Sunday, June 24, 2007

I blame Children of Men

Via a friend with connections to the book biz, a new young adult novel about a society of immortal, childfree humans. Sounds like a dream life, eh? But alas, it's supposed to be a dystopia. My friend sent me this marketing blurb with commentary:
"In Anna's world, every adult must make the chilling choice: live forever and never have children, or abandon your role in society to have a family. Which would you choose? Which would your parents have chosen? THINK ABOUT IT."
Chilling! Yes, Amber, make that hard decision: you can do exactly what you want to do, but you also get to live forever. "You can eat all the chocolate you want, but you can NEVER gain weight. What will you choose?"
The actual plot seems even stupider than the marketing would suggest. Wouldn't any society in which one had to forbear reproduction in exchange for immortality condition acceptance of the immortality-causing process or substances on sterilization? The Man can stop aging, but somehow tubal ligation and vasectomies are beyond his skill? Pah.
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