Is there sex in this book, and why?

Is there sex in this book
(and why?)

Yes, there definitely is sex in this book. My feeling is that Will Raven, the narrator of the tale and one of the two main characters, is a man of twenty-three years. To such a man in any time or society there are two arenas where his activities are important to him. One is in his accomplishments with women, and the other is in his accomplishments in the field of battle. (The field of battle I use as a metaphor for whatever a man does to distinguish himself in the eyes of his people. In our time it means making a lot of money or making some significant contribution to a science or an art or to peace, or politics. You get the idea.) In Will Raven's time it means how he performs as a hunter and a warrior and possibly as a leader. So, in telling his tale, he naturally tells of both these areas of accomplishment.

The Tribe, Will Raven's people, are a polygamous hunter gatherer society. They are polygamous out of necessity, since in any such society men undertake more perilous activities that women (on the whole) and therefore get killed more. The result is a society where there are more women than men. In such a society, women are faced with the choice of possibly having no man, or accepting polygamy. History bears out that this is true, and most such societies in the past have been polygamous.

Is polygamy right? Well, my belief is that we are a naturally polygamous species. We, like many higher mammals, are subject to natural selection mainly through the males. A host of other species are organized this same way. From walruses to lions to wolves to deer, the males fight for the right to mate with the females. The strongest and best mate with the most females and therefore pass along their genes to the future. Most social primates are organized in this way, with one dominant male having sole rights to breed. This alpha male is subject to extreme stress defending his position against the upcoming challengers, and rarely lasts very long. That prevents the species from investing too heavily in one set of genes. And nature being what it is, every beneficial characteristic is passed along, so we have adultery to help with diversity. (Hey, I didn't design the thing.)

So where did monogamy come from? My belief is that when humans establish themselves in societies where they are secure, they have control over their environment and have a plentiful supply of food, then the balance of population moves towards an equal number of men and women. In such a circumstance, polygamy would mean that some of the men would have no women. Humans being what they are, this would result in a lot of violence. Likewise, females in our species are naturally competitive, and in the absence of compelling reason tend towards monogamy.

So which is right? The answer is they both are, depending on what circumstances we live in.

But there's more to it than that. I believe that in our time, sex has been distorted to favor commerce. Yes commerce. We are subject to an unprecedented barrage of propaganda from the advertising industry. I suppose it's inevitable under the circumstances. It's like poison gas. If the enemy uses it you have no choice but to use it too. Now, the advertising industry faces a real challenge in our time. How do you succeed in getting someone's attention amid 200 channels of television, millions of billboards, signs, etc. etc. Well, you have to stimulate your victim's most basic and strongest instincts to succeed. What are our most basic instincts? Well, survival and reproduction. (Violence and sex.) So, we are constantly having our sexuality assaulted by attempts to manipulate our behavior. And the people who are doing this are trying to get us to buy some product, whether it be soap or a car. Now if we were all completely sexually fulfilled, it would be far less effective, so they arrange to frustrate us. By implication and innuendo, they alienate us from each other. They make us insecure, and they imply moral ideas that keep us apart. Then they show us an ad where some poor guy is a loser and alone, but when he buys their product, suddenly he's the most successful stud on the block. Or, they show us an ad where some woman is being looked down on by her peers who are better looking and more attractive than she is. But then she buys the product, and suddenly she is looking down on them.

Only thing is, it's a lie, their product won't have any such effect. So, we focus our attention on getting all the things we think we need to finally be sexually fulfilled, but we never get there.

Now, in Will raven's society, this is not happening. People are easy and confident about their sexuality, and they fulfill themselves. So part of my purpose in having the sexual content in this book is to provide a view of what our sexuality should be. We should be fulfilled. We have every right to be. Further reflections on human sexuality and "where does this double standard come from?"

And, I myself am a man, so I'm writing from the male point of view. But, if you women read this book, you will see that women are honored in The Tribe. They are not made dependent or helpless. They form the backbone of the army. The second main character is a woman named Kelsey the Hawk, a woman who has been accepted as a full fledged warrior among the men. Being a woman, she works harder to prove her worth, and becomes the greatest swordmaster in The Tribe. She becomes the General Chief of their whole army and leads the expedition out of North America. But, for me to try to write from the female point of view would be a fraud. So you women, take up the pen and write.

Here's a sample from the book.

