All Comments on 'Man Shortage on a New World'

The sex scenes aren't a huge portion of the story. However, sexual morés and societal change most definitely are central to the story. Because of the time span, the personal dynamics aren't explored very deeply, and aside from Liz and Carrie, we don't learn all that much about the other women other than they had sex with Rick. Luckily, too, for Rick, both Liz and Carrie are pragmatic; overall, the people of Sanctuary are all necessarily somewhat well-educated so reason has a chance to have its say.

Overall, I liked the story. The challenge was well handled and reasonable. Sanctuary's social structure is much more fluid than the world they left, especially once the need for DNA diversity eases. My thought is that future generations will prefer to keep marriage and breeding partners the same, and not just for convenience. Sex is personal and intimate, and if you have to breed, it's emotionally more satisfying to breed with someone you have feelings for. But who knows? Habit often becomes custom, and the DNA selection might become permanently part of the breeding process even when it's no longer necessary. The long-term social effects of divorcing marriage from child-making while continuing to keep it for child-rearing are also tantalizing.

I like stories that make me think about possibilities. This one qualifies. Thanks for sharing. 5* Slainté

Why this urge to destroy? I keep asking myself this question as I witness the dismantling of the core of western civilization. Why destroy marriage with the dilution of it’s definition. Why normalize the perversion of homosexuality? Where does this iconoclastic urge come from? And most germain to your story - why the urge to destroy the family, the bedrock institution of humanity?

I like what western civilization has done for us. The advances in law, medicine, prosperity, equality, technology have all be hallmarks of the success of western traditions and values. So it disturbs me to read a line like:

“I reflected on how far we had come in attitudes to sex and relationships from our conservative origins.”

Is monogamy unnatural? If so, why has it succeed so well?

The world you created contradicts human nature. Jealousy is a thing and jealousy has value in keeping cohesive social units - also known as families.

And, by the way, why did you introduce the totally unnecessary rule that women had to have sex with men other than their husbands? Surely with so many more women than men it would not be necessary and would only serve to inflame the jealousy of the male population. But I guess you needed to destroy the family, which is the whole point of the short story.

I found it very odd.

Not least because it's so different from reality with humans.

A group of human colonists can have less than 25 breeding pairs and survive forever. Less than 15 breeding pairs can create a population that lasts for a few centuries before succumbing to the negative effects of a too small gene pool. With almost 5 digits of breeding males* there was never any actual problem in that department. Certainly not one that would require women to breed with other men than their husbands and thus totally separate marriage from sex or have everyone freak from jealousy.

Additionally humans as a species DO tend towards jealousy. Even in polygamist cultures it can be a problem. Not being an issue at all when coming from a nearly monogamous culture is bizarre. It'd be less of a problem than modern american culture but it would have some impact.

Overall it was a bizarre, though interesting concept.

*I'm including the male children that would eventually reach adulthood.

It's not my story, but I'm weighing in anyway.

Odd -

Your point about the population numbers is well taken. I missed that. Being anon, though, I can't credit you properly.

I recall reading a short story many years back that talked about the optimum minimum necessary people to preserve genetic diversity, and that was eighty. Of course, the story came out before the first genome was mapped.

LOL. Maybe it'll come out later that the rule came about because of their leader's personal kink?

End of Western Civ -

I have no problem with monogamy. When I was married, I was quite happy with it. However, as a student of history and anthropology, I'd wager it's somewhat less frequent than you envision. Time and again, stories of secret affairs come out, and not just from "pillars" of the community but tradesmen, merchants, etc. There's also mortality. Historian Elizabeth Norton commented on colonial marriages in the 1700s, noting that having multiple spouses was fairly common, as people died rather frequently. These days people survive due to medical care, but a new trend has emerged and sociologists call it serial monogamy. It goes like this: you marry your sole sex partner and lover, get a divorce, find a new partner until another falling out, and so on. This phenomenon necessitated the creation of a new term, blended families.

Not sure why you tossed in same gender relationships in there. Lesbians and gay men can have monogamous marriages, too. Marriage is not just about breeding, it's about two (or more) people deciding they are going to share their lives together. Rent, food, play, whatever. Two centuries ago, marriage for love was a new thing. Before that, it was based heavily on economics and group interests (not your own), and you might not get a choice on who your parents chose for you. Sometimes not even meeting them until after the vows were said.

Lesbians and gay couples can adopt, and in the case of the former, both partners can bear children by whatever method they choose. That comment seemed more of a general, "The Western World is collapsing!" And, not pertinent. Unless you are objecting to Liz and Carrie sharing Rick at the same time?

People are different. Really. A few are born with no libido at all. Some have it cranked super high -- and sometimes it becomes a medical problem. You might really love your partner, but if your libido levels are somewhat in sync, that can make a potentially great relationship a little sour for both; one because he or she feels put upon and the other for feeling deprived. Been there, done that. Not fun.

Some people are wired to just being intimate with one person and only one. Great! Others feel trapped in such situations and either refuse to marry or just have multiple partners. Polygamy - as in polygyny, polyandry, group marriage, or some other form of poly relationships. Bully for them, too. It's that variety thing again. Humans wear the same general form, but there are a lot of tweaks that can and do happen.

