Level 7

APRIL 18

The announcement about marriage facilities has created quite a stir on Level 7. At meals, when about a third of the crew meets at one time along the long table (we eat in three shifts), people do not take the nearest place on the bench as they used to, but wander around trying to find an attractive partner of the opposite sex. This results in some disorder, but ‘promotes the interests of humanity’.

Nobody seems to be in love, as far as I can tell: probably we are incapable of feeling a strong social emotion like that, with the exception of X-117 and perhaps some other people who have come here by mistake. But at least things are a bit livelier than they were. Somebody who did not know what it was all about might think we had just enjoyed a glass of brandy. If this keeps up, it will not be long before the 500 bachelors and spinsters on Level 7 have become 250 married couples.

This evening I discussed the marriage business with X-107. He thought it all quite reasonable. I asked where space could be found for the new generations to live. He replied that if ten rooms had been set aside in advance for the convenience of married couples, space for children must have been thought of as well. This argument seemed sound enough to me.

“Of course,” he added, “they must have fixed on an optimum number of people for Level 7, and if too many children are born then birth control will have to be introduced. But this problem isn’t likely to arise for two or three years.”