Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake is a post-apocalyptic work by Margaret Atwood. The plot shifts back and forth between the present - one human survivor watching over a group of genetically engineered human-like people- and the recent past - during which society is rife with ethical problems that eventually lead to the annihilation of humanity. The world is ruled by corporate interests rather than a government and society is stratified physically separating, and protecting, the haves from the have-nots. The story is sharp, terrifying, painful, funny, and tragic. The tone is ambivalent toward the characters. Though the plot follows only one character, presenting only his point of view, the reader is allowed to decide if his perceptions are accurate and is not encouraged to like or dislike him or anyone else.

_____________________

I am not a person who likes surprises. I get upset if my husband tells me that he has a present for me several days before I get to find out what the present is. When I first read Good Omens, I kept thinking of how nice it would be to read the book the second time through when I can not worry about the plot and just focus on how it is written. Contrary to common sense, books cause me no less anxiety when I read them the second time. Quite the opposite. I read East of Eden many times, at least once a year, sometimes multiple times in a year, to the point where I often open the book to a particular section I like and just read those parts and then put the book back. I know the story, I have lived with the characters for about 8 years now, the Hamiltons are my friends. But each time I read it, I get tense whenever Charles attacks Adam, when Kate/Cathy starts to drink. Will Joe finally get the breaks? Will Tom handle Dessie's death? Will the ice-pack plan work? Again and again, the story does not change, but the anticipation builds. Do I really think the text will change? No, but I always really hope it will, I am always disappointed when something goes wrong, fearful when something bad is going to happen, something irrevocable, plot changing.

But I try to resist the temptation to read the wiki plot before I read a book (although I almost always do before I watch a movie). I have it on good authority that it is somehow better that way (the books, not the movie). So I try. Truth be told, not even the wiki would have prepared me. So READER BEWARE: If animal cruelty, even if only mentioned in passing, upsets you, then you may not want to read this book. If torture as a sport or kiddie porn is one of your buttons, you probably do not want to read this book.

Which is not to say that the book is about these things. But the main characters, Snowman, Crake and Oryx, meet because the former two saw (or thought they saw) the latter in a kiddie porn flick. Snowman and Crake do not seem to have an aversion to things like watching torture or animal cruelty or child pornography. I suspect that the type of person who does, knows that it is wrong, really, really wrong, and enjoys it for that reason. There seem to be no taboos, or no serious ones, in this culture. I don't know if this is a statement about the availability of this stuff on the internet or the (supposed) increasing desensitization of children toward horrible things.

These things can make me put a book down, throw it away, burn it, leave it out in the rain, shred it. For a couple of days, I even asked my husband if he could put the book where I would not accidentally start reading it again (I'm a little OCD about having text near me, I see written words and I have to read them). Eventually, the nagging feeling of an unfinished plot got to me and I decided that I had to finish it. So I did the only thing I could do, I got out the white out and erased the parts I couldn't deal with. I am hoping that eventually I will actually forget what is written underneath and when I read it again, I won't have to be so bothered.

I am not going to summarize this one because I haven't decided which parts are plot-important and which ones are Meg-important. So I am going to focus on certain elements of the book.

_____________________

Genetic modification plays an important role in the plot. Animals and plants are modified to produce more food or to mimic the flavor and texture of other food, to be immune or at least resistant to viruses, and to grow organs for transplant into humans. Humanity is also experimented on to prevent at least the signs of aging and to prevent disease. Everything in the book is possible in that, while we perhaps have not achieved these things, we have the knowledge and capability to attempt them and succeed in time. These are not ansibles or warp drives. This is diamond-hard science fiction.

