Wang’s Carpets is a short story which evolved into part four of Egan ’s novel Diaspora: specifically the chapters Diaspora and Wang’s Carpets.

Gender

The original short-story and the section of ’’Diaspora’’ it became are very similar. However one area where the stories differ is Egan’s treatment of gender.

In Diaspora, gender is chosen on a whim by the acorporeals to suit their moods. There is a neutral gender, referenced using the pronouns ve, vim, and ver.

In Carpets, gender is in the eye of the beholder: at one point, Paulo faces an old acquaintance who has become his Father’s new lover. Paulo knew this person to be male, but knows his father to be a heterosexual male more substantially, therefore this person was represented as a female to Paulo.

The gender-neutral characters from Diaspora are not present in the reworked Carpets—therefore there was no need to re-work their pronoun for the novel.