Imagined society / An invented society
Zin becomes an artist in a hypothetical society without private property or protected personal space. Collective decisions regulate identity and conduct.
The society organizes status through community records rather than age or a linear history. Votes determine care obligations, transgressions and approved accounts of individual lives.
The society and customs are invented. The narrative examines conflicts between collective decisions and individual preferences.
The civic codex
A child belongs to the commune. Care is shared. The making of a self is a public project.
Zin learned to leave one corner of every sculpture unfinished, a place the commune could not name.
A communal birth
A midwife transfers the newborn Zin to an available caretaker rather than a biological parent. The caretaker offers the expected praise: “What a beautiful baby.” The midwife replies, “The most beautiful I have ever seen.”
The community treats praise as a social obligation. Zin receives continuous collective attention without protected private space.
The young artist
Education is optional and self-directed. By age three, Zin makes sculptures from communal materials. When another child destroys a sculpture, Zin responds with violence. Caretakers approve because the society treats violence as its primary dispute-resolution method.
Zin creates installations using living plants and carved frames. The commune dismantles a one-person room because it provides prohibited privacy.
The tree trial
During the period corresponding to adolescence, Zin votes on adult matters and uses the commune’s perception-altering herb. An installation damages a tree, triggering an environmental law that prescribes death.
The commune votes on Zin’s case and grants an exception. Zin continues taking risks after avoiding the prescribed penalty.
The assigned life
Gambling determines access to resources. Zin initially obtains better materials, then loses access and works with dirt and body fluids.
The commune assigns Zin an engineer as a partner. They develop affection despite rules discouraging romantic love. A genetic program determines reproduction; state-directed modifications alter Zin’s body and artistic work.
The war on sleep
Collective decisions can take months. Zin speaks only when addressed, follows vegetarian rules and retains no property or protected solitude. The community classifies sleep as weakness.
Stimulants initially sustain work. Prolonged use and reduced sleep accompany increased output; the community rewards productivity without assessing the cost to Zin.
The forbidden word
Late in life, Zin forgives a younger artist for copying their work. The commune prohibits forgiveness and classifies the response as a breach of its social contract.
The commune penalizes and demotes Zin. Treatments suppress emotions classified as illness, including regret and fear of death. The narrative reports a subsequent change in artistic style.
The final vote
After Zin’s death, the community votes on the approved account of their life. The scenario’s suppression of emotion continues during that process.
The approved account describes Zin as a gifted artist whose conduct was corrected. It excludes the private room and unfinished artwork.
A life is complete when the community has agreed on its meaning. The agreement is not the same thing as the life.
From the commune’s record of Zin’s life
The last tablet
Limits of the approved record
The scenario examines a system in which collective decisions override private reservations. Its institutions enforce coherent rules without protecting dissent.
The surviving unfinished artwork differs from the approved account of Zin’s life. The record therefore remains incomplete despite the final vote.