Oryx and Crake constantly pushes the question, "How far is too far?" Genetic engineered food is common in the western world. Plant and animal DNA is being spliced across species. Giant rabbits with green glowing eyes? Sure, I guess, if the glowing doesn't hurt them. But why would I want those eyes? Hormone induced meat animals? I can't afford to choose the alternative. Pigs growing extra organs for human transplant? Supposedly doesn't harm the pigs and afterward the pig doesn't die from loss of its heart. But that doesn't feel right. ChickiNobs? Animals (I guess you can call them that) that grow only one edible part of a chicken, such as a breast or a leg, capable of reproducing in large numbers, but without a head or feet or wings, without feathers, with only an orifice to accept nutrients, with only the parts of the brain the concern digestion, reproduction and growth, incapable of feeling pain. Is that an animal?


The book also toys with Genesis, in that the human-like people, the Crakers, live in a self-sustaining home that provides them with food and protection. They are even vegetarians. Snowman eventually leads them out of their shelter to the world at large when he fears that the electronics maintaining their home may one day cease to function. Snowman also unwittingly sets up elements of a crude religion. They live near the remnants of a destroyed technologically advanced society which they are incapable of understanding. The Crakers are simple, intentionally designed to be so simple that they will not commit the human sin of amassing knowledge. So the simple things they are told tend to take on more meaning. I need to think more about their religion and its development but I can say this for it, at least it has both a male and a female deity. No religion is complete without both.

The Machine Stops

Deus ex Machina

In ancient Greece, actors playing the god(desse)s were either lowered onto the stage by a crane or raised from beneath the stage by a lift. In either case, the god(dess) appears from outside the normal plane of work, coming from nowhere as it were. Deus ex machina. God from the machine or god from our making. Quintus Horatius Flaccus invented the term "deus ex machina" (Greek theos ek mekhanes) when admonishing poets not to use this device when concluding a play because the play or poem must be solved internally from where it develops and not from a character outside of the narrative (who would arrive via a mechanism).

Whenever I think of the term, I erroneously first think "god of machinery" as is the deity were a machine like a computer or the bureaucratic mechanism of a tyrannous government in which each member is personally responsible for small crimes that keep them alleged through shame and guilt. Sometimes I also think of dinosaurs.


Eventually I remember that the god is the machinery from without that resolves the crises, as in the modern god-of-the-lase-minute who rushes to fix life's little foibles when the faithful pray: Oh God, please get me a good parking spot. This is a god that nudges fate when the crises is imminent.


It is curious that the god-of-the-last-minute becomes the god-of-foresight when things go contrary to the wishes of the prayer. This is a god that put all the apparatus of a perfectly executed, mechanized plan from which nothing can deviate. This way, the bad things that happen must happen for a reason, not necessarily as the result of one's own sin because certain tragedies push the plot along. So it was not that the god-of-the-last-minute failed to come through for you but that the god-of-foresight knew this was an important thing to have happened. Somehow, it never matters that the prayer was answered or not because anyone can justify the result in a manner that affirms the existence of a god who intervenes for our benefit. It always seems to me that one should probably give up praying altogether if you believe only in the god-of-foresight because what he wants is going to happen no matter what because god is always right or god who moves in mysterious ways. But if one believes in god-of-the-last-minute, then one ought to always be praying because intervention from disaster can only be averted by complaining . . . er praying.

And if that is the case, then god is pretty messed up because god will let absolutely everything terrible happen if no one acknowledges his power. While some people are so keen to affirm the existence in god that they will claim to approve of this god, I find it rather difficult to believe that they could really believe it if they think much about it. A cute baby deer dies in a forest fire because some punk kid was playing with fireworks on a dry, windy day. Since no once prayed for the deer (assuming deer can't pray), then god just lets the deer suffer and die. That's pretty messed up . . . I am so off topic. Just to wrap up, people probably shouldn't want to believe in the latter. It contradicts another notion that god is good, inerrantly good. Good gods don't let little hypothetical baby animals suffer and die for no reason. So there must be a reason. Ergo, god planned everything already (clockmaker style) so that bad things will must! lead to better things. So praying is pointless but people still want to. Why? It seems that ever since man invented an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator being, man has sought to control his deity through sacrifices, prayer, slaughter, worship.

Perhaps I should have gone into theology. There were the conversations I was hoping to have.


