ABSTRACT
Science fiction (SF) has generally upheld the notion of a fully comprehensible universe, while postmodernism seems to deny the possibility of objective truth. The challenge for both scientists and SF writers is to find a way to incorporate the skepticism about scientific paradigms that followed Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions without letting go of the search for scientific validity. Van Home is a reasonable choice for the task, because he is already towing a supertanker-sized load of guilt. Entropy's threat to masculine order and integrity might not seem so dangerous to a society figured as feminine. The metaphoric system serves as the basis for a sequence of inferences, leading ultimately, in this case, to a rationalization for rape. The Aleutians believe themselves to be telepathic because of a combination of shared genes, chemical signals, close attention to body language, and lifetimes of common experience recorded and studied as part of Aleutian religion.
