Challenge 150

“Reuben, Reuben, I’ve been thinking...”

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As the Readers’ Guide suggests, Kevin Ahearn’s “Under God, Indivisible” and D. A. Madigan’s “Pursuit of Happiness” may be seen as mirror images of each other. How might that be so?

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Reuben, Reuben, I’ve been thinking
What a grand world this would be
If the men were all transported
Far across the northern sea.

We salute the conclusion of Mike Lloyd’s Observation One with the customary parting Challenge.

Like time-travel stories, “mind-control” stories are difficult to write convincingly: in the end, was the story real or was it “only a dream”? It’s hard to say that the action in Observation One is only a dream: Toni tours several capitals of Europe at an exhausting, whirlwind pace in his mission as a spy for the Doman extraterrestrials. At the end he has to do a lot of work to cover his tracks and invent a not too implausible alibi for his disappearance.

The dreamlike quality consists in two things:

Toni is manipulated by his Doman “handlers” and uses the same techniques in turn to extract information from various political figures.
Carla is a femme fatale for Toni, but, being a holographic projection, she is untouchable.

Thus the Domans use sex on Toni without using it even as they lure him onward with it. Clever, those ET’s, making Toni — and others — chase a will-o’-the-wisp. However, on Dome, all species have mysteriously evolved away from sexual reproduction: only females remain. The results are practically paradisical: telepathic communication has replaced speech, and wars due to the machismo of benighted males are a thing of the past.

Take a look at the biological history of Dome as Carla explains it in chapter 26, part 1 (an anchor will take you directly to the relevant part):

Is it a plausible evolutionary scenario?
Whether or not the female-only culture is plausible, is it also a satirical commentary on Earth politics and culture? What other encounter in the concluding chapters of the story might lead one to think so?
Carla admits she is fascinated with Toni as a male being: does she admit to feeling that she and perhaps the other Domans have been missing something?
In light of the Domans’ future objectives and designs on Earth, might they have developed psychic manipulation as war “by other means”?
In that light, what plans might they have in store for Paula?

Thanks for a most unusual tourist’s eye view of Europe, Mike! We’d really like to know what those sneaky Domans will be up to next. And keep those Guides Michelin bookmarked and ready!