LoveStar by Andri Snaer Magnason Page A

love.
    Sigrid’s mother had warned her. “You can’t beat statistics,” she said, and the blow took no one but Indridi and Sigrid by surprise. It was only Sigrid who received the letter and she looked at Indridi as he stood, head bowed, with a handful of withered leaves.
    â€œAre you going to go?” he asked.
    â€œOf course not! How could you think such a thing?”
    â€œI thought you didn’t have any choice.”
    â€œDo you want me to go?”
    At that point Indridi broke down into loud sobbing. “If you go I’m going to have myself sent straight to LoveDeath.”
    Sigrid went over to him and stroked his cheek. She gazed into his eyes, ran her fingers through his hair, and kissed his tears.
    â€œMy darling, we’re one already. We’re one and will be until the end of our days.”
    Sigrid took the letter from Indridi and tore it to shreds. They clung together as never before, unable to tear themselves apart until the sun covered them with honey the following morning and “eat me, eat me!” echoed around the neighborhood, and their love was stronger and more passionate than ever before. For the moment, at least.

VICTIMS OF FREEDOM
    LoveStar would have said that Indridi and Sigrid were among the last victims of freedom. They should have known better; they should have behaved rationally and waited their turn. Or as he put it himself:
    If any system was bound to fail it was the idea of a free choice of mate. The experiment lasted for around 150 years and ended in disaster. When civilization was established, mankind’s first action was to abolish primitive man’s so-called free choice of partner. Of course, there was nothing free about that choice. Primitive man had lived by the same system as the animal kingdom and the results were often laughable. He who had the gaudiest plumage, the reddest buttocks, the biggest horns, he who was strongest and most demanding got to mate with the females and reproduce himself.
    As mankind evolved, a better and more civilized system was soon invented. A man let his parents decide; they made a cool, considered choice, independent of lust or strength differentials or ludicrous adolescent urges. To ensure the system and unconditional obedience, the parents said that he who divorced his mate or committed adultery would go straight to hell. This was a good idea and everything went smoothly for thousands of years. Those who were unhappy in marriages arranged by their parents could at least blame somebody else. If they fell in love with another they could meet that person in secret and run away together. Beautiful stories were written about adventures of this kind.
    But these stories confused people and they began to believe that freedom of choice was always this exciting. To make your own choice was as exciting as making love in secret and eloping on a black horse. But in reality it was chance that ruled. People called this free will but that was far from the truth. People often seized the only thing on offer, or preferably as many as were on offer, because in reality people desired every other person they met in the street and were plagued with perpetual doubts about every choice. By sleeping with one person, people were denying themselves another thousand. Depressing stories were written about free will, about lonely middle-aged men, bitter unfulfilled women, self-accusation, and the children of divorce. It was a vicious circle that no one seemed able to break, and people became like animals once more with their ridiculous ape-buttocks. They competed for the favors of the opposite sex by enlarging their breasts and lips and wasting their energy on cultivating pointless stomach muscles. There was no returning to the old system of arranged marriages as there was nothing left any longer that could be called common parental desires, and no one believed in God or hell any longer. It was not until we at LoveStar discovered how to