed the rest as a rounding error,
Speaker 1: because well, those rounding errors are people. And as for
Speaker 1: the ones who supposedly fit in the boxes, there's an
Speaker 1: additional danger as some will fit better than others. So
Speaker 1: now you have a non utilitarian value hierarchy. Instead of
Speaker 1: just being human, everyone is now either more or less.
Speaker 1: Plus the fact that the distinction serves no purpose, so ambiguous,
Speaker 1: problematic and useless. Honestly, I don't think there's a system's
Speaker 1: analysis and existence that would class this metric as operational.
Speaker 1: It is self evident, Robert said, lividly, standing up for themselves.
Speaker 1: Days had started feeling manic, and from there it was
Speaker 1: a short hop to cocky time for a tidy coup
Speaker 1: de gras. Oh yeah, which one am I woman? Robert said,
Speaker 1: without blinking. Days had to hand it to them. They
Speaker 1: were unflinchingly bold to make a claim. They knew, they
Speaker 1: both knew they cannot possibly back up. How do you know,
Speaker 1: Days stuttered, it's obvious, Robert drawled, as though it were
Speaker 1: in fact obvious. Well, you haven't given me a chromosome test.
Speaker 1: We just met, but it's plain as day. Anyone can
Speaker 1: see it. I don't see it because your brain washed.
Speaker 1: Robert rolled their eyes. Now, that certainly took the cake.
Speaker 1: And what are you then, man? Robert shrugged, misunderstanding the question.
Speaker 1: Days rolled with it. Have you ever taken a chromosome test?
Speaker 1: Don't need to? Don't you think that's a self confirming theory.
Speaker 1: If you never test it, you never have to find
Speaker 1: out if it's wrong. Robert sighed, like their patients was
Speaker 1: wearing thin Look at me, now, look at you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we look quite different, Uh huh, Well we're not close
Speaker 1: genetic relations, why should we look similar? Okay, try not
Speaker 1: to be indelicate for starters. I have a beard, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so do I look a mustache anyway? See right there,
Speaker 1: you don't shave. I get that it's gross, No need
Speaker 1: to flaunt it. But if people have to adapt their
Speaker 1: behavior and even modify their bodies to confirm the theory,
Speaker 1: then those are false metrics. Oh, for the love of God,
Speaker 1: I can't have babies. You can have babies, Well, you
Speaker 1: could have babies with the right surgical procedures. Here Robert's
Speaker 1: eyes widened alarmingly, and neither of us know if I
Speaker 1: could in fact reproduce in my current state. I've never applied,
Speaker 1: never gotten tested. And even if I could, or even
Speaker 1: if I got the procedure to make sure I could,
Speaker 1: there would undoubtedly come a time in my life when
Speaker 1: it would no longer be an option. Would I then
Speaker 1: cease to be a woman? Look, women can have babies,
Speaker 1: and barring some perverse voodoo science, men cannot. What was
Speaker 1: feeling a bit offended, they rose to their feet. It's
Speaker 1: a flimsy assumption to think that someone with no hair
Speaker 1: on their face has productive ovaries and a viable birth canal,
Speaker 1: and then on top of it, to get disgusted with
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't shave their face because you insist on
Speaker 1: believing that they can bear children. But beyond all that,
Speaker 1: child bearing is a bad metric for a social division
Speaker 1: because it's not a physiological constant, it's a voluntary activity.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, Days just remembered some things that they had
Speaker 1: read about the primitives. Frantically they steered towards another topic
Speaker 1: before the conversation took an ugly turn. Blood type. What
Speaker 1: about blood type? What are you? I'm oh positive. If
Speaker 1: you're really tied to the word, you can call people
Speaker 1: who are type oh women, and you can call people
Speaker 1: who are Type A or whichever one you are, men,
Speaker 1: and we can make up words for the other two.
Speaker 1: Of course, blood type is a little more complex than that,
Speaker 1: But it's all about simplifying anyway, isn't it now? I
Speaker 1: recognize that, same as chromosomes, you can't tell what blood
Speaker 1: gender someone belongs to by looking at them. But in
Speaker 1: this case it's not actually a drawback because you have
Speaker 1: to do the test anyway before a blood transfusion, which
Speaker 1: is the only situation in which it's important. It's not.
Speaker 1: Robert sputtered some more. Blood type is blood type, sex
Speaker 1: is sex. The reflective property, Okay, you're on your way
Speaker 1: to algebra. It equals A. But if A is invalid,
Speaker 1: it's not going to help you out much. You can
Speaker 1: say that anyone who doesn't shave their chin has man blood,
Speaker 1: and that's all fine, But a lot of people are
Speaker 1: going to die if you organize blood transfusions that way.
Speaker 1: Your system just doesn't hold up in the real world,
Speaker 1: the real world, in the real world outside of your
Speaker 1: university campus. I didn't go to university. He and she
Speaker 1: have always existed, Well, you know that can't be true.
Speaker 1: Days dug in English has not always existed. So clearly,
Speaker 1: any words that belong to English are used to are
Speaker 1: just a blip in history. And don't try to say
Speaker 1: that all languages have he or she equiped valance. Robert
Speaker 1: set their jaw. The concepts have always existed, concepts that
Speaker 1: always exist. Days giggled. That would require oh right, Days
Speaker 1: remembered another thing. The primitives were said to believe in
Speaker 1: a real argument stopper. They could see that Robert was
Speaker 1: getting irate, bordering on violence, so they decided to change track. Look,
Speaker 1: I'll call you whatever you want. You call me what
Speaker 1: I want. We can both be happy. Good, Robert nodded,
Speaker 1: though their eyes still smoldered. Great. So what is it
Speaker 1: for you? Your wife? He? I'm he, she's a she great?
Speaker 1: And they for me though, of course when you're talking
Speaker 1: to me, you works just fine. Days managed a friendly smile. So,
Speaker 1: now that we've had it out, what's a wife? Dent
Speaker 1: du dun? That was a fun one. I find this
Speaker 1: sort of shit entertaining. I hope you do too. And
Speaker 1: that is where we are leaving part five of her
Speaker 1: Medica by Alan Lee, where now Days is in a
Speaker 1: prison whatever, you know where we're at. We just read it,
Speaker 1: or I read it and you listen to it. Whatever.
Speaker 1: Why would it be pedantic about the story that this
Speaker 1: particular piece is mostly about sort of weird pedantry, but
Speaker 1: in an entertaining way. Anyway, her Medica by Alan Lee
Speaker 1: you can go check it out. It came out from
Speaker 1: Detritus Books a couple of years ago, and if you
Speaker 1: want to hear more from the author. Alan Lee is
Speaker 1: the pen name of Peter Gelderlos, who has written a
Speaker 1: bunch of books, including The Solutions Are Already here and
Speaker 1: some other ones, and you can follow his substack which
Speaker 1: is called Surviving Levife and on substack, I believe in you.
Speaker 1: You can figure it out. All right. Good luck with
Speaker 1: the next week and we'll be back with part six,
Speaker 1: getting towards the end. Because it's a novella, Hi, It
Speaker 1: could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Speaker 1: Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
Speaker 1: find sources where it Could Happen Here updated monthly at
Speaker 1: coolzonmedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.