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https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-the-castrato

[This is one of the finalists in the 2022 book review contest. It\\u2019s not by me - it\\u2019s by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done, to prevent their identity from influencing your decisions. I\\u2019ll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you\\u2019ve read them all, I\\u2019ll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked - SA]

Morning of the Mutants\\xa0

\\xa0\\u201cCASTRATO, a musician, who in his infancy had been deprived of the organs of generation, for the sake of preserving a shrill voice, who sings that part called sophrano. However small the connection may appear between two such different organs, it is a certain fact that the mutilation of the one prevents and hinders in the other that change which is perceptible in mankind, near the advance of manhood, and which, on a sudden, lowers their voices an eighth. There exist in Italy, some inhuman fathers, who sacrificing nature to fortune, give up their children to this operation, for the amusement of voluptuous and cruel persons, who have the barbarity to require the exertion of voice which the unhappy wretches possess.\\u201d

\\u2014 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Complete Dictionary of Music (1779)