And Chaos Died Summary
Joanna Russ

And Chaos Died Summary

And Chaos Died is about the ways in which societal boundaries around behavior and consciousness constrain one from full realization of one's potential existence. The title, characteristically ironic, alludes to a passage from the Chinese sage Chuang Tzu, describing the well-intentioned efforts of demigods to give organs of perception to the god Chaos. In its original form, this fable suggests that the sensory organs are necessary to help Chaos organize experience, but that their creation necessarily implies the destruction of "chaos," or the lack of such organization. (The village is destroyed to save it.) In Russ's version, the existence of the usual human organizations of perception constitutes a limitation of human potential; the development of a new sensory aperture (the ability to communicate directly with other minds) necessarily leads to the "death" of the old consciousness and access to a new level of existence...

(read more from the Short Guide)