Just got through The Giving Plague, I'll take a crack at Allamagoosa tomorrow. Warning, some spoilers for TGP follow Reading between the lines of his unreliable narration, you can see Forry getting more and more altruistic throughout the piece, matching/exceeding the infected. But it's clear this behavior arises from a very conflicted inner process, in sharp contrast to the biological imperative that ALAS places on its hosts. This is underscored by Forry's final line, that suffering for others is what he chooses to do. This presents a neat dichotomy between conflicted, cynical and extremely reluctant altruism, and altruism that's born of an unquestioned dogmatic drive. It seems to me that Brin's asking us which is better. If the behavior is the same, does it matter whether it arises by choice or by default? By setting Forry up as a savior, it seems that Brin's saying choice is the better option. Then again, Forry is only a hero due to circumstance. If CAPUC hadn't cropped up, his choices would have instead led him to being a murderer and a thief. In contrast, the ALAS carriers contribute to civilization reliably and unfailingly, rain or shine, for years. So perhaps the message is that you need to have both. Dogmatic altruism can keep society slowly improving for years, but when shit hits the fan, you need the determination and drive brought by those who have CHOSEN to fight for their fellow humans. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts! If you had the choice to keep ALAS contained or help it grow to a pandemic, which do you think you'd choose?
Cool! In the past we've had discussion in the following week's post, so that everyone's talking in the same post, but I won't stop you. Since we are changing some stuff about the formatting of the club this time around there may be some need for rearrangement. We'll have to play it by ear there. For The Giving Plague, I hadn't really given much though to the choice angle of altruism given by the scenario. Forry was like the devil on one shoulder and Les was the angel on the other in the altruism/selfishness scale. We know from Forry's narration that he's always got his eyes on the prize and rules-out no deed that would help him get it. We don't truly know what's going through Les' head. Forry does become a saint though, it's all part of his carefully executed facade though. I think the story nudges you to question if there's any true alturism. After all, it's implied the infected aren't really made altruistic, but that they go through some mental gymnastics to define themselves as altruists given the urge to donate blood. Once you have an image of yourself, you go though steps to maintain that image. It's basically what Forry does in a way.