The Totems of Abydos (18 page)

“You haven’t changed,” said Rodriguez, coming out of the bath.

Brenner could hear the vacuum in the hall outside. One of the maids must be cleaning the corridor.

He was still standing near the bed, in his wet clothes, his bag on the floor near him. The carpet was wet.

“No,” he said.

Brenner was disturbed by the sound of the vacuum cleaner, even though it must be some doors down the hall.

“Rodriguez,” said Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez, getting dressed.

“When you touched the maid,” said Brenner, hesitantly, “she moved a little, she made tiny noises.”

“Yes?” said Rodriguez, sitting on his bed, pulling on a boot.

“Why was that?” asked Brenner, uncertainly.

“Surely it is obvious,” said Rodriguez, looking over at him.

“No!” said Brenner.

“She was responding to my touch,” said Rodriguez, “and probably to the entire situation in which she found herself, and to what her condition is, and so on.”

“‘Responding’?”

“She couldn’t help herself, she’s hot,” said Rodriguez, working on the second boot.

“I don’t understand,” said Brenner.

“Frigidity is not acceptable in a contract slut,” said Rodriguez.

“I wish you wouldn’t use that expression,” said Brenner.

Rodriguez stood up, and stomped twice.

“Are you intimating that her behavior was—
sexual
?” asked Brenner.

“Certainly it was sexual,” said Rodriguez, irritably.

“Do you mean to suggest that she might have sexual needs?” asked Brenner, carefully.

“Of course she has sexual needs,” said Rodriguez.

“But sexual needs,” said Brenner, “do not exist.”

“Do not be naive,” said Rodriguez.

“Surely you are aware of the official position on this matter,” said Brenner.

“Of course,” said Rodriguez.

“Do you have sexual needs?” asked Brenner.

“Certainly,” said Rodriguez. “And so do you, unless you are crippled, or insane or sick, or something.”

Brenner was silent.

“What about it?” asked Rodriguez.

“What about what?” asked Brenner, uneasily.

“Do you have sexual needs?”

Brenner was silent.

“This is Company Station,” said Rodriguez. “This is not the home world.”

“Yes,” said Brenner. “I have sexual needs.”

“Good,” said Rodriguez. “Now say that again, and to another person.”

“I have sexual needs,” said Brenner.

“Excellent,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner felt happier, and freer, then than he had in years. It was as though a great weight had been thrown from him. He wanted to laugh, and cry, with relief.

“But we must be rare, and terrible,” said Brenner, though, at the time, given his elation, he did not feel, really, either rare or terrible.

“Then everyone must be rare and terrible,” said Rodriguez, “that is, everyone who is not crippled, or insane, or sick, or whatever.”

“But what of the indisputable scientific proofs that sexual needs do not exist?” asked Brenner.

“One supposes, except politically, that the existence of such needs takes precedence over the proofs that they do not exist. For example, the existence of one tree takes precedence over the proofs that trees are impossible.”

“Then the proofs are not really proofs,” said Brenner.

“A proof is a proof, by definition,” said Rodriguez, “but, similarly, by definition, what is not a proof is not a proof. A pseudoproof, for example, is not a proof.”

“But what of the decisive experiments?” asked Brenner.

“Much there depends on definition, the politician’s ally,” said Rodriguez. “For example, if a need is operationally defined as, say, something which must be satisfied within two hours or the organization perishes, then one has a certain number of needs, for example, for oxygen, for blood flowing to the brain, and so on; if one operationally defines a need as something which must be satisfied within three days or the organism perishes, then one has additional needs, and so on. For example, on the first definition, one does not have a need for water or food. On the second, one does not have a need for food, and so on.”

“But the frustration of sexual needs does not lead to death!” said Brenner, triumphantly.

“Or at least not to immediate death,” said Rodriguez. “There are, of course, numerous statistics, muchly suppressed now, in the best interests of the public, of course, that the failure to satisfy sexual needs may tend to shorten life considerably, by several years, in fact. To be sure, the matter is obscure, as the failure to satisfy these needs may be merely a part of, or a consequence of, a pathological syndrome, or a defective system, tending to be linked to decreased longevity.”

