We Need to Talk About Kevin
by
by
Lionel Shriver (Goodreads Author)
Parenting Tips: Don’t
I have no doubt that fertility rates among women who have read this book have dropped significantly from the average. It is a Proustian-like meditation on the overwhelming irrationality of having children in the modern world. The upside potential of children is marginal in a post-industrial society; and the downside is... well too tragic to think about.
The risks only start with possible physical abnormality. Personality is far more of an issue. And ultimately one has to consider the amount of pain being introduced into the world, not just for oneself and the child in question, but also for all those who might be harmed overtly or not, intentionally or not, by this new life form.
A serious consideration of these risks is what leads to the philosophy of Gnosticism. In fact Gnosticism is the thinking person’s heresy. The world is, empirically speaking, evil. We are thrown into it involuntarily and the only thing we’re entitled to expect from it is frustration, disappointment, and pain. Sex and the cultural lures of parental virtue are the fountainhead of this evil.
Escape from the snares of connubial attraction is rare but possible. The Manicheans, the Bogomils, the Cathars, and the Shakers all had proprietary techniques for surviving until they could be rescued from a world that was obviously created by a cruel demigod. But all these groups shared the view that sex and its consequences were to be avoided at all costs. Christianity picked up more that a taint of Gnosticism in its formative years. It is this and not biblical literalism that is the source of so much religious aversion to sex.
Shriver’s novel is a sort of modern Gnostic cautionary tale. It is uncomfortable to read mainly because it is so irrefutable. Children, and therefore the decisions which allow them to be produced, are an unwarranted imposition on the world. At least as many homicidal maniacs as self-sacrificing heroes will be produced; and in any case both will suffer in their own way. Just as many children will despise and reject as will love and respect their parents; and among the latter group will be those like the offspring of Fred West and other sociopaths whose love itself is sociopathic.
The reasons people engage in sex are fairly obvious, even if only vaguely understood. But, despite religious objection, sex today is in principle independent of procreation. The reasons people have children are generally trivial when not downright nonsensical - to have a ‘real’ family, to satisfy the ‘needs’ of the other, to be able to shape another human being, to expand the possibilities for love, and dozens of other sentimental shibboleths which Shriver does an excellent job of cataloguing. None of these reaches the level of meaningful thought. Nor do they recognise the essential crap-shoot character of bearing and rearing a child.
We Have to Talk About Kevin is a horror story worthy of Thomas Ligotti. Within it, otherwise normal people become enmeshed in a sort of conspiracy of which they had no prior knowledge. This conspiracy at best involves an open-ended commitment to continuous worry, financial stress, and the occasional emotional devastation. At worst, it orchestrates psychosis, social ostracism, and personal annihilation. But however you look at it, children are a nightmare.
I have no doubt that fertility rates among women who have read this book have dropped significantly from the average. It is a Proustian-like meditation on the overwhelming irrationality of having children in the modern world. The upside potential of children is marginal in a post-industrial society; and the downside is... well too tragic to think about.
The risks only start with possible physical abnormality. Personality is far more of an issue. And ultimately one has to consider the amount of pain being introduced into the world, not just for oneself and the child in question, but also for all those who might be harmed overtly or not, intentionally or not, by this new life form.
A serious consideration of these risks is what leads to the philosophy of Gnosticism. In fact Gnosticism is the thinking person’s heresy. The world is, empirically speaking, evil. We are thrown into it involuntarily and the only thing we’re entitled to expect from it is frustration, disappointment, and pain. Sex and the cultural lures of parental virtue are the fountainhead of this evil.
Escape from the snares of connubial attraction is rare but possible. The Manicheans, the Bogomils, the Cathars, and the Shakers all had proprietary techniques for surviving until they could be rescued from a world that was obviously created by a cruel demigod. But all these groups shared the view that sex and its consequences were to be avoided at all costs. Christianity picked up more that a taint of Gnosticism in its formative years. It is this and not biblical literalism that is the source of so much religious aversion to sex.
Shriver’s novel is a sort of modern Gnostic cautionary tale. It is uncomfortable to read mainly because it is so irrefutable. Children, and therefore the decisions which allow them to be produced, are an unwarranted imposition on the world. At least as many homicidal maniacs as self-sacrificing heroes will be produced; and in any case both will suffer in their own way. Just as many children will despise and reject as will love and respect their parents; and among the latter group will be those like the offspring of Fred West and other sociopaths whose love itself is sociopathic.
The reasons people engage in sex are fairly obvious, even if only vaguely understood. But, despite religious objection, sex today is in principle independent of procreation. The reasons people have children are generally trivial when not downright nonsensical - to have a ‘real’ family, to satisfy the ‘needs’ of the other, to be able to shape another human being, to expand the possibilities for love, and dozens of other sentimental shibboleths which Shriver does an excellent job of cataloguing. None of these reaches the level of meaningful thought. Nor do they recognise the essential crap-shoot character of bearing and rearing a child.
We Have to Talk About Kevin is a horror story worthy of Thomas Ligotti. Within it, otherwise normal people become enmeshed in a sort of conspiracy of which they had no prior knowledge. This conspiracy at best involves an open-ended commitment to continuous worry, financial stress, and the occasional emotional devastation. At worst, it orchestrates psychosis, social ostracism, and personal annihilation. But however you look at it, children are a nightmare.
posted by The Mind of BlackOxford @ April 27, 2019
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