{"id":31,"date":"2021-04-20T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2023-02-26T22:25:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T22:25:33","slug":"in-a-rut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/20\/in-a-rut\/","title":{"rendered":"in a rut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">yes,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thewitchofendor.com\/2021\/04\/18\/the-left-hand-of-darkness-ch-7-sex-breaking-the-frame\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Meredith, the frame is broken<\/a>\u2013we\u2019ve been dancing around the\u00a0<em>kemmer<\/em>\u00a0topic for six chapters and now, finally, we\u2019re focused explicitly on sex. chapter 7,\u00a0<em>Ursula LeGuin\u2019s The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in Karhide, sex only happens when two individuals (sometimes two+, seems like orgy is a minority even but still occurs) are both in&nbsp;<em>kemmer<\/em>. a hormonal change that initiates sexual drive, coitus, conception, et cetera. like animals, who mate when in heat. in rut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in the back folds of my brain, i am remembering reading St Thomas Aquinas for some introductory philosophy course at university. i love this quote of old Aquinas on the matter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Man has free will: otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain.<\/p><cite>St. Thomas Aquinas \u2014 Summa Theologicae (<a href=\"http:\/\/web.mnstate.edu\/gracyk\/courses\/web%20publishing\/aquinasfreewo.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Source<\/a>)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>ah, speech acts! no advice, no cajoling, no control, no self-control. somehow this memory of free will reminds me of sex: humans have free will, humans also choose (or force upon others the choice) when, where, and how to have sex. how close are the two, really, free will and sex-whenever-we-please? not even god\u2019s angels get to have free will, not in the way humans do. and don\u2019t we pay a dear price for it? we use it and abuse it. you don\u2019t need sex-whenever-we-please to enjoy, to have pleasure\u2013animals certainly enjoy their coupling. the very young and the very old don\u2019t seem to be able to exercise free will, they are taken care of, guided, by forces and family (corporeal and otherwise) greater than themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>i\u2019m not saying that Karhiders do not have free will, they exist in a different logic, a different god. the impact of sex-only-when-the-time-is-ripe has, among other things, reduced mass violence, supported gender parity, influenced labor laws and community sizes; in sum: shaped their culture deeply. at the root. what the Karhiders have is&nbsp;<em>potential<\/em>. potential to be male or female. father or mother. both\/and. does this gift of free will limit the potential of humans? we don\u2019t make the best choices. why not? why don\u2019t we choose in accordance to harmony of all that is? why can\u2019t we listen to this tune? something to ponder. maybe not while having sex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>yes,\u00a0Meredith, the frame is broken\u2013we\u2019ve been dancing around the\u00a0kemmer\u00a0topic for six chapters and now, finally, we\u2019re focused explicitly on sex. chapter 7,\u00a0Ursula LeGuin\u2019s The Left Hand of Darkness. in Karhide, sex only happens when two individuals (sometimes two+, seems like orgy is a minority even but still occurs) are both in&nbsp;kemmer. a hormonal change that&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/20\/in-a-rut\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">in a rut<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-club","tag-ursulaleguin","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technekai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}