Peter Tillman
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
[continued on next rock] What I wonder is, how likely her fictional biology might be? She hypothesized a long-ago genetic manipulation of the ancestral Gethenians (who were homo saps??), for the ambisexual bit that was such a hit in "Left Hand of Darkness". Since you are something of an sfnal expert on alternate human biology & sexuality.... GR has a very short word limit on these queries! TIA, Pete Tillman
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think you want an actual biologist or biology/evolution pop sci or scientific book/article to answer this question, and as recent as possible -- basically, anything published in the biological sciences more than five years old is likely to be out of date. Sometimes, more than one year old. But the peculiarities of human mating cycles compared to the other primates have been commented-upon since, gosh, Desmond Morris? Speaking of out-of-date pop sci.
I briefly met Le Guin exactly once, at a convention many years ago, so cannot pretend to speak for her in any way. Note, though, that in most works of fiction there will be at least two levels, representation and metaphor, and it is as well not to confuse one with the other.
Ta, L.
I think you want an actual biologist or biology/evolution pop sci or scientific book/article to answer this question, and as recent as possible -- basically, anything published in the biological sciences more than five years old is likely to be out of date. Sometimes, more than one year old. But the peculiarities of human mating cycles compared to the other primates have been commented-upon since, gosh, Desmond Morris? Speaking of out-of-date pop sci.
I briefly met Le Guin exactly once, at a convention many years ago, so cannot pretend to speak for her in any way. Note, though, that in most works of fiction there will be at least two levels, representation and metaphor, and it is as well not to confuse one with the other.
Ta, L.
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