The Wanting Seed

In a future England overwhelmed by overpopulation, the State enforces strict population control. Families are limited to one birth, homosexuality is officially promoted to divert sex from reproduction, and the dead are recycled into fertilizer by the Ministry of Agriculture. The government operates according to what historians call the Pelphase, a Pelagian political phase rooted in the belief that human beings are perfectible and will voluntarily obey reasonable laws.

Beatrice-Joanna Foxe, a twenty-nine-year-old woman, grieves as her infant son Roger's corpse is handed over for chemical reclamation. The attending doctor dismisses her sorrow, reminding her that Roger's death means one less mouth to feed. Outside the hospital, posters proclaim "It's Sapiens to be Homo," and Beatrice-Joanna finds the society's promotion of homosexuality repulsive.

Her husband, Tristram Foxe, a thirty-five-year-old history teacher, lectures his students on the cyclical nature of politics: The liberal Pelphase gives way to the brutal Interphase, when disappointed rulers resort to repression, which then yields to the pessimistic Gusphase, an Augustinian phase built on the belief that humanity is inherently sinful. His school's Principal, Joscelyne, informs Tristram that his family's record of fertility disqualifies him for promotion, as homosexual or castrated candidates are preferred.

Beatrice-Joanna is secretly having an affair with Derek Foxe, Tristram's elder brother, who holds a high position at the Ministry of Infertility by maintaining a public facade of homosexuality. That afternoon, Derek visits the Foxe flat and reveals that major political changes are underway: purges, reshuffles, and the unemployed being drafted into the police. He and Beatrice-Joanna make love. Too late, she realizes she has swallowed analgesic tablets rather than contraceptive ones.

Tristram, leaving school in frustration, sees armed police recruits in the streets, confirming that the Pelphase is ending. In a drinking cellar he meets an unfrocked Catholic priest who is soon beaten by police recruits. Returning home, Tristram encounters Derek leaving the building and grows suspicious. Beatrice-Joanna deflects his questions and offers herself to him sexually, partly from guilt and partly so that Tristram will believe any resulting child is his. Tristram insists on taking the contraceptive tablets himself. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister announces severe repressive measures, and a new corps called the Population Police is formed with Derek as Metropolitan Commissioner.

Two months into the Interphase, rations are cut and police surveillance intensifies. Beatrice-Joanna experiences persistent morning sickness while reports arrive of mysterious crop failures and declining fish catches around the world, hinting at a global blight. When Tristram realizes Beatrice-Joanna may be pregnant, he confronts her. She denies infidelity and resists his demand that she abort the child, arguing she is entitled to replace the son the State let die.

Captain Loosley, a resentful Population Police officer passed over for promotion, approaches Tristram and reveals that Derek has been visiting Beatrice-Joanna and that she has written Derek a love letter. Drunk and enraged, Tristram publicly denounces Beatrice-Joanna, accusing her of carrying Derek's child. A workers' riot erupts nearby, and Tristram is swept into the crowd, beaten by police, and arrested.

Beatrice-Joanna, resolved to protect her unborn child, travels north to State Farm NW313 near Preston, where her sister Mavis and brother-in-law Shonny live. Shonny, a farmer of robust Christian faith who identifies as Pancelt, a Celtic cultural identity, welcomes her warmly and pledges his veterinary skills for the delivery. Derek, meanwhile, reads Tristram's accusatory letter from prison and arranges for Tristram to be detained indefinitely.

The global blight worsens catastrophically. Crops fail, livestock sicken, and fish rot. The prison governor reads out an officially composed prayer asking the "forces of death" to relent. Reports of cannibalism spread across England and Scotland. In February, Beatrice-Joanna goes into labor. Shonny delivers the babies, and to everyone's astonishment there are twins, both boys. She names them Tristram and Derek. A recently released priest, Father Shackel, arrives to baptize them; the State, desperate and frightened, has turned to religion and freed the clergy.

In prison, Tristram's cell-mate, a massive Nigerian named Charlie Linklater, devises an escape plan. Charlie tricks the warder into opening the cell, knocks the warder unconscious, and Tristram walks out disguised in the warder's uniform. Captain Loosley then arrives at State Farm NW313 to take Beatrice-Joanna and the twins, intending to confront Derek with evidence of his adultery. Beatrice-Joanna surrenders voluntarily after Shonny is overpowered.

Tristram walks across a chaotic, post-civilizational England. London has collapsed into darkness and cooking-fires. A stranger named Sinclair, a member of one of these communal groups, takes him into a "dining club" where the meat is of human origin, and gives him provisions for his journey north. As Tristram travels, order gradually reassembles: towns under martial law, ploughed fields, and fertility rituals enacted in the furrows. At Lichfield, a carnival celebrates fecundity with mass coupling. A new government begins to form.

Reaching Preston on Easter morning, Tristram finds Shonny, who reveals that his own children were killed during the chaos and that the Population Police took Beatrice-Joanna and the twins to London. Penniless, Tristram enters an army feeding center, accepts a loan of three guineas, and unknowingly signs enlistment papers, binding himself to twelve months of military service.

Beatrice-Joanna lives with Derek in a spacious Brighton flat. Derek, now Co-ordinating Sub-Minister at the renamed Ministry of Fertility, is attentive to the twins, but Beatrice-Joanna suspects he is lying about Tristram being dead. She writes a letter addressed to Tristram in the British Army, describing her daily walks by the sea from three to four, and posts it like a bottle cast into the ocean.

Tristram serves on Annexe Island B6. After months as a sergeant-instructor, he is transferred to a combat platoon. His bunkmate, Sergeant Lightbody, speculates that the troops themselves are the enemy: expendable surplus population the State means to destroy. On the ship, Tristram receives Beatrice-Joanna's letter, reads it four times, kneels in prayer, and resolves to survive.

The troops disembark on the west coast of Ireland. At 2200 hours, the platoon goes over the top into what proves to be a real firefight. Nearly everyone on both sides is killed in approximately three minutes. Tristram survives by falling into the trench under a dying man's body and playing dead as clean-up squads deliver finishing shots.

He escapes through an electrified perimeter, crosses Ireland by train, and ferries to Wales. After recovering from illness in Southampton, he waits for his enlistment to expire. At the War Office, a major explains the system: The War Department operates as an independent corporation, conscripting surplus population and killing them in staged battles to maintain civil peace without the need for a police state. The major signs Tristram's discharge.

Tristram travels to Brighton, secures a lectureship, and rents a flat. He walks to the sea-front, deciding against confronting Derek, recognizing that the only victory that matters is recovering his wife and children. On the promenade, Beatrice-Joanna stands at the rails with the twins during her daily walk. A gentle hand touches her arm. She turns, sees Tristram, and clings to him without words.