Myra-Breckinridge-Gore-Vidal

supposed to do, yes. That's what we're told in church." "Butyou do use contraceptives, don't you?" Both flushed, andRusty said, "Well, sure. I guess most Catholics do now, butthat doesn't mean you don't know it's wrong." "Then youbasically believe that it's right for more and more babies tobe born, even though half the people ever born in the worldare now alive, and that each day twelve thousand peoplestarve to death in India and South America?" Oh, the slyMyra Breckinridge! Nothing can escape the fine net of herdialectic! Rusty frowned to show that he was thinking whenactually, as one of the acting-students recently said ofanother's performance, he was only thinking he wasthinking. "Well, maybe those Indians and Chinese and soon should probably practice birth control since their religiondoesn't care, if they have one... "But they do have religions.And they do care. And they believe that for a man to bemanly he must have as many children as possible...""Because so many babies die in childbirth." Mary-Ann wasunusually thoughtful. "They used to die," I said. "And thatkept the population in a proper balance with the foodsupply. But now the children live. And starve. And allbecause their parents passionately believe that to be manlyis to make babies and to be womanly is to bear them." "Butwe're different." Rusty was dogged. "We got enough foodand we also have... "Family planning." Mary-Ann lookedhappy. No doubt contemplating some planning of her own."Enough food," however, was all the cue I needed. I wasbrilliant. I quoted the best of the world's food authorities(famine for us all by 1974 and forget about plankton and