No Woman Born by C. L. Moore

            For this week, our class was assigned to read the first half of No Woman Born, a story by C. L. Moore. Deidre was a wonderful young actress who enchanted the world—and her manager, John Harris—with her talent, confidence, and radiant personality. But when a fire broke out in a theater one year ago, her body was destroyed, leaving only her brain alive. The decision was made to give Deidre a new, mechanical body to keep her alive, and over the course of the year, she worked closely with Maltzer, the doctor who designed her body, to help her get acclimated to her new physical form. The story begins when Harris meets Deidre in her new body for the first time since the fire, and he is both relieved and unsettled by her new body.

            From my perspective, I have the strong feeling that Deidre’s new, seemingly perfect body is a time bomb for disaster. Harris emphasizes how wonderfully imperfect Deirdre was before in her human body, and how that was her charm: her talent, yet at the same time, her human imperfection. However, Deirdre’s new body makes her dance movements almost too fluid, gives her an even larger vocal range in her singing, enables her to move in ways normal human bodies can’t. She’s too perfect. The fact that this unsettles Harris is foreboding. Even Maltzer fears that she has become too confident. Deirdre is confident that people will love her once more, just as they used to. But even Harris is afraid that people will shun her. I, too, feel the same way. I think that this surprise return performance that Deirdre has planned is going to end badly. I predict that one of two things will happen: either people will shun her as a “freak,” as she puts it, or people will admire her perfection too much, something which could easily get into her head and cause problems.

            Another possible problem is Harris’s biased view of her. Deirdre spoke of men giving life and character to the machines that they use and love, and that the machines seem to take their “personality” from the men who create them. This occurs with both Harris and Maltzer. Maltzer created Deirdre’s body, so his perspective of her is only of a machine (albeit a brilliant machine) that he himself created, not as the human woman she used to be. This thus prejudices his view of her as only a machine, and not as a human. He knows this, as he warns Harris at the beginning of the story that he is too close to her to be able to see her clearly. Harris, on the other hand, has only ever known her as a human woman, with certain traits, features, and quirks. Deirdre’s new body has no features, and so she cannot make facial expressions or use any of her old features. However, Harris’s old view of her makes him just as biased. When he looks at her, he sees only the old Deirdre she used to be, projected unto the featureless body she now possesses. He sees what she was, not what she is. He wants to believe she hasn’t changed at all, and so he allows himself to buy into his illusion. He knows that he’s deluding himself, but he can’t help it. He’s blinded because he wants to believe she is still the same Deirdre he was so enchanted by. And this could lead to trouble down the line.