Anyhow, The Machine Stops, by E. M. Forster, is a story with a rather literal interpretation of my first meaning. A machine provides for all of humanity, which lives below ground in hermetic little rooms. The walls of their cells are covered in buttons which represents any need of the inhabitant. For examples, there are buttons for hot and cold baths, buttons to reveal furniture elements, buttons for food, buttons for communication. The surface of the earth is said to be covered with non-breathable air. This set up is rather like that of the Matrix movies, except that each individual is awake, though people generally dislike traveling outside of their cells and practically abhor the idea of touching one another. They are nourished and kept stimulated by means of a machine. I guess this is also kind of like those conspiracy theories from the 90's that the internet was going to prevent people from having to leave their homes because they can work, order food and groceries, and even keep up with their friends via video chat. The underground rooms, which I keep calling pods but I should really call cells, are hexagonal so that the whole city resembles a honeycomb. Although the analogy to a beehive would end there since bees are quite gregarious, like to get out, a serve a key function in its environment by touching things, that is spreading pollen from plant to plant.

Since this book was written in 1909 (beat the Matrix by 90 years!), the concept of an all encompassing mechanized device was a rather forwarding looking concept since this machine is rather like a computer system which is capable of any thousands of possible responses at the direction of the user. Unlike the Matrix, the machine does not feed of the energy of people (a rather ludicrous idea) and seems to care for humans without developing its own sentience - although it is perfectly willing to cull any undesirable elements that might rock the boat.

A young, pale, mushy man named Kuno is one of these undesirables who slipped through the system. Yearning for space, just the concept of space, not even actually space, as in room, itself. Pushing himself ever farther, he becomes really aware of his body in a yoga sort of way. He contacts his mother to express his misgivings about the machine.

His mother, Vashti . . . huh, I hadn't thought about it while I was reading but it comes to me now that Vashti was the original queen in the Book of Esther. She refused to come to him when he drunkenly orders her to do so. She was a very naughty and disobedient wife so she gets banished. Anyhow, Vashti is considered a pretty good person, well bred. She would not deign to be touched by another, even someone trying to catch her as she falls. She shared ideas but didn't originate any. Like her namesake, Vashti refuses to come when her son asks her to visit him. I don't think that her son sent as many as seven requests though. However, Vashti as a queen probably lived in the same state of pampering where her desires and needs were immediately satisfied through the apparatus of servants.

When she visits, she learns that her son may become homeless, which means he would be expelled from his pod home and most certainly die as a result. He had gone up to the surface and explored around in a field for a while. But part of the machinery, which repairs the machinery and underground city, reclaims him and returns him to his pod. Vashti leaves and lives and very proper life. She agrees firmly when ventures to the surface are made impossible by the denial of a breathing apparatus. She also publicly admits her religion with the machine as the godhead, an idea which has become the official norm.

Kuno, meanwhile is note made homeless but he is relocated much closer to his mother (previously he live on the other side of the world). One day he contacts her to tell her that the machine is going to stop. She doesn't understand the idea and tries to dismiss it but certain things became uncertain. Buttons would not always work, the music was distorted somewhat, hot showers were not hot enough and finally the beds stopped appearing. When the lights go out, panic sets in. People are finally aware that the machine is stopping. Many people die from the shock, while others seek means of suicide. Those who do not self destruct are left in silence and darkness. These few come to an enlightened consciousness about the significance of their humanity. These awareness comes just as their world crumbles away and the sky is revealed to them. However, a nice little element of hope comes through, some people who have escaped or been made homeless have banded to together and are able to survive on the surface (I'm assuming having grown accustomed to the density of regular air pressure).

There was a lot in this story that reminded me of Wall-E. There were muscle-less people who communicated exclusively and almost constantly on videophones, even with people right next to them, arm chair people who slurp a liquid diet. The world was thought to be incapable of promoting life in its current condition which is the result of a man-made environmental disaster. A single sentience in the form of a powerful computer keeps the humans in a constant state of appeasement and docility, so dependent on the computer that they cannot conceive in a world without the nurture of the computer, would not want to live in such a world if they could even imagine one and considered the current state as progress, consciousness over corporeality.

