Beggars in Spain
Nancy Kress
Beggars
in Spain is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning complex look at
economies and inequalities through a science fiction lens.
Leisha’s father, Roger Camden, bullies the scientists
who are pioneering bioengineering, through infiltration of their databases and
money, to make his daughter one of the “Sleepless.” His wife is not so
enthusiastic but he bullies her into compliance as well.
At roughly the same time the egg is being implanted
for Leisha, Mrs. Camden becomes pregnant naturally with Alice. Alice and Leisha
are twins, but not remotely alike. Leisha has also been bioengineered to be
tall, blond and beautiful. Because she does not sleep, she is able to take
advantage of her ability to learn.
Mrs. Camden loves Alice and abhors Leisha. Roger
Camden is cold and manipulative to anyone but Leisha. Eventually he sends Mrs.
Camden away and marries the scientist who did the genetic changes for Leisha.
Most people do not like the changes that make babies “Sleepless.”
They feel it gives them an unnatural edge in competition. The Sleepless are
barred them from many things, like competition in sports or investing. More
than that, the “Sleepers” grow to hate the sleepless for being different. Both
groups perceive the Sleepless as better.
Some parents don’t think far enough ahead to prepare
for having a Sleepless child and when a child doesn’t sleep at night and
doesn’t have round the clock nurses, you can guess what happens. Leisha and her
friends are party to a couple kidnappings of Sleepless toddlers who are being
abused. Unfortunately, one of them is caught and put in jail, where he is
murdered by the other inmates, simply because he is a Sleepless.
As things develop, people become more wary, more
scared, and angrier at the Sleepless. There’s a whole We-sleep movement trying
to grind the Sleepless into the ground or kill them. The few people who are
sleepless of Leisha’s generation, recognize the pernicious hatred being sent
their way and some of them band together to buy land and create a place called
Sanctuary.
Much of the novel deals with economic principles and
inequality. Roger Camden is a Yagaist, a follower of Kenzo Yagai. His
philosophy, in part, states that “. . . the only dignity, the only
spirituality, rests on what a man can achieve with his own efforts. To rob a
man of the chance to achieve, and to trade what he achieves with others, is to
rob him of his spiritual dignity as a man.”
Leisha finds holes in Yagai’s theories. She finds that
trade can be non-linear. “If Stewart gives me something, and I give Stella
something, and ten years from now Stella is a different person because of that
and gives something to someone else as yet unknown – it’s an ecology. An
ecology of trade, yes, each niche needed, even if they’re not contractually
bound. Does a horse need a fish? Yes.”
One of the Sleepless tells Leisha of an analogy called
the Beggars in Spain, that they will turn on you, rip you apart for what they
want if you don’t give it, so you have to cut them off.
But Leisha finds that the whole beggars in Spain
analogy falls apart. “Yes, there are beggars in Spain who trade nothing, give
nothing, do nothing. But there are more than beggars in Spain. Withdraw from
the beggars, you withdraw from the whole damn country. And you withdraw from
the possibility of the ecology of help . . . Beggars need to help as well as be
helped.”
A fascinating book, and not too heavy handed for the
all the heavy topics it deals with. I highly recommend it.
