Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
One aspect of the book I did question was why the Gethenians formed strong pair-bonds. This does not seem necessary for their situation, and may actually be contrary to evolutionary drives ... although, as I noted earlier, Le Guin gets to cheat and not need an evolution-safe species, because these were artificially created. And so perhaps it is their innate humanness that makes them inclined to form pair bonds.
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The big cheat for me I mentioned above, that siblings were allowed to mate to produce one child, but couldn't vow kemmer and had to separate. I felt as if Le Guin bent her social norms to serve her plot, as it made no sense to me. If there's nothing wrong with what we'd call incest or inbreeding, than why limit it (while allowing kemmer vows for unrelated pairs); if there was a reason to prohibit it, because of biology or eugenics or social structure, why allow it at all? Wouldn't society be better served by having such pairings entirely taboo, instead of one and done, which seems calculated to be very difficult emotionally.