“You are nonetheless paying off your contract?” asked Brenner.
“No,” she said. “Things are so arranged that we cannot pay it off. I had not realized that at the time of my contracting. We are helpless. We cannot free ourselves from our contracts.”
“I see,” said Brenner. He had, of course, surmised this, from remarks of Rodriguez.
“Why did you ask for permission to rise to your feet earlier?” he asked.
“Why should I not have asked?” she asked.
Brenner found it difficult to respond to this. To be sure, she was a female, and under contract.
“Some men,” she said, “require us to keep one knee on the floor or ground at all times, except when we are lying down. To be sure, we may depart from this injunction in certain transitional movements, as in ascending to the couch, keeping our bellies in contact at all times with its side or surface.”
Brenner regarded her, she standing there, her back to the door.
“I am here for your pleasure, you know,” she said.
“You are safe,” he said.
“Thank you for staying the night,” she said. “Thank you for the liqueur.”
“It is nothing,” he said.
“Do you not find me attractive?” she asked.
“It is immoral for a man to find a female attractive,” said Brenner.
“Why?” she asked.
“Surely you know,” said Brenner, angrily.
“No,” she said.
“It degrades her,” said Brenner, “to see her in such terms.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It debases her,” said Brenner. “It makes of her a mere object.”
“Surely you know that is false,” she said.
“No!” said Brenner.
“It is not my fault that not all women are attractive,” she said. “That not all are attractive does not mean that it is wrong for some to be attractive, if they are.”
“Attractiveness in a woman, as you must know,” said Brenner, “is a most deplorable feature, a most unfortunate and dangerous property. It can detract attention from personness.”
She regarded him, puzzled.
“It is easy to see why you have been removed from the home world,” said Brenner.
“Doubtless,” she said.
“As you know,” he said, “many women on the home world have had recourse to cosmetic surgery, to control and subdue their beauty, indeed, in many cases, to remove it altogether.”
“I know,” she whispered, shuddering.
“And this sacrifice did they make in the name of personhood.”
“And thus did they improve their careers undoubtedly!” she said.
Brenner shrugged. He did not doubt that, on the whole, the women who were “persons,” usually the homely, the fat, the belligerent, and such, discriminated unmercifully against their more beautiful sisters. There seemed to be some sort of instinctual enmity between these “persons” and these other creatures, who were doubtless less than persons. Brenner was not quite clear on the source of this obvious hatred. To be sure, it was true that the more beautiful women tended to bring higher prices in slave markets and such. Did the women who were “persons” hate these others because they feared they might become like them, so pathetically needful and beautiful, or because they suspected they could never become like them?
“Attractiveness in a woman is populationally dangerous,” said Brenner.
“Surely you are aware that unattractive women can be bred,” she said, “and that conception in any woman may be controlled.”
Brenner shrugged, irritably.
“I could not conceive now, if I wished to do so,” she said. “It is chemically precluded. The zard has seen to it.”
“Doubtless,” said Brenner.
“What is personness?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” admitted Brenner.
“Surely we must not limit it to such accidents as having had a course in algebra or political science?”
“I suppose not,” said Brenner.
“Perhaps it is to be equated with subscribing to a certain platform of political values?” she asked. “Perhaps that is the touchstone of personness?”
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“But what if those values are treacherous, if they are inimical to, or betray, or deny, or make impossible, the fulfillment of the whole person, in her biological and emotional nature?”
“Such factors are unimportant,” said Brenner. “They may be ignored.”
“I do not regard them as unimportant,” she said, “nor do I choose to ignore them.”
“Disagreement with the prescribed values, as they exist currently,” said Brenner, “is a sign of immaturity, ignorance, stupidity, iniquity, or insanity.”
“And tomorrow,” she said, “something else will be a sign of such things.”
“Doubtless,” said Brenner.
“What is the criterion?” she asked. “What is the standard?”
“I do not know,” said Brenner.
“Surely it is what we are, really, our own nature, and what will fulfill us,” she said.