"Freeforall" is a 1986

1986 in literature

The year 1986 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Michael Grade. Controller of BBC One, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.-New books:*Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils...

 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

.

Summary

The story is set in the near future, a time of widespread and rampant sexually transmitted disease

Sexually transmitted disease

Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...

, in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It describes a dystopian society with extremely limited freedoms tightly regulated by a totalitarian state in the name of saving society from the sexually transmitted diseases. The world's population is tightly segregated with the infected living somewhere on the "outside" presumably in deplorable conditions and left to their own devices. The presumed anarchy and privation will lead to the natural elimination of the diseases when all the human carriers are dead. Moral value has been placed on disease with the infected being treated as having brought the trouble onto themselves. The infected are condemned and are left to perish with no assistance offered from the "inside". Minimal detail is supplied about the "outside" world and it is referred to only indirectly and reflected in the fears of the healthy inside population.

The "inside" presumably healthy population lives under extreme duress and gender roles appear to be breaking down. The veiled reference to a "turkey baster" as necessary ingredient to maintain a semblance of a marriage is provided toward the end of the story.

The story supplies few details but succeeds in painting the mood and the context of the world in highly vivid colors. The sense of paranoia and anxiety and fear of the "healthy" population is omnipresent and overwhelming. Religious, totalitarian, radical evangelical currents run through the story and appear to question or perhaps mock the current system.

Publication History

• Northern Suns: The New Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction