STB Law 4, pt.4

NONE ENTERED BY AUTHOR

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STB Law 4
Part 4



WRITING THE STORY

	"STB Law" versions 2, 3, and 4, "Ryan’s Story" 1 and 
2, "Christian Youth: A Handbook for Boys", and "Joining the Army of 
God" (the latter two may or may not eventually be posted) are all the 
result of a strange set of circumstances which may be of interest to 
some readers here.  The background research and information which I 
will describe later may also be of some interest.



	I teach at a small college which attracts a large number of 
religious fundamentalists among its students.  One class which I 
teach is Social Issues in the Developing World. The most recent 
offering of the course had two male students who sat in the front row 
with their Bibles prominently displayed on their desks as amulets to 
protect them from the peril of actually thinking.  When we discussed 
problems of overpopulation in the third world, these two students led 
the class into an argument about the evils of ANY form of birth 
control.  Children were ALWAYS produced by "God’s will" and humans 
have no moral right to interfere in any way.  Contraception and 
abortion are always mortal sins.  The bombing of abortion clinics is 
clearly justified as a "Christian" act.  "True Christians" will 
produce as many children as possible.  If we have faith, God will 
provide.  Etc.  Etc. I had to struggle to maintain my authority in 
the classroom and to move the class forward into other subjects.  
These two young men continued to loudly proclaim their "Christian" 
version of every subject in the course.  That I also began quoting 
relevant Bible passages to counter them did not seem to help.  They 
may believe the Bible to be the inerrant word of God (or at least the 
King James translation is), but ONLY for the passages that they 
like.  The rest they ignore or pretend don’t exist.  



	Later in the semester, we discussed the subjects of child 
labor and the continuation (and resurgence) of slavery in the world.  
The textbook discusses the standard examples of Indian carpet 
workers, Thai child prostitutes, etc.  I brought up the rebirth of 
chattel slavery in Sudan with southern Blacks being taken as slaves 
to the Moslem north.  I relied on the information put out by the 
American Anti-Slavery Group and Anti-Slavery International (both have 
web sites).  



	A Middle Eastern student in the class immediately and loudly 
objected that the Blacks in the north of the Sudan were not slaves 
but paid servants.  They had voluntarily hired themselves out to 
northerners to escape the civil war in the south.  I responded that 
ASI and others have reported on the castration of slave boys (most 
notably an ASI report on a twelve year-old that I had printed out 
from their web site).  I argued that NO male is ever voluntarily 
castrated except for dire medical reasons.  Slaves may be castrated, 
but servants never.  The student quickly gave in to my argument and 
the class moved on to other subjects.



	A couple of days later, one of the other young men in the 
class visited me in my office to talk about various aspects of the 
course, including his term paper.  We had talked several times before 
about class materials and he clearly felt comfortable talking to me.  
During the conversation, he stated that I was wrong that no male was 
every voluntarily castrated.  He claimed to know at least one 
voluntary eunuch on campus, one who had been castrated by his 
girlfriend as part of their S&M play.  I expressed strong disbelief, 
and he quoted, from memory, several web site addresses (and necessary 
passwords) for me to check.



	After he left my office, still disbelieving, I checked the 
first of the web sites that he suggested.  The Body Modification E-
zine site convinced me that he was right about voluntary castration.  
Though a few of the photos are clearly Photoshop productions, most 
are clearly real.  (That I am still somewhat horrified by the idea 
and trying to come to terms with it is one more impetus for these 
stories.)  After the Body Modification E-zine, I opened the Eunuch 
Archive.  



	One of the first stories that I read on the Eunuch Archive 
was the original "STB Law" written by "Silver."  It struck me in two 
powerful ways.  First, I grew up on a ranch near Kelseyville, the 
locale which he used.  I spend enough time there that I was fairly 
certain I knew who he was in that small (but growing) community.  I’m 
certain he now knows who I am as well, but we should be able to keep 
each other’s secrets!  



	The second thing that struck me was that I could rewrite his 
story to expend some of my anger at my two fundamentalists.  (I 
frequently write stories to dispell my anger, and sometimes even 
publish them.)  Despite the LOUD and Bible-thumping arguments of my 
two students to the contrary, there IS a truly Christian form of 
birth control!  While I could never show them the story, I could 
think about it every time they, or others like them, acted out in 
class.  It could keep me calm thinking about the "truly Christian" 
solution to the problem should their point of view prevail.  



	STB Law 2 was a simple, sentence-by-sentence rewrite of the 
original, which had clearly not been proofread before submission.  
Characters even change name in the middle of a story which is only 
one page long.  (It may still be in the Archive for you to check.)  
My first rewrite lengthened it to ten pages by adding motivation 
and "Christian" content.  It took only a couple of hours and was 
highly therapeutic.



	A couple of days later, I sent the story anonymously to the 
Archive to further handle some of the anger that I still felt toward 
these two students and toward the anti-abortion terrorists in 
general.  I also, that same day, showed the story to the young man 
who gave me the web addresses.  He confirmed, as I had by then 
suspected, that he was the one who had been castrated by his 
girlfriend.  He also pointed out some errors in the story.  I 
immediately made the necessary corrections--college professor coming 
through--and submitted STB Law 3 to replace 2, which probably never 
showed up on the net.  



	In the meantime, I had begun thinking about a _mainstream_ 
story that I could write on the subject.  Something that I might even 
be able to publish with my name on it.  My goal was something along 
the lines of "The Lottery."  Something with a sense of dark 
foreboding in a VERY "Christian" society burdened with severe 
overpopulation and certain knowledge that all forms of contraception 
and birth control are immoral.  The last paragraph of the story would 
provide resolution in the castration of a young boy (and the impeding 
castration of others).  I was looking for something that would evoke 
horror in the reader at the possible consequences if the anti-
abortion forces ever take control.  I decided that the story should 
be told through the eyes of one of the boys, looking forward to 
his "Christian" sacrifice.