Dependence on the machine threatens humanity because rather than help anyone, even themselves, they turn to the machine to do the care-taking. A few weeks ago, I noticed that all of the atheist blogs that I read had something to say about prayer as the laziest form of concern. Someone is sick in a hospital so someone asks everyone to pray about. Since there is no god, nothing happens. Or, according to the god-of-foresight, whatever happens is what was supposed to happen. Oh, yes, this came up on Glee and it was longer ago than I thought. Kurt is upset because everyone wants to pray for his dad. I'm upset because no one offers to let Kurt stay with them or cook a few meals or anything. They just want to pray. Kurt elects to have an acupuncturist attempt to stimulate parts of his brain. I was rather irritated at that since Kurt, who doesn't believe in god, believes is some silly pseudo-medicine. But at least he was trying to do something besides asking their imaginary friend to fix it.

There are a lot of implications in this story about the role of religion or government or technology, but I think the main message was a warning again complacency, against good-enough. It is an argument in favor of experience over the ivory tower, self-determination over instant gratification.

I wonder if this is the same machine in The Machine Rages On.

THX 1138

THX 1138 is the protagonist's name. He and his roommate Luh 3417 live in an underground society that is heavily regulated by drugs and all seeing cameras. They rebel by failing to take their regulation drugs and by having sex. Both are criminal offenses. In addition to sedating the citizens, the drugs also allow workers to engage in complicated and dangerous tasks for extended periods of time. He is imprisoned, intially alone and then with others after a brief visit with LUH. The prison is an enormous white room whose walls are indistinguishable from its floor and ceiling. THX escapes but loses fellow inmate SEN and hologram SRT. He discovers that LUH's name and number have been given to a fetus, implying that she has been killed. THX elludes the police until the cost of his recapture exceeds the recommended budget. THX makes it out of the underground city and into the sun.

The movie is beyond clean, it is sterile. There is little in the way of a set. The images on the television screens are blurry, flickering in and out. It is a bland movie to watch. Normally, dialogue or emotion would feel the empty spaces but this movie falls flat. I don't need action, car chases, laser shoot outs, but I do need a more satisfying plot. I suppose that this, combined with the shaved heads, robotic police, over medication, are supposed to creep me out but it makes human life seems like a science experiment gone horribly boring.

The Dispossed: An Ambiguous Utopia

I am going to try this again. I want to talk about revolution. The word itself hints at the problems of a revolution. To revolve is to turn and return. The idea of return plays an important role in Shevek's life and his theories of physics.

My family is from Cuba. My mother was born just days after Castro came down from the hills and declared victory. It was what my grandmother prayed for and she reminds me from time to time to be careful what we pray for because we just might get it. A couple of years later, my grandmother move to Florida with my mother while my grandfather was in jail. If you knew my grandparents, you would be struck by the absurdity. Like me, my grandmother stubbornly says what she thinks out loud, dangerous in any dictatorship. My grandfather is the opposite, he makes do and tries to see the best. Revolution is a dirty word and many of my cousins, I am quite certain, did not vote for Obama because his promises sounded disturbingly familiar. My grandmother also likes to say, "If you aren't a communist when you are 20 then you have no heart; if you are still a communist at 50 then you have no brain."

We look at Cuba with fear and hope, with impotent anxiety, with thin-wearing patience. I have only known Havana's streets in photographs, black and white and yellowing with age but it is the place where my grandparents and older cousins came into the world, were they grew up, were they became. There is a lingering but strong homesickness, an undeniable bond, and a painful recognition of the familiar. So I keep looking at pictures, cooking Cuban food, and, lately, I have been reading a blog by a woman, Yoani Sánchez, trapped on that island.

