Few science fiction readers "of a certain age" have not read T.J. Bass's dystopian novel, Half Past Human. The peculiarly ecological vision of Bass found expression in only two books (Godwhale is the other), and echoed contemporary fictions of future societies—Orwell's 1984, for example, and Huxley's Brave New World— in its view of human society as doomed to dark collapse under a weight of population and totalitarian control.
In a far-future Earth, our distant descendents have been altered genetically to allow them to live in ultra-crowded hives. The genes that code for aggression when people are pressed too closely together turn out to be linked to the gene for five toes; the Nebish people are four-toed, complacent, and fill their dark underground warrens in their billions.
They are also cannibals. Unapproved children are allowed to exist until they begin to walk and talk, when they are thrown into the "patty press," producing "flavors" for the Nebish who reports them. Other flavors come from rats and Nebish corpses tossed into the press. Aside from the taste of flesh, Nebish society is fed by the world-covering gardens of algae, and the lack of protein in their diet makes them weak and soft-boned, prone to die after only 25 to 30 years of life.
Within the Nebish genome, though, the five-toed gene still thrives. Occasionally, children are born with all five toes, or with "the bud of a fifth toe." These children are allowed to mature, because the hive needs their mechanical skills, but they are not allowed to procreate.
Without help, the Nebish are neuter. This gives Earth Society (the "big ES") control over reproduction, for in all except a few Nebish, hormone therapy is required to "polarize" into male or female. Tinker, an ingenious Nebish mechanic, has been authorized to produce a clone-type bud-child of himself, and is polarized male. He finds his attitudes about other Nebishes and life in the hive changing drastically; he fixates on the female, Mu Ren, who was assigned to carry his bud to term, and gets her pregnant with a hybrid child. The child is born with five toes.
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
Sociological function is always the most interesting aspect oof an SF novel for me.
2 - Christopher Connors
T. J. Bass is one of the great sci fi writers ever, even though he only wrote two books! The God Whale is a masterpiece and is alive with fantastic and realistic images of a fantasy nature. The advancement of medcine in the future to the state that Bass views, is quite incredible, but logical. Why not indeed be able to replace the lower legs with a robot body! It is already being done with arms and hands!