As a man's knowledge grows, and his power increases, the road he takes grows ever narrower, until at last he does only and wholly what he must.
Ursula K. Le GuinKarhiders discuss sexual matters freely, and talk about kemmer with both reverence and gusto, but they are reticent about discussing perversion - at least they were with me. Excessive prolongation of the kemmer period, with permanent hormonal imbalance toward the male or the female, causes what they call perversion; it is not rare; three or four percent of adults may be physiological perverts or abnormals - normals, by our standard. They are not excluded from society, but they are tolerated with some disdain, as homosexuals are in many bisexual societies, the Karhidish slang for them is halfdeads. They are sterile.
Ursula K. Le GuinYou don't see yet, Genry, why we perfected and practice Fortelling?"
"No..."
"To exhibit the perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question.
Our entire pattern of socio-sexual interaction is nonexistent here. They cannot play the game. They do not see one another as men or women. This is almost impossible for our imagination to accept. What is the first question we ask about a newborn baby?
Ursula K. Le GuinThey tended to be stolid, slovenly, heavy, and to my eyes effeminate - not in the sense of delicacy, etc., but in just the opposite sense: a gross, bland fleshiness, a bovinity without point or edge.
Ursula K. Le GuinWhat is more arrogant than honesty?
Ursula K. Le GuinEstraven asleep looked a little stupid, like everyone asleep.
Ursula K. Le GuinAnd I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with the fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was.
Ursula K. Le GuinShe waved through the dirty window from her seat as the train started up. I did not do the ape act. I stood there and did the human act as well as possible.
Ursula K. Le GuinFire and fear, good servants, bad lords.
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