Since I've finished the book, a question wuz buggin' me: could Evie Black's plan work? Could women rebuild society an' create a civilized world on their own, wit' their bodies still stuck in the world left behind?
The answer is a definite "no", an' I can tell you, why.
- First of all, Our Place wuz BARELY suitable for life. As I wrote before, there wuz a reason why Our Place was so desolated and ruined: without men, who maintain man-jobs, civilization will fall apart. We're not talkin' 'bout luxury things here, like Internet...no, we're talkin' severe handicaps. Tiffany died, because there were no ambulance cars, no hospitals, no doctors, an' no medicines at all. Seein' the description how the women sustained their life in Our Place, it wuz clear that they went back to the caveman-lifestyle, hunting, collecting, scavanging. They had no choice - farming machinery was out of gear, just like fuel, there'z no way they could plant crops, spray them, harvest them to ensure fresh food for every day (including winter). Sure, they can collect handfuls of wild berries, or hunt down wild animalz, but needless to say, to a growing community - especially for a whole society - this would become insufficient after a while. Not to mention that these women came from a civilized world, where they could grab all nutrients from the food they purchase. Once they're sent back to the jungle, without modern food, malnutritional diseases would soon appear, an' kill off many women.
- Secondly, you might say that women could learn how to manufacture medicine, how to build factories & maintain them, and such, since we've already seen attempts in the book, and some of them was successful. But don't forget: the time at Our Place passes MUCH MUCH faster than in the real world, and the human brain cannot really learn new thingz faster. Which means, by the time they learn the necessary skills to refine fuel, build machinery, produce medicine, utilize plants and facilities for power and water, they'd be possibly dead. This is the second biggest problem, which makes Our Place unexceedingly hostile: the time limit!
- Thirdly, there are tons of jobs, which require men - I mentioned farming, but ore mining and such are also considered to be man-jobs. It's highly improbable that women would go down to toil in mines, spend long months above the Arctic Circle in unbearable cold to dig up oil, or build up facilities wit' nothing more than their two hands (cranes, excavators, pile drivers etc. are all out of order). Not even Robinson Crusoe wuz omnipotent enough for such job, and he wuz a man.
- And last, but not least, what Evie did was essentially a genocide, if she would succeed, human population of Earth would eventually die out, as she herself said. It is interesting how she sees herself & all women superior to men, yet, she planned to kill the entire population - sure, not wit' bombs an' weapons, but the result would be the same. So much for "men are violent and evil, and deserve to die out", she basically attempted to do the same, an' in this aspect, Evie is no better than evil and murderous men. Her claims are also very controversial, and reminds me of the dialogue of Sartorious and Aster Phoenix from Yugioh GX: Sartorious said that the Light is not evil at all, and the power of Light will make people forget about hatred, war, and need, so it'll create a peaceful society. What he didn't tell is that people will become brainless, emotionless drones. What he said wuz not about peace - it wuz about absolute power. And most likely, the scenario Evie planned would result in a very same world.