Hi,
If I understand correctly, the whole point of “timshel” was that we all have free will and we all can decide whether we will be good or evil.
But it’s also made pretty clear right from the beginning that Cathy was born without the ability to feel the good things, and, in a way, she’s impersonating evil – while being supposedly a completely realistic kind of person you can actually see in the real world, meaning she’s not “supernatural”, she’s just “one of us”.
How does that fit in the story? Is it supposed to mean that only some of us do have this choice? That some people are just born without the choice? Isn’t that horribly dehumanizing a portion of our population (and also hopelessly setting them up for some kind of “eternal damnation” if you include religious beliefs – which is sth the book is constantly bringing up)? Is he calling the Cathy-like “psychopaths” not human?
by heckdoinow