I like this essay and think the concept is excellent.
I find example #2 confusing, though—possibly because I’m not American, so I mostly haven’t been exposed to American pro-life views. What is the sense in which “living baby” is usually pushed for by pro-life advocates? Am I expected to be familiar with The Cider-House Rules (a novel I don’t recall hearing about until now) to understand this example?
I think maybe I gave you the sense that the example was cleverer or more profound than it really is. I think it’s just straightforward and you probably mostly already get it.
The thing that happens (not all the time, but fairly frequently, like at least 10% of the time and maybe as much as 40 or 50%) is that the pro-life advocates will make appeals that depend upon a certain concept of a thriving, happy child. Like, they’ll write a story in the first person about a child’s life and all their hopes and dreams and accomplishments, but end with “but that never happened because my mommy aborted me.” Or they’ll wax eloquent about how good it is to be alive, generally, speaking unacknowledged-ly from the perspective of a person whose basic needs are met and who grew up with a happy family and supportive community, and then try to draw a straight and uncomplicated line from that to “therefore, no fetus should ever be aborted.”
(“No fetus should be aborted because life is good” being the unstated link in the chain, and by leaving it unstated that makes it harder for people to bring up “but sometimes life can genuinely be so not-good that it’s not worth living, and isn’t that relevant?”)
TBC, I think there are similar blindspots and skipped steps and fabricated options on the other side of this argument, which is why I personally liked what I saw as the less uneven-by-design footing of the framing of the issue in the John Irving novel.
I have not read Irving either but he is relatively “world-famous” 1970s-1980s author. (In case it helps you to calibrate, his novel The World According To Garp is the kind of book that was published in translation in the prestigious Keltainen Kirjasto series by Finnish publisher Tammi.)
However, I would like make an opposing point about literature and fiction. I was surprised that post author mentioned a work of fiction as a positive example that demonstrates how some commonly argued option is a fabricated one. I’d think literature would at least as often (maybe more often) disseminate belief in fabricated options than correct them, as an author can easily literally fabricate (make things up, it is fiction) easily believable and memorable stories how characters choose one course of action out of many options and it works out (or not, either way, because the narrator decided so) but in reality, all options as portrayed in the story could all turn out be misrepresented, “fabricated options” in real life.
I read the summary on Wikipedia and couldn’t figure out the specific alternatives either. But it is not needed. It is clear that the real options real people face are equally difficult.
I like this essay and think the concept is excellent.
I find example #2 confusing, though—possibly because I’m not American, so I mostly haven’t been exposed to American pro-life views. What is the sense in which “living baby” is usually pushed for by pro-life advocates? Am I expected to be familiar with The Cider-House Rules (a novel I don’t recall hearing about until now) to understand this example?
I think maybe I gave you the sense that the example was cleverer or more profound than it really is. I think it’s just straightforward and you probably mostly already get it.
The thing that happens (not all the time, but fairly frequently, like at least 10% of the time and maybe as much as 40 or 50%) is that the pro-life advocates will make appeals that depend upon a certain concept of a thriving, happy child. Like, they’ll write a story in the first person about a child’s life and all their hopes and dreams and accomplishments, but end with “but that never happened because my mommy aborted me.” Or they’ll wax eloquent about how good it is to be alive, generally, speaking unacknowledged-ly from the perspective of a person whose basic needs are met and who grew up with a happy family and supportive community, and then try to draw a straight and uncomplicated line from that to “therefore, no fetus should ever be aborted.”
(“No fetus should be aborted because life is good” being the unstated link in the chain, and by leaving it unstated that makes it harder for people to bring up “but sometimes life can genuinely be so not-good that it’s not worth living, and isn’t that relevant?”)
TBC, I think there are similar blindspots and skipped steps and fabricated options on the other side of this argument, which is why I personally liked what I saw as the less uneven-by-design footing of the framing of the issue in the John Irving novel.
I have not read Irving either but he is relatively “world-famous” 1970s-1980s author. (In case it helps you to calibrate, his novel The World According To Garp is the kind of book that was published in translation in the prestigious Keltainen Kirjasto series by Finnish publisher Tammi.)
However, I would like make an opposing point about literature and fiction. I was surprised that post author mentioned a work of fiction as a positive example that demonstrates how some commonly argued option is a fabricated one. I’d think literature would at least as often (maybe more often) disseminate belief in fabricated options than correct them, as an author can easily literally fabricate (make things up, it is fiction) easily believable and memorable stories how characters choose one course of action out of many options and it works out (or not, either way, because the narrator decided so) but in reality, all options as portrayed in the story could all turn out be misrepresented, “fabricated options” in real life.
I read the summary on Wikipedia and couldn’t figure out the specific alternatives either. But it is not needed. It is clear that the real options real people face are equally difficult.