Some have decried and bemoaned the state of things for millenia. Most of the time, it's not as bad as portrayed, nor as good as "the golden past" is imagined. What I like about my particular times is that women are more often getting their say in their own pleasure. Watching a woman reach release? An act of beauty. One of the hottest movie scenes I've ever seen was Joan Allen playing Betty Parker in "Pleasantville" when she was in the bathtub. Sizzling.

In the story, Liz and Carrie worked out their issues together. Circumstances helped. But if it hadn't been for the enforced partnering, I could see Mike and Carrie being regular swappers with Rick and Liz. Their sharing him together meant they, personally, got more Rick time. Too, the women worked together to get what they wanted. Jealousy is a thing, but often a wild and contentious and suspicious thing if left untended. Cooperation and communication leaves few casualties.

Here in the SF/Fantasy category, you get a lot of strange and sometimes icky squeamish situations. (One person's ick might be another's fetish.) If you don't like the odd stuff (and sometimes the SF is solely changing the social norm), stick to Romance, First Time, and Mature stories (no slight on those categories intended).

Okay, I'm done with the soap box for now. Slainté

The breading partners from anon is correct. i'd like to rate you but I can't.

I prefer the bareback fucking without worrying about being blown out of the sky

Very entertaining story. Glad you're back writing them again

Loved your story thank you. A real romp in the park.

Not quite sure how they got any work done with all that shagging, but no doubt someone plowed the fields and did the washing.

Hubby wants to know where he can sign up.

I hope the women didn't get bitchy with each other. Great story. Marie.

I have to hand it to serendipity300. You have quite the brain to be able to imagine the varied innovations for this many-faceted tale, including technologically, but especially the sexual and societal innovations.

Of special interest to me -- the new world society has settled into its new upheaval that is now normal, when after more than two decades, it is lambasted with the arrival of the third starship, the Enceladus, requiring yet another upheaval and innovative readjustment to their crazy (from our perspective) society.

WELL DONE!

GREAT IMAGINEERING!

Too bad the voting is turned off (why?) and there is no way to award the deserved 5 stars.

Paul in Oklahoma

I see from the 9 comments that this story is several years old, but for the last several days it has not been in your "submitted" story list.

This morning the title appears in your submissions list, and in the "newly submitted" LW list. But selecting it displays no text! The part of the page where the story text should appear is absolutely empty. (5AM ET 2 May 2020).

Obviously there's been a boo boo somewhere; some combination of hiding or resubmitting and all the text has gone missing. We wait for you or Laural to figure out how it went missing and get it visible again.

I'd really enjoy reading it!!! I recently discovered you, and liked your other submissions very much.

1 Question, were is it?

the shortest story ever!!!!!!!!

Somethings missing but I cant put my finger on it.

Great story until part four.

The space story was fine, the characters were in a difficult spot and the "pass" was a logical outcome.

But the part in the new planet was just silly....a teen boy's (or dirty old man's) fantasy.

If they needed to increase the population, why not just ask couples (or being Literotica...families) to step up breeding instead of having a sex lotto?

Sure, the latter would increase population, but break down the necessary family structure, so to me it doesn't make sense where they are trying to build a new civilization.

Sadly with that ending it came across like many incest stories here...where a semi-believable story of brother-sister love jumps the shark when they come home to tell mom and dad and find out every relationship in the family is incestuous and they all have an orgy.

In short, more is not always better.

Not half bad until the ending! What kind of a plan is that? Way to many children involved and the marriage/breeding program didn't make sense at all. Also, details on the sexual scenes were lacking a little.

Nice ideas and story concept but there was too much telling and not enough showing.

The story could have easily been 10 times longer if you took your time showing and developing it instead of simply telling us what happened.

Sounds like they just wanted orgies.

Bad prose. The person who said "show, don't tell" got it right.

Well that went shit all of a sudden Well written but stupid plot choices.

Whole plan went to shit when human nature kicked in

Tell the two wives they are dead to me. Tell the nazi cunts who run the place to kiss my ass. My Dick belongs to me and I won’t stick it anywhere I don’t want to.

Bro, don't make up bs reasons like genetic diversity, if you had 1000x less people that'd be a concern. Just get rid of the wives, you could have made this an actually good book by only making single women part of the program

I liked it, Thank you for your effort

Why is voting turned off? Weird story that is written like a textbook. No emotion, conversations, advanced plot, etc..

Good story - I enjoyed it. 5 stars

I can see why you'd turn voting off, it's a rather shit story.

It began interesting and I was somewhat hoping you'd actually try to deal with the emotions, the resistance to the program, etc but no, it was just another cuck story. No group of men already married would ever consent to a program like that. There'd be a violent revolution. The fact that you made an entire society just go along with it, is disturbing.

Frankly, it's probably in the wrong section.

1star.

I really liked this but the random switching between calling the character "Carrie" and "Cassie" kept throwing me off!!!!