“You could have your degree revoked, or be imprisoned for expressing such thoughts on the home world,” said Brenner.

“Or be remanded for “smoothing” as a physiological deviant,” said Rodriguez, smiling.

“Yes,” said Brenner.

“I have declined that offer more than once,” said Rodriguez.

“The state would have borne the expenses of the operation,” Brenner pointed out.

“Even so,” said Rodriguez.

“It is interesting how people resist their own improvement,” said Brenner.

“Doubtless that is a symptom of their deficiency, and a proof of their need of a cure,” said Rodriguez.

“And this then occasionally necessitates the action of the state, to intervene in the best interests not only of the people but of the particular individual involved.”

“Some see it so,” said Rodriguez. “But returning briefly to the questions of needs, or drives, or whatever, I think it is important that you understand how definitions enter into these supposedly scientific matters, and, indeed, that the scientific results will depend, in effect, on how the definitions are constructed. For example, there is no point whatsoever, except from a political point of view, to define a need in terms of something that must be satisfied at the expense of life itself, and promptly, or soon, as though one could have only needs for such things as oxygen, food, and drinking water. What if the failure to satisfy a need, or whatever we choose to call it, resulted not in death, or at least not in immediately ensuant death, or whatever, but in misery, in frustration, in discomfort, in pain, in unhappiness, in lack of fulfillment, in psychic disarrangements, and such? I would be willing to call that sort of thing a need. Would a plant, for example, not have a need for a certain mineral, simply because it could drag out a pathetic, stunted existence without it? No, needs, at least as I would choose to understand them, are not simply connected with, say, the basic essentials for some level of metabolism and oxidation, and such, but with what is required for the plant to be fully healthy, and, indeed, to flourish.”

“But health, too, and such things, may be variously defined,” said Brenner.

“Of course,” said Rodriguez, “and doubtless will be defined in various ways, to accomplish various purposes. Some words are good words, so to speak. They are prizes to be fought over. An excellent example is the word ‘health’. That is a good word. That word is a prize. It will be fought over. It has favorable connotations, you see. People have been verbally conditioned to believe that health is good, that they should be healthy, and so on. Thus, the political trick is to take the old word, evacuate it of its customary meanings, replace those meanings with the new political meanings, and then count on the favorable connotations of the word to win over the public to your cause. Naturally this is never made clear to the public. Rather it is presented as a new cognitive discovery, as to what, say, “health” really is.”

“That is meretricious and deceitful,” said Brenner.

“It is done with many words. Excellent examples are ‘good’, ‘right’, ‘justice’, ‘normal’, ‘mature’, ‘democracy’, ‘religion’, and such. Sometimes, of course, when it is feared that the absurdity of this may be too obvious, one speaks of such things as “true justice,” “real democracy,” and such.”

“But surely there are realities involved, as well,” said Brenner. “It cannot be all verbal manipulation, all fraud, all politics.”

“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “There are realities involved, and that is why the political fraud, the media manipulations, and such, are so important, to distract attention from them, to conceal them, and such.”

Brenner nodded. He even sat down on the bed, forgetting that the maid had been there. He wondered if he should have listened to Rodriguez. The man must be mad.

“The stunted plant deprived of the mineral, you see,” said Rodriguez, “is an unhealthy plant, in a quite clear sense, to be sure, perhaps in an old sense, or a superseded sense, even if it is now defined, for political purposes, as being “healthy.” Similarly, a plant that is clipped and trimmed into an absurd shape, to conform with an external or alien concept of excellence, may now count as a better plant, or a superior plant, from the external or alien viewpoint, but it is certainly not the natural plant, the plant as it would grow if it were under conditions ideal to its own nature, as it would grow in its own natural health and glory, so to speak.”

“I see,” said Brenner.”

