Children of Arable - Softcover

Belden, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451146603 ISBN 13: 9780451146601

Publisher: Ace, 1987

Synopsis

No dysfunctional families here ? no families. No gender wars here ? no gender. In a galactic civilization so scared of emotion it has abolished gender and families, a young person decides to give birth. And so does the person's lover. But only one of them can do it. Only one of them is female. The Collectivity was an Eden without knowledge of man and woman; she reached for that knowledge and destroyed its peace forever. He tells the story of how she challenged their world, and left him behind. The Birthing Circle would have remained a cozy elite fad but for Martin. Born on a green world and transferred to a metalbound city planet, Martin is catapulted from her home farm into a space opera of holie ghosts, pirates, buttoned-down followers of the Space Code, anarchists, sexless wraiths whose telekinetic powers zap spaceships across the galaxy, spherical aliens and MAN, the virtual guru who keeps everyone under control. She sets out to remake the whole galaxy, to bring back love and freedom. Jomo, the humble soy processor who loves her, sees her astonishing transformation into a revolutionary. Gendering is a trilogy of big ideas about gender and God, revolution and religion. Formerly published in 1987, Children of Arable is fully revised for this new edition as the first of the Gendering series.

About this title

About the Author

David Belden is an Englishman living on the edge of the Catskills. He has worked as a religious volunteer in India and Ethiopia, a carpenter in England and America for twenty years, a college teacher and currently a corporate business writer. He has a doctorate in sociology from Oxford University, an ex-wife, a house which appears to be covered in fish scales, a severe reading habit and a tendency to absent-mindedness. He lived 30 of his first 32 years in communal houses, first religious then socialist/feminist, not to mention boarding school and college dorms, but forsook the communal life for a twenty-year year nuclear love affair with Debi Clifford, met by change on holiday in San Francisco, with whom he is raising a son, Rowan, and intending to celebrate a golden wedding and new siding on the house, whichever comes first. His dream is to do nothing but write books that are true (or truish), teach interseing people, make curious but entertaining objects, travel with Debi and Rowan and do good. But at the moment these activities have to be squeezed into about every other Thursday and the odd weekend.

Review

A well-crafted, thoughtful, sometimes witty novel about the battle of the sexes and a good deal else. -- The Oregonian

Belden is a Man To Watch... -- Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, OtheRealms

About this edition

• Publisher: Ace
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0451146603
• ISBN 13: 9780451146601
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 289