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50books_poc2009-02-08 11:33 am
b-writes.livejournal.com) wrote in 50books_poc2009-02-08 11:33 am
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#1: Dawn, Octavia Butler
Dawn is the first volume in a trilogy by Octavia Butler named first Xenogenesis and later Lilith's Brood, the second name being something of a spoiler.
Lilith Iyapo wakes, again and again, in a cold, featureless room. She is interrogated by unseen beings who ask her questions. Eventually, she learns that-- as she had feared-- the Earth has been made uninhabitable by nuclear war, and that-- as she had never suspect-- alien beings have take in the Earth's few survivors. They plan to repopulate the Earth with the few humans left. But they also have other desires, which only become clear as the novel continues.
The aliens want to blend their genetic materials with the humans; it is, they explain, the only way their species can continue. Lilith's confusion and mixed feelings, and her eventual willingness to work with the aliens (Oankali), become the focus of most of the book. The second third or so has Lilith training a small group of humans to inhabit the Earth to come. Things, as they so often do, don't go well, and the book concludes with a pregnant Lilith vowing to do better with the next group she trains.
There are some really nice details here; the multicultural cast, the way the humans initially react to Oankali with horror and revulsion because of their utter strangeness, the way the (never explicit) sexuality is expressed. Oankali have three genders: male, female, and ooloi, and none are dispensable, emotionally or for reproductive reasons.
There are bits that date the book too; rape comes up more often than I think it would had the book been written in 2007 rather than 1987, and homosexuality is only mentioned a few times, generally obliquely. (I am not quite sure what the Oankali would have done with homosexuals; maybe ignored them, maybe incorporated them somehow? But the question is never addressed; the few times homosexuality comes up is in the context of homophobia.)
Overall, it was excellent, but I want a break before I read the next book. Rebuilding humanity always exhausts me.
Lilith Iyapo wakes, again and again, in a cold, featureless room. She is interrogated by unseen beings who ask her questions. Eventually, she learns that-- as she had feared-- the Earth has been made uninhabitable by nuclear war, and that-- as she had never suspect-- alien beings have take in the Earth's few survivors. They plan to repopulate the Earth with the few humans left. But they also have other desires, which only become clear as the novel continues.
The aliens want to blend their genetic materials with the humans; it is, they explain, the only way their species can continue. Lilith's confusion and mixed feelings, and her eventual willingness to work with the aliens (Oankali), become the focus of most of the book. The second third or so has Lilith training a small group of humans to inhabit the Earth to come. Things, as they so often do, don't go well, and the book concludes with a pregnant Lilith vowing to do better with the next group she trains.
There are some really nice details here; the multicultural cast, the way the humans initially react to Oankali with horror and revulsion because of their utter strangeness, the way the (never explicit) sexuality is expressed. Oankali have three genders: male, female, and ooloi, and none are dispensable, emotionally or for reproductive reasons.
There are bits that date the book too; rape comes up more often than I think it would had the book been written in 2007 rather than 1987, and homosexuality is only mentioned a few times, generally obliquely. (I am not quite sure what the Oankali would have done with homosexuals; maybe ignored them, maybe incorporated them somehow? But the question is never addressed; the few times homosexuality comes up is in the context of homophobia.)
Overall, it was excellent, but I want a break before I read the next book. Rebuilding humanity always exhausts me.
Re: homosexuality in Xenogenesis
There's also, as I recall, an assumption that what everyone wants is an identical monogamous lifelong heterosexual(+ooloi) relationship. This prevents not only same sex relationships but polyamory and even short term serial monogamy etc. There's people who clearly wouldn't have stuck with their relationship were it not for the Onkali, but no sense that it goes against their nature (apart from the +ooloi bit), and the people outside the Onkali camps don't seem to have a problem with that aspect.
Have you read any of her other books? "Fledgeling" has a non-gender-specific biological-symbiosis thing, and the immortal shapechangers in "Wild Seed" very occasionally switch to the opposite
gendersex (though they're never in a same-sex relationship, even with each other)Re: homosexuality in Xenogenesis
I have read one other book, but it's Parable of the Sower, which was significantly more reality-based.
Re: homosexuality in Xenogenesis
Re: homosexuality in Xenogenesis
Fledgling isn't one of my favourites overall, but I did like the portrayal of sexuality in it. Anyanwu has a female partner that it's implied she's sometimes female-bodied with in Wild Seed, I think?
Thematically I think my discomfort with Xenogenesis comes down to the way Butler applies her fascination with biology, which is central to so many of her books, to sexuality. I can maybe buy that it would be a 1:1 relationship for the alien species, that their norms would be universal, but I know it isn't like that for people and I always want to see how that complexity would play out. Butler deals so beautifully with complex motivations on other grounds, I wish she would in this too.
Re: homosexuality in Xenogenesis
Yes, though it's portrayed in the past tense and rather vaguely.
but I know it isn't like that for people and I always want to see how that complexity would play out. Butler deals so beautifully with complex motivations on other grounds, I wish she would in this too.
Yes.