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Reproduction

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A Series of Fortunate Events by Sean B. Carroll

Sperm Meets Egg Covers

4 books — 1 voter

The Birds, The Bees, and You and Me by Olivia Hinebaugh

Birth Control in Fiction

205 books — 27 voters

Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

Reproductive Horror

33 books — 2 voters

Writing Women's Worlds by Lila Abu-Lughod

The Resonance of Unseen Things by Susan Lepselter

The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

MSU Cultural Anthropology

58 books — 3 voters

Sex, Power, and Partisanship by Héctor A. García

The Myth of Monogamy by David Philip Barash

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 1 by David M. Buss

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology by David M. Buss

Biology & Psychology (Evolutionary Psychology)

181 books — 12 voters

All That Is Bitter & Sweet by Ashley Judd

The Mother of All Dilemmas by Kathleen Guthrie Woods

Best books about childlessness

22 books — 15 voters

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“ All social orders command their members to imbibe in pipe dreams of posterity, the mirage of immortality, to keep them ahead of the extinction that would ensue in a few generations if the species did not replenish itself. This is the implicit, and most pestiferous, rationale for propagation: to become fully integrated into a society, one must offer it fresh blood. Naturally, the average set of parents does not conceive of their conception as a sacrificial act. These are civilized human beings we All social orders command their members to imbibe in pipe dreams of posterity, the mirage of immortality, to keep them ahead of the extinction that would ensue in a few generations if the species did not replenish itself. This is the implicit, and most pestiferous, rationale for propagation: to become fully integrated into a society, one must offer it fresh blood. Naturally, the average set of parents does not conceive of their conception as a sacrificial act. These are civilized human beings we are talking about, and thus they are quite able to fill their heads with a panoply of less barbaric rationales for reproduction, among them being the consolidation of a spousal relationship; the expectation of new and enjoyable experiences in the parental role; the hope that one will pass the test as a mother or father; the pleasing of one’s own parents, not to forget their parents and possibly a great-grandparent still loitering about; the serenity of taking one’s place in the seemingly deathless lineage of a familial enterprise; the creation of individuals who will care for their paternal and maternal selves in their dotage; the quelling of a sense of guilt or selfishness for not having done their duty as human beings; and the squelching of that faint pathos that is associated with the childless. Such are some of the overpowering pressures upon those who would fertilize the future. These pressures build up in people throughout their lifetimes and must be released, just as everyone must evacuate their bowels or fall victim to a fecal impaction. And who, if they could help it, would suffer a building, painful fecal impaction? So we make bowel movements to relieve this pressure. Quite a few people make gardens because they cannot stand the pressure of not making a garden. Others commit murder because they cannot stand the pressure building up to kill someone, either a person known to them or a total stranger. Everything is like that. Our whole lives consist of metaphorical as well as actual bowel movements, one after the other. Releasing these pressures can have greater or lesser consequences in the scheme of our lives. But they are all pressures, all bowel movements of some kind. At a certain age, children are praised for making a bowel movement in the approved manner. Later on, the praise of others dies down for this achievement and our bowel movements become our own business, although we may continue to praise ourselves for them. But overpowering pressures go on governing our lives, and the release of these essentially bowel-movement pressures may once again come up for praise, congratulations, and huzzahs of all kinds. ...more ”
― Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

8 likes

“ The human population would probably be way less than a thousand, if ejaculation were not usually accompanied by an orgasm. ”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

13 likes

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