What Category are you?

Hello everyone!

I was listening to Invisibilia Podcast, and they ran this 'interactive radio story' that I thought was very interesting.






Here is the story by Simon Rich, and see what kind of a reaction you get to this.


According to Aristophanes, there were originally three sexes - the children of the moon who were half-male and half-female, the children of the sun who were fully male, and the children of the earth, who were fully female. Everyone had four legs, four arms and two heads, and spent their days in blissful contentment. Zeus became jealous of the humans' joy so he decided to split them all in two. Aristophanes called this punishment the origin of love because ever since, the children of the earth, moon and sun have been searching the globe in a desperate bid to find their other halves. Aristophanes' story though is incomplete because there was also a fourth sex - the children of the dirt. Unlike the other three sexes, the children of the dirt consisted of just one half. Some were male and some were female and each had just two arms, two legs and one head. The children of the dirt found the children of the earth, moon and sun to be completely insufferable. Whenever they saw a two-headed creature walking by, talking to itself in baby-talk voices, it made them want to vomit. They hated going to parties and when there was no way to get out of one, they sat in the corner, too bitter and depressed to talk to anybody. The children of the dirt were so miserable that they invented wine and art to dull their pain. It helped a little, but not really. When Zeus went on his rampage he decided to leave the children of the dirt alone. They're already [bleep], he explained.


Happy gay couples descend from the children of the sun. Happy lesbian couples descend from the children of the earth. And happy straight couples descend from the children of the moon. But the vast majority of humans are descendants of the children of the dirt. And no matter how long they search the earth, they'll never find what they're looking for because there's nobody for them, not anybody in the world.



what was your reaction?


Mine was 'aww poor, sad children of the dirt..'

but if yours was anything different, this is how the radio show ended:


RICH: The vast majority of humans are descendants of the children of the dirt.

MILLER: With those two words, Simon Rich does a very kind thing. If you are someone who is alone and thinks yourself a little off in your aloneness, you are suddenly scooped into a box with a whole pile of other lonely people, and you feel better. And that is the strange power of categories because nothing about you is actually changing, but by simply getting a line drawn around you, you get some real relief.

Have you guys heard of Invisibilia? I've only heard a few episodes, but I am really loving the show so far =)

Also, if you identified with children of the dirt, and are unhappy about it, don't worry. even the author Simon Rich (who identified with children of the dirt) later found that he was, in fact, not a child of the dirt ;)


Happy weekend, and thanks for stopping by!
--Janny