The Ragged World

This book and the second volume, Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream, are based on the premise that humans are steadily destroying their environment, but not doing much about it. The Hefn happen to come to Earth for their own reasons, not intending to have anything to do with humans, but decide to take steps to ensure the saving of the earth ecosystem. Whether the human race survives or not depends upon cooperation of humans with the Hefn. The conflict between Hefn ways and human ways is developed in both books by the interaction between various individual Hefn and individual humans. In the second book there is more discussion of the conflict between the Hefn and human ways of thinking.This book's characters are generally pro-intervention by the Hefn. Each chapter narrates the story of seemingly unconnected people, but they come together in the end. Each story is fascinating. In the introduction, written in 2023, a summary of the Hefn on Earth is given. In 1623 a group of Hefn crew members of a Gafr/Hefn space ship started a rebellion and earth was a convenient place to maroon them. This was meant to teach them a lesson, not to strand them permanently on earth. Mechanical difficulties and time dilation caused the ship to return about 400 years later (2006) to see if anyone survived. When they could find no one, they left but there was a shift in power aboard the ship and they returned in 2010, just after a major meltdown at Peach Bottom power plant, contaminating the Philadelphia area totally. In 2011 The Gafr (parked on the moon), through the Hefn, issue the Directive that humans must mend their ways within 9 years (by 2020) or they would sterilize the earth of human life. They must cease ecosystem-altering behavior. When any group would do something such as hurting the rain forest, their minds would be wiped from on high. In 2013, since changes were not being made quickly enough, the Gafr caused there to be no more children conceived until further notice. They also set up a school for select human youth to study the true nature of time. This is expanded upon in the second book. The various stories involve people who had been in contact with the Hefn in some way but whose minds had been wiped but eventually the memories return through a combination of events. Another character is an HIV-positive victim who has kept it secret for many years because of vigilante groups killing such persons.In the book we discover that the Hefn are those who serve the Gafr, who are never seen and seem a bit cold. Although the Hefn seem ruthless in some cases, there is a certain kindness because they love to serve. Of interest is how the Gafr and Hefn see humans. The Hefn were astonished by human capacity for self-deception.This book makes one think about what people are doing to this planet and the closed self-satisfied world so many people live in.

"Tiny Tango" from the book The Ragged World, by Judith Moffett, is among the most offbeat tories about dealing with AIDS, and deserves attention. The main character is a woman who is HIV-positive as the result of her first and only sexual experience. In a story that spans the next twenty years, she tells of ostracism in a country embracing a new fundamentalism, and of further isolation in a world where an HIV vaccine has made the plight of the already-infected less important. The story also concerns her quest to develop a fungus-resistant melon, and her experiments in cross-dressing as an opportunity to explore the gender she no longer has access to sexually. If you think all this can't add up to an entertaining and well-written story, you'll be amazed. And the rest of the stories are just as good.

The synopsis of this book is very dry and cold, and does not do justice to the warmth and depth of Moffett's skillful writing. This is more than just an environmental cautionary tale -- it is a tender character study, and a home for some extremely interesting, quirky inhabitants. Definitely worth a read if this type of thing appeals to you, whether you are a fan of SF or not. A shame that this is currently out of print. I hope that changes soon.

These were wonderful stories when they appeared in magazine form, the forward with the list of demands I think everybody should think about. The Hefn are aliens who think this is a wonderful world and wonder why we are so intent on destroying it.