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

combining two, essentially distinct subspecies in one genetic unit. (Sparks like mad.) I perceive that many
of you have just experienced the same delight-dismay the first researchers felt at recognizing this
so-obvious and so-overlooked parallel with the familiar cases of symbiosis.
The Terrans, mentioned earlier, are in many ways prototypical of sexuality in an intelligent species,
and the unusual and rather dramatic events on Aldebaran VI have added greatly to our insights into the
psychology of sexuality in general.
In this culture, dualism is very deep-rooted, affecting every aspect of the i-e-s complex: not just
philosophy and engineering, but mathematics, for instance, and mystique.
This cultural attitude starts with a duality, or two-sided symmetry, of body-structure. (Throughout this
discussion he uses visual materialтАФphotos, diagrams, etc., of human bodies, anatomy, physiology,
habitat, eating and mating habits, etc. Also goes off into some intriguing speculation of the chicken-or-egg
type: is physical structure influenced by mental attitudes, or is it some inherent tendency of a chromosome
pattern with pairs of genes from pairs of parents?)
In this respect, the Terrans are almost perfect prototypes, with two pairs of limbs, for locomotion and
manipulation, extending from a centralтАФsingleтАФabdominal cavity, which, although containing some single
organs as well as some in pairs, is so symmetrically proportioned that the first assumption from an
exterior view would be that everything inside was equally mirror-imaged. Actually, the main breathing
apparatus is paired; the digestive system is singleтАФalthough food intake is through an orifice with paired
lips and two rows of teeth. In both "male" and "female" types, the organ of sexual contact is single,
whereas the gamete-producers are pairs. There is a single, roundish head set on top of the abdomen,
containing the primary sensory organs, all of which occur in pairs. Even the brain is paired!
I mentioned earlier that it is typical of the sexual races that the flair for physical -engineering is rather
stronger than the instinct for communication. This was an observed but little-understood fact for many
centuries; it was not till this phenomenon of dualism (and triadism for the three-sexed, etc.) was studied
that the earlier observation was clarified. If you will consider briefly the various sources of power and
transport, you will realize thatтАФoutside of the psi-based techniquesтАФmost of these are involved with
principles of symmetry and/or equivalence; these concepts are obvious to the two-sexed. On the other
hand, the principle of unity, underlying all successful communicationтАФphysical, verbal, psial, or
otherтАФand which is also the basis for the application of psi to engineering problemsтАФis for these
species, in early stages, an almost mystical quality.
As with most life-forms, the reproductive act is, among sexual beings, both physically pleasurable and
biologically compulsive, so that it is early equated with religio-mystic sensations. Among sexual species,
these attitudes are intensified by the communicative aspects of the act. (Cartoon-type diagrams here
which frankly gave me to think a bit!) We have much to learn yet about the psychology of this
phenomenon, but enough has been established to make clear that the concept of unity for these races is
initially almost entirely related to the use of their sexuality, and is later extended to other areasтАФreligion
and the arts of communication at firstтАФwith a mysticalтАФindeed often reverent attitude!
I hardly need to remind you that the tendencies I have been discussing are the primitive and
underlying ones. Obviously, at the point of contact, any species must have acquired at least enough
sophistication in the field of physicsтАФquanta, unified field theory, and atomic transmutation for a
startтАФto have begun to look away from_ the essentially blind alley of dualistic thinking. But the extent to
which these Terrans were still limited by their early developmental pattern is indicated by the almost
unbelievable fact that they developed ultra-dimensional transport before discovering any more effective
channels of communication than the electromagnetic!
Thus their first contacts with older civilizations were physical; and, limited as they still are almost
entirely to aural and visual communication, they were actually unable to perceive their very first contact
on Aldebaran VI.

(Shot of Prof. Eel in absolute sparkling convulsions goes to distance shots of planet and antiquated
Earth spaceship in orbit: L-1 again. Then suborb launch drops, spirals to surface. Twenty bulky