relished, and celebrated. There is a wholeness in this. Nothing is isolated. Her entire personal, individual, exciting, beautiful psychosexuality is involved, the full range of her feminine needs, nothing starved or denied, the wholeness of her being, the wholeness of her deepest self, involving such, things as giving, devotion, love, service, attentiveness, a desire to be truly pleasing, profoundly so, and as a female, and so on.”
“You mean they want these things?” asked Brenner.
“Certainly,” said Rodriguez.
“And they accept these things, and relish them, of their own free will?” asked Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez, “but one must there be careful, for it is important to the slave to be a slave, and this means that she must then, in a sense, be choiceless.”
“Interesting,” said Brenner.
“Had she the choice, she would choose to be given no choice, said Rodriguez.
“This seems a paradox,” said Brenner.
“Perhaps,” said Rodriguez.
“But then,” said Brenner, “if she is a slave, then she would have no choice, no choice in actuality, literally no choice, whether she wished it or not.”
“Correct,” said Rodriguez. “She is a slave. She has no choice. She is choiceless, absolutely. She is a domestic animal, a slave.”
“Doesn’t she know she is supposed to be free, and such things?” asked Brenner.
“Like a man?” asked Rodriguez.
“Yes,” said Brenner.
“I thought,” said Rodriguez, “we were discussing psychobiology, not the prescriptions of politics.”
“Very well,” said Brenner. “Continue.”
“The slave may even, in the beginning,” said Rodriguez, “use the bondage of her liberated needs as an excuse to submit, for if she does not submit, and in ways suitable to the master’s will, she will not be satisfied.”
“I understand,” said Brenner.
“Not to mention her obvious subjectability to other forms of punishment, as well,” said Rodriguez.
“Of course,” said Brenner.
“For example, the whip,” said Rodriguez.
“I understand,” said Brenner, shuddering.
“But soon,” said Rodriguez, “as the slave becomes familiar with her duties, her chains and silk, and understands in her belly that she is now a slave, and that is that, and that is all, she senses a great relief and happiness. She is then at her master’s feet. She is content, joyful, and fulfilled.”
“But surely she must occasionally regret her choicelessness,” said Brenner.
“Doubtless,” said Rodriguez. “She is, after all, a slave. Doubtless the condition contains its terrors as well as its gratifications.”
“But what you have described is a sort of an ideal, is it not?” asked Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez. “Doubtless many are the girls who shiver with cold, naked and miserable, chained in the holds of freighters. Doubtless some are dragged weeping to blocks to be sold. Doubtless some labor long hours in remote, muddy fields, far from public view, or, similarly, concealed from sight, behind the scenes, in public kitchens and laundries. Some doubtless labor in barren, spacious, friendless mills, chained to looms. Perhaps they envy certain of their more fortunate sisters, those with painted lips, chained to their beds in brothels.”
“Horrifying,” said Brenner.
“More terrifying,” said Rodriguez, “is the slave who knows that her master does not care for her, for example, she who is merely taken for granted, who must serve neglected or unnoticed, perhaps even scorned. Too, some slaves find that their masters do not like them, literally, and that these masters are intent upon keeping them at a primitive level of slavery, one more associated with terror and punishment than discipline and love. It is one thing, for example, to subdue and tame a rebellious slave, one not yet in touch with her deeper realities, decisively and effectively, and quite another to relate to a woman whom one makes certain will continue to hate you, say, for the pleasure of the psychological torment one sees imposed upon her, for example, as she must beg you for sexual relief, and such. There are many variations here.”
“You seem to believe that there are two sexes,” said Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “And they are not the same.”
“That is not the official position of the home world,” said Brenner.
“The official position of the home world is mistaken,” said Rodriguez.
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“Did you believe it?” asked Rodriguez.
“No,” admitted Brenner.
I didn’t think so,” said Rodriguez. “Only idiots take it seriously. The important thing is the lie, and to pretend to take it seriously, for purposes of politics.”
“The home world is not as inflexible and uniform in its views as you think,” said Brenner.
“Oh?” said Rodriguez. To be sure, he had not spent a great deal of time on the home world over the past several years. As you might suspect, there had been good reasons for this.
“Some on