The World Inside Read Free Page A

television sets, bookcases, desks, file drawers, and other encumbrances. It is an airy, spacious environment, particularly for a family of just six.
    The children have not yet left for school; Principessa has held them back, to meet the guest, and so they are restless. As Mattern enters, Sandor and Indra are struggling over a cherished toy, the dream-stirrer. Mattern is astounded. Conflict in the home? Silently, so their mother will not notice, they fight.Sandor hammers his shoes into his sister’s shins. Indra, wincing, claws her brother’s cheek. “God
bless
,” Mattern says sharply. “Somebody wants to go down the chute, eh?” The children gasp. The toy drops. Everyone stands at attention. Principessa looks up, brushing a lock of dark hair from her eyes; she has been busy with the youngest child and has not even heard them come in.
    Mattern says, “Conflict sterilizes. Apologize to each other.”
    Indra and Sandor kiss and smile. Meekly Indra picks up the toy and hands it to Mattern, who gives it to his younger son, Marx. They are all staring now at the guest. Mattern says to Gortman, “What I have is yours, friend.” He makes introductions. Wife, children. The scene of conflict has unnerved him a little, but he is relieved when Gortman produces four small boxes and distributes them to the children. Toys. A blessful gesture. Mattern points to the deflated sleeping platform. “This is where we sleep,” he explains. “There’s ample room for three. We wash at the cleanser, here. Do you like privacy when voiding waste matter?”
    â€œPlease, yes.”
    â€œYou press this button for the privacy shield. We excrete in this. Urine here, feces there. Everything is reprocessed, you understand. We’re a thrifty folk in the urbmons.”
    â€œOf course,” Gortman says.
    Principessa says, “Do you prefer that we use the shield when we excrete? I understand some outbuilding people do.”
    â€œI would not want to impose my customs on you,” says Gortman.
    Smiling, Mattern says, “We’re a post-privacy culture, naturally. But it wouldn’t be any trouble for us to press the button,if—” He falters. A troublesome new thought. “There’s no general nudity taboo on Venus, is there? I mean, we have only this one room, and—”
    â€œI am adaptable,” Gortman insists. “A trained sociocomputator must be a cultural relativist, of course!”
    â€œOf course,” Mattern agrees, and he laughs nervously.
    Principessa excuses herself from the conversation and sends the children, still clutching their new toys, off to school.
    Mattern says, “Forgive me for being overobvious, but I must bring up the matter of your sexual prerogatives. We three will share a single platform. My wife is available to you, as am I. Within the urbmon it is improper to refuse any reasonable request, so long as no injury is involved. Avoidance of frustration, you see, is the primary rule of a society such as ours, where even minor frictions could lead to uncontrollable oscillations of disharmony. And do you know our custom of nightwalking?”
    â€œI’m afraid I—”
    â€œDoors are not locked in Urbmon 116. We have no personal property worth guarding, and we all are socially adjusted. At night it is quite proper to enter other homes. We exchange partners in this way all the time; usually wives stay home and husbands migrate, though not necessarily. Each of us has access at any time to any other adult member of our community.”
    â€œStrange,” says Gortman. “I’d think that in a society where there are so many people living so close together, an exaggerated respect for privacy would develop, rather than a communal freedom.”
    â€œIn the beginning we had many notions of privacy. Godbless, they were allowed to erode! Avoidance of frustration must be our goal, otherwise impossible tensions develop.