======================================================================
=                        The_World_Well_Lost                         =
======================================================================

                            Introduction
======================================================================
"The World Well Lost" is a science fiction short story by American
writer Theodore Sturgeon, first published in the June 1953 issue of
'Universe'. It has been reprinted several times, for instance in
Sturgeon's collections 'E Pluribus Unicorn', 'Starshine', and 'A
Saucer of Loneliness'. The story takes its title from the subtitle of
John Dryden's verse drama' All for Love'.


                             Reception
======================================================================
The tagline for the 'Universe' cover was "[His] most daring story".
Its sensitive treatment of homosexuality was unusual for science
fiction published at that time, and it is now regarded as a milestone
in science fiction's portrayal of homosexuality. According to an
anecdote related by Samuel R. Delany, when Sturgeon first submitted
the story, his editor not only rejected it but phoned every other
editor he knew and urged them to reject it as well.

In a postscript to his 1960 novel 'Venus Plus X', Sturgeon complained
that following the publication of "The World Well Lost" he received a
great volume of "cards drenched with scent and letters written in
purple ink with green capitals." He urged readers of 'Venus Plus X' to
"keep [their] troubles to [themselves]", noting that he did not
personally identify with the bisexual beings depicted in that novel.


                            Plot summary
======================================================================
In the future, two members of an alien race called the Dirbanu come to
Earth. They win humanity's heart by their grace and love for each
other. Earth's media has dubbed them the "Loverbirds", and almost
everyone on Earth is touched by the Loverbirds' tender displays of
wonder and affection.

Dirbanu heretofore had almost no contact with Earth, except for one
short investigative trip in which the ambassador of Dirbanu made clear
that he found Earth disgusting. However, the Dirbanu government breaks
the silence with Earth in order to demand the return of the
Loverbirds. Allegedly, the Loverbirds are fugitive criminals and must
be extradited. Earth's government, hoping to profit by cooperation
with this powerful planet, dispatches spacers Rootes and Grunty to
return the Loverbirds.

Rootes, the Captain of the team, is an arrogant, loquacious womanizer.
Grunty serves under the Captain. He is a hulking, taciturn poet,
so-named because he grunts rather than speaks. Despite their radically
different personalities, the two friends are famed in space travel
circles for their teamwork and efficiency. They refuse to travel with
any other spacers.

The faster than light propulsion employed by Earthmen has the
side-effect of stunning the human nervous system to a variable degree.
Rootes is deeply affected, while Grunty is almost unaffected,
resulting in an extensive period of time after each "jump" in which
Grunty is the only aware entity on the ship, a situation that to him
is priceless.

While Rootes sleeps off the first jump, Grunty realizes that the
Loverbirds are telepathic  and have sensed a deep personal secret of
his. Grunty prepares to kill them to protect his secret. To dissuade
him from committing murder, the Loverbirds sketch for him a series of
four drawings. The first is of Rootes, Grunty, and a beautiful human
woman, all clothed. The second depicts all three humans nude. The
third sketch depicts the Loverbirds themselves and a short, round
extraterrestrial, all clothed. The fourth sketch depicts the three
aliens nude.

When viewed in sequence, it becomes clear that the short, round alien
is a Dirbanu female; Dirbanu males and females vary vastly from each
other in appearance. The two Loverbirds, whom humanity had presumed to
be male and female because of their physical similarity to Earth males
and females, were actually both male. When Grunty realizes the
significance of the sketches, he sets them free in an escape pod. The
escape pod heads away from the planet, towards the outer reaches of
the universe.

Upon awakening, Rootes is furious that Grunty has seemingly sabotaged
the mission. Grunty justifies his actions by showing Rootes the four
sketches. Realizing that the Loverbirds were a pair of male lovers,
the outraged Rootes declares that he would have killed them if he had
known. Grunty, having known this, allows Rootes to think this is why
he set the Loverbirds free, avoiding the potential consequences if it
were to be discovered that an Earth operative had killed Dirbanu
citizens. His anger abated, Rootes is impressed by what he perceives
as Grunty's cleverness.

Pondering aloud, Rootes realizes that the Dirbanu government's
reluctance to interact with Earth must be based on homophobia: since
human males and females both resemble Dirbanu males, the Dirbanu were
presumably disgusted by the impression that Earth is a "planet full of
queers". Although the Dirbanu intellectually know that this is not the
case, their visceral reaction to the concept nonetheless repels them.
Rootes also hypothesizes that the Dirbanu government wanted to bring
the Loverbirds home, as they were ashamed to have the Loverbirds
viewed as representatives of the Dirbanu planet.

Upon arriving at the Dirbanu homeworld, Rootes reports that the
Loverbirds died of natural causes in transit, and the Earth ship is
abruptly dismissed, leaving future interactions between the two worlds
questionable. On the return trip, with Rootes again fallen
unconscious, Grunty ponders him lovingly. The reader, by this point,
has realized that Grunty is gay and secretly in love with Rootes.
Earlier in the story, the omniscient narrator had noted that the only
way to destroy the pair's working bond would be to attempt "to explain
it to Rootes". The story's steady reveal of Grunty's sexuality
clarifies the full meaning of this statement.


License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Well_Lost