Carol Reid responds to...

Challenge 271

Santa Claus comes out of the blue in Michael A. Kechula’s “Primitive Instincts,” and the present he brings to Harry may seem comically bizarre. And yet it makes sense as a Christmas present. What does it imply in terms of Harry’s role as the last resistance fighter on Earth?

Hmm, y’know, I enjoyed this story for the most part. I don’t mind making a gigantic leap of faith or agreeing to an enormous suspension of disbelief if the pay-off is a smile or two.

But I guess there is still enough of the strident humorless feminist in me to look askance at having the best gift ever be a four-handed voluptuary with the mind of a child :) To me this implies that the melding of Harry’s relentless killer instinct and Glixa’s mindless sensuality will result in yet another doomed population for poor old Earth.

Copyright © 2007 by Carol Reid

Thanks for the response, Carol. Harry is not only a relentless killer but a chauvinist pig, to boot? That’s one way of looking at it, all right, and I tend to sympathize.

Another possibility: What’s the point in Harry’s shooting the invading space aliens? It doesn’t matter if he shoots one or ten every night: they’ve already won, and Harry is the last man on Earth.

How can Harry be encouraged to turn to more... productive... pursuits? By providing him with a liberated human wife? Some readers may expect him to go out shooting and never come home — unless he shoots her first. I wouldn’t think that way, but some readers might.

It may help to take Glixa for what she — or it — is: another space alien, but friendlier than the ones Harry has had to deal with so far. It’s a variation on “Make love, not war.” Or at least engage in something more worthwhile than terrorism...

Don