Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
Third Person (Omniscient)
The Wanting Seed makes use of a pretty standard Third Person Omniscient point of view, with a narrative voice that not only describes what's going on, but also offers extra contextual information when necessary. For instance:
Beatrice-Joanna served him with a cutlet of reconstituted vegetable dehydrate, cold. He ate with fair appetite. Then she gave him a slice of Synthelac pudding. 'Have a nut?' she offered, when he'd finished. A nut was a nutrition unit, creation of the Ministry of Synthetic Food. (1.12.24)
The thing that raises so many questions about the political views and message of The Wanting Seed is that the novel's narrative voice also makes liberal use of free indirect discourse. See if you can spot it in this passage:
He got up and tried to take her in his arms.
'No, please, don't,' she begged. It was no good; she couldn't bear his touch. She struggled. 'I'm not feeling at all well,' she said. 'I'm upset.' She began to snivel. He desisted. (1.12.25)
Here, the narrative voice offers a number of direct and objective statements about what goes on between Beatrice-Joanna and Tristram: "he got up," "she struggled," "she began to snivel," "he desisted," etc. But, on top of that, the narration also gets personal when it channels Beatrice-Joanna's inner thoughts and feelings: "It was no good; she couldn't bear his touch."
The reason why this narrative technique raises so many questions for The Wanting Seed is because it makes it hard to tell whether the many examples of homophobia, racism, and sexism that appear throughout the novel belong to individual characters, or to the narrative voice itself.
If they do belong to the narrative voice, that makes it hard to decide if the novel's narrator is a unique character with prejudices of its own, or if the novel itself is racist, homophobic, and sexist too.