“There is also a distinction between the descriptive and prescriptive use of discourse which is often blurred in these matters,” said Rodriguez. “For example, ‘normal’ might be used to signify what sort of thing actually occurs most frequently, or it might be used to characterize an ideal, rational or otherwise, which is seldom attained in actuality. For example, in the first sense, having sexual needs is quite normal, but, in the second sense, on the home world, the
normal
person, so to speak, or the
truly normal
person, as it might be said, does not have such needs. Those who have them, secretly, of course, are thus expected to regard themselves as, say, abnormal, deviant, in need of a cure, or such. This guilt is useful politically, of course.”

“I am prepared to admit that I have sexual needs,” said Brenner. “But surely I am unusual.”

“Not at all,” Rodriguez assured him.

“But what of women,” asked Brenner. “Surely they do not have sexual needs.”

“You saw the maid, and heard her,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner suddenly realized he was sitting on the bed, or, rather, that the maid had been there earlier. He stood up, quickly.

“But she must be a deviant, or a nymphomaniac,” said Brenner.

“It is highly unlikely that she is a deviant,” said Rodriguez. “It is much more likely that she is simply a normal woman, one with sexual needs. To be sure, her sexual needs have probably been liberated by now from the bondage of her training and education.”

“Liberated from bondage?” said Brenner. “She has a chain on her ankle.” Brenner decided that he would accept what seemed to be the reality of the maid’s situation, rather than pretend to disguise it in his own mind. It had seemed to him unlikely, even from the beginning, that the maid held the key to that chain on her ankle.

“I refer, of course,” said Rodriguez, “to the liberation of her sexual needs.”

“She is probably a nymphomaniac,” said Brenner.

“Is that a derogatory expression?” asked Rodriguez.

“I’m not sure,” said Brenner, though he supposed it was supposed to be. He was not exactly certain why. To be sure, he could see how it might be of advantage to a certain form of political establishment to claim it to be such, for example, that it might be used as a device to discourage women from seeking sexual fulfillment, from fulfilling their needs, from becoming themselves.

“I am not sure what you mean by the expression,” said Rodriguez, “but as I use it, every woman, properly handled, is a nymphomaniac. She will beg for more, and such.”

“Then you think that women have sexual needs,” said Brenner.

“Women have profound sexual needs,” said Rodriguez. “Sexual needs, biosexual needs, psychosexual needs, it all goes together.”

“Even the directress?” asked Brenner.

“That self-important, smug, pretentious, frustrated, miserable, frigid slut?” asked Rodriguez.

“She,” admitted Brenner. Rodriguez’ assessment met with his approval. Still, he did not personally find the directress, who was a young woman, unattractive. He recalled her as he had imagined her kneeling on the plating of the lounge, on the ship, her hands, the wrists linked together in the bracelets, lifted to him.
 

“I would suppose so,” said Rodriguez, “somewhere, somehow. These needs, you must understand, can be suppressed, fought, resisted, and such. Certainly her frustration suggests that something is being frustrated. Her misery indicates that something is wrong. Her frigidity, as it seems rather of the defensive, hostile, frightened kind, rather than that of simplistic anesthesia, suggests that something, awakened, of which she is at least dimly aware, is being blocked and denied. Too, of course, energies can be thwarted and diverted, and twisted, and turned to other outlets, for example, to the seeking of power, to the grasping for position, to the scratching for authority, such things, or others, in an ill-fated, belligerent attempt on her part, which she knows is doomed to failure, to conform to a culturally prescribed stereotype, in effect, to prove that she is the same as a man, a denouement which, incidentally, in my opinion, she does not really want. Thus, her pretenses, her postures, her behaviors and such, represent in their way not only the uncritical adherence to a perverse conditioning program but more importantly a reaction against something, an attempt to deny something she senses in herself, and fears in herself, that they constitute an attempt, in its way, and a rather hysterical attempt in its way, to repudiate her belly knowledge, so to speak, what she knows about herself ultimately, that she, a female, belongs at a man’s feet.”