If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?

"If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" is a science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon. It first appeared in Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions in 1967.

Plot

It is about an Earthman who comes to the planet Vexvelt, shunned by the rest of colonized universe for unknown reasons. He finds it a utopian paradise, but then discovers to his shock and horror that incest is actively encouraged there. When it is shown that the reason that the planet is a paradise is because of this encouragement of incest (or, rather, the non-suppression of sexual instincts and urges including incest), then questions are raised of the reader as to how we face "unpleasant" issues.

Thematic elements

Sturgeon wrote the story with an afterword that makes it plain that incest is not the real issue here, but rather how we manufacture falsehoods and turn them into perceived "truths", by adding to and building onto something harmless to the point of creating something that is positively harmful.

This story is written to illustrate Sturgeon's credo of "ask the next question". By picking a very contentious subject for promotion he prompts a common array of responses such as "because it's wrong". Sturgeon then pops the question "Why is it wrong?" and shows us how we tend to flit around an issue instead of facing the reality. The afterword makes the point that each successive answer should prompt a question that punches through it until a proper truth can be reached.

External links

If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Analysis with quotes at Everything2
Quote at Oxford English Dictionary science fiction research website

Theodore Sturgeon

Novels	The Dreaming Jewels More Than Human The Cosmic Rape Venus Plus X Some of Your Blood Godbody

Novelizations	The King and Four Queens Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea The Rare Breed

Pseudonymous novels	I, Libertine

Short story collections	Without Sorcery E Pluribus Unicorn

Short stories	"Baby Is Three" "Helix the Cat" "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" "It!" "Killdozer!" "The Man Who Lost the Sea" "Microcosmic God" "The Pod in the Barrier" "A Saucer of Loneliness" "Shottle Bop" "Slow Sculpture" "The World Well Lost"

Star Trek screenplays	"Shore Leave" "Amok Time"

Other subjects	Theodore Sturgeon Award Sturgeon's law Kilgore Trout

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/27/2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.