For this week I read the short
story AYE, AND GOMORRAH by Samuel R. Delany which illustrates what a day in the
life of a “spacer” is like. We follow a male spacer through a few days until he
has an encounter with a human or “Frelk” as the story calls them. When you
become a spacer they neuter you and your job is to work for the government
building water conservation untis on Mars, programming mining computers on
Ganymede, servicing communication relay towers on the moon, etc. She finds
interest in him and tries to show how sad she is that he was neutered but he
shows little to no interest in her and she grows frustrated and envious of him.
“ “You spin in the sky, the world spins under you, and you step from land to
land…” She eventually admits to not
liking being a frelk and goes on to explain that because he doesn’t have the
ability to want is why she wants him so badly. She pleas with him because she
is trying to buy him (for sexual reasons im assuming but I wasn’t sure) and she
doesn’t have the money. He proposes to just give him something and she refuses
still. She tries so hard to get him to just want her so she doesn’t have to buy
him but it is impossible for the spacers. He shares with her that he is lonely
and doesn’t need money but just wants her to give him something and she refuses
and so he moves to leave.
The
vagueness of the relationship between frelks and spacers leaves a lot of room
for interpretation. The thing that isn’t clear is what exactly the spacers can
do for the frelks that isn’t sex since the spacers are neutered. At the end
Kelly, one of his friends, says she put a frelk through “changes” but other than
that it doesn’t really clarify other than that it would cure the loneliness of
them spoken by him and his pursuer. Being involved with someone that does not desire must be a poisonous addiction to have, just like in our relationships we don't like being the one that cares the least but even in between those that do feel it is a torturous place to be.
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