Our esteemed host took pity on me, with my unreadable copy of "Mating Problems," and was kind enough to mail me a legible copy. Thank you for taking the trouble, the time, and the postage.

I found the story nagging at the back of my mind for quite a while, which is better than being forgettable, I suppose. I have to admit that the opening was subtle; so subtle that I had to go back and reread the first several paragraphs in order to grasp the implications of what was being described.

I was also bemused by the strange changes in tone throughout the story, from light comedy (the silly name of the spaceship) to tragedy.

Of course, the most troubling aspect of the story was the way it dealt with the relationship between the sexes. (The source of the rather strange title, I assume.) Without this aspect of the story, we would just have another "clever rustics defeat the haughty technologists" yarn, typical of "Astounding."

With this theme, however, we have something very different. The "eternal triangle" subplot -- otherwise seemingly irrelevant to the main plot -- gives us a clue that this is yet another variation on "The Taming of the Shrew." The message seems to be that women who step out of line -- whether an adulteress or one who dares to tell men what to do -- need to be firmly put back in their place. At the very end the author seems to be saying that women really prefer this, given the rather implausible twist that the women on the spaceship volunteer to join the colony.

All in all, a disturbing story, difficult for me to judge objectively, although I'll give it two stars.