Close Reading: Nekropolis

“It looks human male... Can something not human blaspheme” (McHugh 387-88)? On a personal level these passages reveal that sex is the main reason why men have subjugated women throughout history. Instead of using an actual human man in this scene, the author uses a robot named AI, thus relating the notion that men’s quest to sustain their sexual appetites is biologically ingrained much like that of a robot’s programming. Therefore, it can be interpreted that men’s domineering behavior towards women is primitive behavior at best. This notion of primitiveness can be seen in the line, “It flirts, looking at me sideways out of black, vulnerable gazelle eyes” (McHugh 387). By using a gazelle as a reference, it can be interpreted that McHugh is associating men’s behavior towards women with that of simple animal behavior. However, as human beings, men are able to drive towards their primitive urges in a manipulative manner: “Smiling at me with a smile which is not in the slightest bit vulnerable” (McHugh 388).

The dialogue by AI that immediately followers this line is interesting because it forces me to envision how the first dialogues between men and women may have played out: “’Come on, Diyet,’ it says, ‘we work together. We should be friends. We’re both young, we can help each other in our work’” (McHugh 388). In other words, when the first human males and females came together it wasn’t just to help each other with the workload; it was to reproduce. It is apparent in the next paragraph, however, that this second goal seems to be the primary one for men: “It smiles wickedly… ‘I think you are too pure. A Holy Sister” (McHugh 388). It is in this paragraph that the author introduces to her readers the basis of what she appears to believe to be the primary conflict between men and women in general, and therefore in her story as well: sex. For men, she refers to their stronger drive for it as a “biological construct” (McHugh 388). I believe the reason for this is because men do not have to worry about the responsibility of carrying and giving birth to children. Thus, in response to AI telling her she is too pure, Diyet responds, “Don’t sound foolish” (McHugh 388). McHugh essentially appears to be saying that it is foolish for men to push their primitive sexual appetites on women when they are not the ones who have to deal with the most problematic (and painful) aspect/s of producing a child.

“The Mashahana says that just as a jessed hawk is tamed, not tied, so shall the servant be bound by affection and duty, not chains” (McHugh 388) Diyet says this in response to AI’s inquiring about why she appears to look so solemn. By having her say this, McHugh is relating women’s relationship to men with that of servitude. Despite the results of this servitude, which have come in a variety of forms in different cultures throughout history, women have always put up with it out of a sense of “duty” to their families, communities, and therefore themselves. Their “affection” for their male spouses, which stems from the fact that emotional attachment, not the primitiveness behind a blind desire for sex, is also a cause for their subjugation throughout history.