"Judith Merril - The Lonely" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merril Judith)

laughтАФis "Symbols of Sexuality." Excerpts from review:тАФ)

The phenomenon of symbolism is an integral part of the development of communicating intelligence.
Distinctions of biological construction, ecological situation, atmospheric and other geophysical conditions,
do of course profoundly influence the radically infantile phases of intellectual-emotional-social
development in all cultures . . . (but) . . . from approximately that point in the linear development of a
civilization at which it is likely to make contact with other culturesтАФthat is, from the commencement of
cultural maturity, following the typically adolescent outburst of energy in which first contact is generally
accomplished . . . (He describes this level at some length in terms of a complex of: 1, astrophysical
knowledge; 2, control of basic matter-energy conversions, "mechanical or psial;" 3, self-awareness of
whole culture and of individuals in it; and 4, some sociological phenomena for which I have no referents.)
. . . all cultures appear to progress through a known sequence of i-e-s patterns .. . (and) . . . despite
differences in the rate of development, the composite i-e-s curve for mature cultural development of all
known species is familiar enough to permit reliable predictions for any civilization, once located on the
curve.

(Then progresses to symbolism. Specific symbols, he says, vary even more, between cultures, than
language or other means of conscious communication, as to witтАФ)
It is self-evident that the specific symbols utilized by, for instance, a septasexual, mechanophilic,
auriphased species of freely locomotive discrete individuals, will vary greatly from those of, let us say, a
mitotic, unicellular, intensely psioid, communal culture. (Which makes it all the more striking, that) it is
specifically in the use of symbols, the general consciousness of their significance, the degree of
sophistication of the popularly recognized symbols, and the uses to which they are put by the society as a
whole, that we have found our most useful constant, so far, for purposes of locating a given culture on the
curve.

(Much more here about other aspects of cultural development, some of which are cyclical, some
linearтАФall fascinating but not essential to understanding of what follows.)

Sexuality has until recently been such a rare phenomenon among civilized species that we had
casually assumed it to be something of a drawback to the development of intelligence. Such sexual races
as we did know seemed to have developed in spite of their biological peculiarity, but usually not until
after the mechanical flair that often seemed to accompany the phenomenon had enabled them to escape
their planet of origin for a more favorable environment.
I say more favorable because sexuality does seem to develop as an evolutionary compensation
where (some terms untranslatable, some very broad, but generally describing circumstances, like
extra-dense atmosphere, in which the normal rate of cosmic radiation was reduced to, a degree that
inhibited mutation and thus, evolution) . . .
As I said, this seemed almost a freak occurrence, and so it was, and is, here in the heart of the
Galaxy. But in the more thinly populated spiral arms, the normal rate of radiation is considerably lower. It
is only in the last centuries that we have begun to make contact with any considerable numbers of species
from these sectorsтАФand the incidence of sexuality among these peoples is markedly higher than before.
Recently, then, there has been fresh cause to investigate the causes and effects of sexuality; and there
has been a comparative wealth of new material to work with.

(Here he goes into a rexiew of the variety of sexual modes, ranging from two to seventeen sexes
within a species, and more exotica-erotica of means, manners, and mores than a mere two-sexed biped
can readily imagine. Restrain yourself. It's all in the full transcript.)
 But let me for the moment confine myself to the simplest and most common situation, involving only
two sexes. Recent investigations indicate that there is an apparently inevitable psychological effect of