___"What's the matter, Hawk?" I said, gazing steadily into her eyes.
___"Last night," she said.
___"You kissed me," I replied.
___"Yes," she said.
___"And you're afraid we're going to become lovers and then I won't be the same with you and it'll be a problem."
___She laughed. "How do you always know exactly what I'm thinking?" she asked.
___"Because I think the same things myself," I answered.
___"And?" she asked again.
___"Kelsey, we're already lovers, we just haven't mated," I replied.
___"I guess that's true," she agreed.
___"And so you wonder if you open your legs and take me into you and carry my seed in you if I'll see you differently."
___"Will you?" she asked.
___"I'll see you differently in bed because we'll be true mates, but outside our bed, you're you, and you're my commander and my comrade in arms and my friend," I replied. "We already have that figured out, don't we?"
___"With Karl, it was a disaster," she said.
___"Am I Karl?" I asked.
___"No," she replied.
___"Could you have come as close as you and I are with Karl and still not mated with him?" I continued.
___"I see what you mean," she mused. She thought for a time. Then she looked up and said, "So you think it would be OK?"
___"I think it would be more than OK," I replied smiling a happy smile.
___"Oh Jesus," she said. "This scares me."
___"We can wait," I said. "Forever if that's what you feel."
___"No, Will," she replied, "I love you, I can't deny it." I stepped forward and very gently took her face in my hands and we kissed, a magical kiss in which we truly met for the first time. When it was over, we looked into each other's eyes and it was all clear to us. She wrapped her arms around me and put her cheek against my chest and I held her against me and my heart beat like thunder. "Somehow I knew," she said quietly. "I mean when I first met you, I knew."
___"So did I," I replied.And so we mated, deep in the pine forest in a grassy clearing in the sunlight. We mated the real mating, the mating between man and woman in which the bodies deeply join and from which new life springs. Kelsey shed her jacket and pulled off her vest and sat on a rock and pulled off her boots and then she slipped out of her pants and faced me wearing nothing but the stainless steel armguard I had made for her. She looked like a vision out of a myth about Gods and warriors and dragons and elves. I sloughed my clothes and boots and piled our furs on the grass for a bed. We lay together and wrapped our arms around each other and opened our hearts and squirmed our bodies together and smiled.
___She rolled me onto my back and climbed onto my chest and let her legs hang on either side of my hips and slowly squirmed down, breaching herself and taking me into the heat between her wide hipbones. It was somehow utterly significant this joining, more so than any other act. When we were completely coupled and our bones were pressed together with force and I could feel her deep inside pressing against me, she gazed into my eyes and we just felt each other for some time. Then she rolled us over so I came above her and raised her knees and said, "I love you, Will Raven."
___"Kelsey the Hawk, you honor me as no other," I replied, and I kissed her and began to thrust into her and she raised her hips and struggled to take me ever deeper, even though we could go no more. The struggling and straining made us rub together deep in her belly, and she steadily became more frantic and urgent until by instinct, I began to stroke deeply into her, crushing and rolling my hips at each meeting. She cried out desperately and arched her back and dug her fingers into my shoulders. "Oh God," she gasped, "oh Will, yessss , meet me, OOOOOOOOHHHH, oh, oh, oh, OOOOH." I could feel her clench inside and grip me as my seed flowed into her in great pulses. Then we were still. It was as if we were frozen in time for a long instant and then she began to cry.I put my hand behind her head and pulled her against my chest and whispered, "I love you Hawk, I'll always love you."
___"Oh, God," she said after a moment, "some warrior I am."
___"This is your moment to be a woman, Hawk," I replied. "You can be a warrior later." She sighed and lay still, holding me tightly. Then she sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes and rolled me off and stood up.
___"I knew this was wrong," she said. "How can I be your comrade in arms when you make me cry like a baby?"
___I stood up and faced her. "Are you going to cry all the way back to the fort?" I asked.
___"No," she said defiantly.
___"Then what's the problem, Hawk?" My voice was calm and gentle.
___She looked into my eyes as though trying to see something. "How can you respect me?" she asked.
___"You're a woman, Kelsey, and women sometimes cry when they feel great love. What's not to respect?"
___"You're not lying to me?" she asked.
___I laughed. "You know I'd never do that."
___"You still respect me as your commander?" she continued.
___"Have you changed?" I asked.
___"Put your clothes on you leghumper," she commanded, "but kiss me first," she added. She kissed me, testing it seemed to see if I was still there, and when she felt me, she kissed desperately and passionately for just a moment. "OK, enough," she said. We dressed and hung our swords across our backs and turned to go. At the last moment she stopped and said, "Will, I want this to be just between us. I mean I don't want it to be common knowledge."
___"Considering the way most men are, I think that's a good idea," I agreed.
___She smiled. "You are hard to resist," she said, suddenly showing me her love again. "One more kiss." I laughed, joyfully now, and kissed her as though the world would end if I stopped. When it was done, she grinned a silly grin, and then said in a serious voice, "OK, Raven, back to the men." She turned and led the way through the forest, giggling as she went. She had called me Raven, it warmed my heart.

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