Bob wrote:

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Now, an alternate (crazy?) thought… How about a crossover between LnC and Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” along these lines.
1. Clark lands on the moon.
2. He grows up in the farm tunnels. Since he never gets exposed to sunlight, his powers never manifest. He’s just another guy.
3. He grows up and joins a group marriage. (For those that haven’t read MiaHM, this is the standard form of marriage on the Moon.)
4. At some point, he comes to Earth. His powers manifest.
5. Superman appears. He meets Lois. The attraction is mutual and strong.
6. Now, he was raised in an environment where multiple spouses is normal. He has no personal moral reason to avoid pursuing a relationship with Lois. His ultimate goal would be for her to join his group marriage.

Crazy? Probably. But it would solve the problem of how Clark could be married, want to pursue a relationship with Lois, but still be basically the high-morals person we know.
I get what you are saying, Bob. But I haven't read Heinlein's book(? short story?), and I'm not going to. I'm just wondering what sort of marriage arrangements are compatible with a high-morals personality for a person in that sort of marriage.

I once saw a documentary called "One Man, Six Wives and Twenty-Nine Children". It was about a family belonging to a "renegade Mormon" sect. The sect practiced polygyny, that is, one man could have as many wives as he liked, limited only by how many women he could find who agreed to marry him. This man had married six wives and had 29 children.

In the documentary, the man claimed a very high moral ground for himself. Polygyny was perfectly acceptable, he said, because it is common in the Old Testament, it is not forbidden by the New Testament, and the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, had himself had many wives because he had been told by God that this was perfectly all right and desirable.

The man also claimed that he himself was a very good husband to all of his wives, neglecting none of them. He was loving and attentive. He was strict and fair. He gathered all his family around him every night and told them about morality and love. He took care of his family. He worked and earned money and provided for them all. He was, or so he claimed, a high-morals kind of person. The documentary also showed interviews with his six wives, who all seemed happy with their situation.

But there were cracks in the facade. There was obviously a somewhat cruel hierarchy among the flock of children, which meant that at least one child was not accepted by the others. And what morals had the father really taught his kids? A beautiful boy, probably the inoffical leader of the flock of children, was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. The boy grinned and said that he wanted to have a lot of wives just like his daddy.

The father did not really care about all his children. One child had died in a fire, and the father talked about this accident with no sign of emotion or even any sign of any real interest. One child was dead; well, he had twenty-nine others. But the mother of the dead child cried when she talked about it.

The husband also wanted to marry again. Why settle for six wives when he could have seven? But the wives got upset and deeply troubled when they were asked about the husband's plan to take another wife. The six women didn't want to share their husband with yet another wife. But their opinion meant nothing: A man could marry as many women as he wanted, and the women he had already married had no say in the matter.

My impression of the husband was that he was incredibly self-satisfied and very selfish. He was happy to have six wives and would be even happier to have seven, and he didn't care what his six wives thought about his plans to marry again. He allowed his kids to establish a rather cruel hierarchy among themselves, and made his sons long for the same kind of marriage arrangements as their father had. He didn't mourn his dead child; why should he, when he had twenty-nine others?

My reason for bringing all this up is this: Can Clark really be a high-morals kind of person if he tries to bring Lois into a group marriage?

Ann