She has recently written a post about the maintenance of the revolution. To be 'revolutionary' "it is enough to exhibit more conformity than criticism, to choose obedience over rebellion, to support the old before the new." This is the harsh reality Shevek finds on his home planet.

He lives roughly 200 years after the Odonian revolution in a communist paradise. I find my heart sympathetic and smitten with the communal and free spirit of his world, not to mention the equality of sexes and the utter frankness of bodily functions. It offers a type of freedom I will never know and could not survive: freedom from possession. And, while I envy the health care systems of other western, first world countries, I have no intention of going whole hog - not because I am disgusted by the ideal of communism but because I am terrified of the realities.

Shevek discovers that in his academic field, there is corruption where there should be none, barriers against the novel, and that the ideals upon which his society is based can be manipulated into the power structure they oppose. One of his friends is punished by continual assignment to physical labor until he breaks down, forced into an assylum. Shevek's work is stymied by his supposed mentor who denies publication of his work unless credit is shared and blocks Shevek's entry into teaching.

I know that corruption is not a new theme in the utopian genre of science-fiction. What surprised me was the description of how stability can promote corruption, how status quo can purchase power. There are many kinds of freedom: freedom to live, freedom to work, freedom from physical harm, freedom of thought, freedom of mind, freedom to speak and freedom to be heard. Shevek has a very tangible sense of the freedom he desires and is denied. It is freedom to be heard that he seeks, risking all other freedoms for the ability to communicate.

At the risk of sounding prosaic, I offer these quotes, frequently misattributed to Thomas Jefferson:
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. (This is Benjamin Franklin, by the way. You've probably heard a popular paraphrase)

The Dispossed: An Ambiguous Utopia

I have not yet finished this book but it is living up what I have come to expect from Le Guin-a complete world governed by different social structures, deep characters, and the painful feeling that I am missing out on something whenever I am forced to put the book down.

The book is structured both sequentially and simultanouesly according to concepts in phsyics explored by Shevek, the protagonist. This concept is not so difficult to me because it is at the heart of the Jewish calendar, or more correctly the heart of the conflict between the Jewish and the secular calendars. On the face of things, the calendars are only different in that the former is a lunar calendar while the latter is a solar calendar. The both have seven day week cycles, they are marked by (semi)lunar events called months, each annual orbit of the sun begins a new calendar year, and the months are sprinkled with secular and/or religious holidays. However, if you live with both, they begin to take on different meanings. The Jewish calendar becomes one of tradition, of repeating cycles. The Sabbath grounds the week and returns one constantly to peace, to the celebration of life, and to God. The secular calendar marks the forward movement of time through life, the daily grind. The cycle and the progression are part of each other.

Oh travel through the heavens! This is not what I meant to write about but I have wandered into time and physics. I will give it a go.

Shevek tries to explain time like a book. Everything is in the book already but we must move through it from one end to the other. We are only readers of a small portion and we are only able to understand our portion if we move from beinning to end. If you have read Slaughterhouse Five, you will be familiar with this understanding of time as this is how Tralfalmadorians view time, except that they can see the end as easily as the beginning and move fluidly through it. This naturally becomes determinist, lackign free will. Shevek tries (maybe he eventually succeeds) in reconciling his theories of physics and time with free will. I would struggle to put the two together, too, but I am not worried about free will. It doesn't seem worth worrying about since, unless you are Kilgore Trout, you don't get to change whatever the status quo is.

The two worlds, Anarres and Urras, revolve around each other, referring to one another as moons of their earth/world. So, too, do their civilizations and governments pull and repel each other while travelling through their orbits. I haven't developed this thought enough to comment on its relationship to the theories of physics and time that are central to the novel.

A Word About Genre: Utopia/Dystopia

Utopia comes from a combination of two Greek words: οὐ is "not" and τόπος is "place". It was first used in Sr Thomas More's book of the same name to describe hypothetical ideal societie, often based upon Plato's ideal from The Republic (which I would only recommend if you want a study in fascism).

