The Father of Teeth

Text for today: Gingivitis xlvii-lxxiii

It was not even approximately during this time that the Father of Teeth came upon a settlement of wooden buildings, the inhabitants of which looked with open disgust upon the sheen of his plastic raincoat and the gleam of his perspex-dentured grin. They themselves wore clothes woven from dried grass and waterproofed with fish-grease, to highly olfactory effect; and if the community was civilised enough for dentures, their use was clearly a privilege not widely bestowed.

When the Father of Teeth approached within fifty yards, a slave was sent out to meet him and induct him into the necessary sterilities. "My masters," said the slave, "live according to nature and in defiance of the artificial ticks embedded in their brain matter by the evil microplasts of yore."
"And how do they know," said the Father of Teeth, "that the defiance in their minds is not itself the product of something embedded in their brains, by means evil or artificial or otherwise?"
"Such matters are not the province of such as I," replied the slave; "they are the province of our priests, who generally respond to questions by taking a stone axe to the questioner's skull, in order to ensure the legitimacy of his cerebral endowments."

So the Father of Teeth asked the slave to guide him around the settlement and back onto the pathways of ill health and sin. As they walked, the Father of Teeth saw a dancer practising and remarked to the slave concerning the grace and balance of her limbs. "Indeed," said the slave, "her balance is most exquisite, and will make a good preparation for the life which awaits her."
"What life is that?" asked the Father of Teeth.
"The natural life of a natural female, according to nature's law," said the slave; "it will consist chiefly of carrying laundry on her head, and her flexibility of limb should ensure that she won't disturb her husband while she's doing it."
"Sounds nearly as good as a robot," said the Father of Teeth.