	I began to explore a thirteen year-old voice.  I wanted 
eighth grade so that I could set one scene in a U.S. History class to 
give historical context for the plot.  fourteen could be tied to the 
magical number seven in Christianity (and Judaism) and the fourteenth 
birthday would be the magic date for his sacrifice.  Three times 
seven is the magic number for adulthood in American culture.  I wrote 
the necessary junior high school textbook chapter.  (And I think I 
have that rhetoric down pretty well.  It’s as pedantic and as boring 
as any textbook I have ever read.)  



	"Ryan’s Story" was a first exploration to simply play with a 
thirteen year-old voice.  It tells the same story as "STB Law 4," but 
from the point of view of one of the boys.  Thinking that I would 
post it to the Archive as thanks for the idea which was quickly 
reducing the anger that I felt, I put in as many castration events 
and discussions as I could possibly fit in.  There was little attempt 
at writing a real story.  There is no narrative flow, it is simply a 
list of incidents.  I was writing to gain my voice.  The writing 
process was therapeutic and the anger flowed out of my fingers onto 
the page.  I thought of my two students (and others of their sort 
that I have had), Eric Rudolph, James Kopp, Randall Terry, Pat 
Robertson, and many others as I wrote.  



	After posting Ryan’s Story, I began writing the REAL short 
story, "Joining the Army of God."  The story is told by a thirteen 
year-old anticipating his fourteenth birthday when he will be 
eligible to join the Army of God (named after the very real 
fundamentalist (so-called "Christian") terrorist group which aims to 
assasinate abortion doctors, among other acts).  He gets to 
join/sacrifice (by being castrated) in the final paragraph on Good 
Friday, 2040, a day to remember Christ’s sacrifice for us all.  
Careful readers will note that in 2040, Easter Sunday will fall on 
April 1!  "True Christian" fanaticism, as expressed by far too many 
of my students, is as faithfully described as I can do it and is used 
throughout the story.  



	I have gone back to the story several times, and the main 
character has yet to speak to me.  I don’t hear his voice clearly 
yet.  I haven’t been able to move the story beyond basic plot 
elements strung together over ten pages.  What is missing is 
the "story" to link the elements.  I think that my anger has 
dissipated to such an extent that I can no longer be creative in this 
subject.  This is a story which will require a lot of venom in the 
ink.



	I have shown the story draft to a few colleagues who 
understand the anger-- they have been faced with similar students.  
My children have read it.  My older son, who at one time considered 
studying for the ministry, had interesting theological comments that 
I have been able to use.  My younger son was stimulated to further 
Bible study (an important benefit of the work to date).  Daughter was 
simply appalled by the venom in the story and she was no help with 
any ideas.  She said that she had never known me to be so angry about 
anything before.  



	I went back and spent a couple of hours rewriting STB Law 3 
and about an hour working on Ryan’s Story trying to regain my voice 
(and the necessary anger to write effectively about this subject).  
As another attempt to find the necessary voice and finish my story, I 
have put together a chapter from a book for boys, titled "Christian 
Youth: A Handbook for Boys," that argues the "Christian" importance 
of becoming a eunuch "for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake"  by joining 
the Army of God.  It’s based on the style and rhetoric of the various 
Victorian advice manuals with their moralistic stance against "self-
pollution" and fornication.  Some boys even were castrated during 
that period to prevent them from masturbating, which was considered a 
mortal sin and the cause of many dread diseases.  Some physicians 
(and others) thought that castration was the only way to save these 
boys from a certain future in Hell.  Their souls were more important 
than their sex.  



	Dr. Everett Flood, in his article, "Notes on the Castration 
of Idiot Children" (American Journal of Psychology, vol. 10 (1899), 
pp. 296–301), describes the castration of twenty-four boys (thirteen 
of them aged fourteen or younger) in order to prevent their chronic 
masturbation.  He notes that the procedure was totally successful in 
all but one of the cases--the one continued to masturbate 
occasionally. As a result of the successful therapeutic outcome of 
their castrations, six of the boys could even be released from the 
Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic into the care of 
their families.



	There IS a historical basis for the STB series in American 
culture!!!  Fanaticism comes in many flavors. I even did a series of 
twelve detailed line drawings of the five stages of puberty and of 
the effects of early castration on development for the "Christian 
Youth" chapter (not properly Victorian, but certainly late twentieth 
century).  Despite these attempts, nothing seems to be working to 
move forward the story that I’m really interested in writing.



	Since the most important goal in this writing has been 
reducing my anger to managable proportions (thus saving a great deal 
of adrenalin for other uses), this writing has been valuable for me.  
I am posting these revised versions as thanks for the therapy.  It’s 
cheaper and more effective than a shrink.  I now doubt that I will 
ever complete the task I set for myself with the mainstream story.  
When I am finally certain that it will never be publishable, I may 
submit "Joining the Army of God" to the Archive as a story kernel for 
someone else to try to finish.  Knowing that others are reading it 
will further reduce my anger at the "True Christians" out there who 
make it so difficult for those of us who want to truly follow the 
spirit of Christ.   



	The next section of this posting will include some of the 
theological and historical background which I used for the stories.  
I can’t help being a teacher, whatever I do.



	All of the stories which I have written in this vein are 
dedicated to Jeremy, who, I know, reads the Archive regularly.  I 
hope he will be as happy at 59 as he seems to be today at 19.  I like 
him and enjoy his intelligence and wit both in and out of class.  The 
research in the next section (some of which I have discussed with 
him) is one attempt to understand him.  I wish him success and 
happiness.