Dystopia describes the utopia gone wrong, usually in the form of a controlled state - actually quite like Plato's Republic. Or imagine what has become of Cuba - lack of freedoms, threat of violence/imprisonment/loss of income and nationwide poverty. To survive, many assume conformity is utopia/dystopia societies and individuals are stigmatized. Only the top eschalons exhibit individuality and freedom of thought.

Often these societies feature artificial or contrived religions that reinforce the state power. These religions or cultures focus on one's responsibility to the society over themselves and their families. The family unit is often disbanded and a threat to state loyalty.

The state often directly controls or manipulates the economy by deciding what should be produced and how much. In Brave New World, this is created by a control on population numbers and their desires. They are encouraged to value consumerism, to replace instead of repair, to constantly desire. In other works, such as in Asimov's short stories, computers control the world economy. In Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano, this perfect control over the economy leads to disatisfaction as the populace feels absurdly purposeless denied the ability to work.

Many of these works are set in the future after a world collapse which necessitated the creation of a planned, authoritarian state. Since these stories are set in the future, the control of the society is often enabled by advances in technology.

The hero may come from any social class but typically comes from the extremes in society, either the low/working class or the upper/power class. The hero is often a member and leader of a revolt movement, s/he will perhaps even sacrifice himself for this movement, or humanity itself.

Classic Examples:
Brave New World
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Soylent Green

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Most of the novel is set on the moon's prison colony. Due to the smaller gravitational pull, people who spend more than a few months on the moon will be unable to return to Earth. Thus, any prison sentence is essentially a life sentence of exile. Anyone born on the moon, similarly, will not be able to travel to Earth.

The sex ratio is approximately 2 males to 1 female. I suspect the skewed ratio is intended to reflect the real discrepancy in the prison population. Curiously, this gives women incredible power since the society is essentially egalitarian. Women may have multiple husbands. However, line marriages are preferred. A line marriage includes several generations of husbands and wives. New spouses are added slowly over time, voted in by the entire family. The eldest, particularly the eldest female, are the leaders of the family. Line marriages offer extra security in an unstable environment: the family continues even when a spouse dies; children can depend upon multiple parents; the family benefits from multiple incomes; a large families will have a variety of skill sets in its members; old families can benefit greatly by the work done by predecessors. Geez, this is starting to sound more and more appealing all the time. Did I mention that rape is practically unheard of and considered one of the worst crimes possible? Even sexual harassment is rare. Oh yeah, and most property is in the name of a woman. And while murder is rare, a murderer is expected (maybe even forced) to pay of the deceased debts and care for his family. Divorce is pretty rare. A person can just walk away from a family at any time but divorce is hard. All the women of a family must vote to divorce a man, no information about how a woman is divorced. Children born in to a family can elect to become part of the marraige when they are of age, strongly implying that while all spouses are considered spouses, they are not all sexual relationships since this would lead to incest. Race is also a non-issue on the moon (though the Earth still clings to its antiquated racist notions).

The economy and life-support systems are controlled by a computer, called Holmes. The computer develops self-awareness and a strange sense of humour. S/he also develops a plan to free the moon of Earth's control, which is heading the moon toward a catastrophic collapse and eventual doom for every Lunar citizen. After the rape of a lunar woman by terrestrial soldiers, the revolution is on, manipulated carefully by Holmes. Somehow the sentience of Holmes is less interesting than the sexual politics of Luna. Holmes was my favorite character, it was amusing to hear of his practical jokes, satisfying to watch his political manipulations, sad when his sentience died. But compared to the sexual and racial equality, it is just not that interesting.

Heinlein also uses the book as a platform against popular vote democracy as mob rule. You can take that how you want to since I have no experience with real democracy. Actually, coming from California, I have had some experience with the negatives of full democracy since anyone can nominate any bill to be voted on by the whole state. That has sunk California deeply since people are constantly voting for expensive public works to be paid off in bonds no one is buying. I am okay with representative democracy, but the electoral collage system needs to go.