Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
by Marc Beyer and Inci German
So we had our first meeting in August 2016 and it was great!
Kudos to all the people who dropped by to make an evening
full of geeky discussions and smart fun possible.
We started with the dystopian novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood which is the first book of the
MaddAddam-Trilogy before The Year of the
Flood and the concluding Maddaddam.
The storyline switches between the post-apocalyptic present,
told by the protagonist Snowman, and the past, narrated in a third person point
of view.
Watch out for spoilers!
Snowman lives outdoors in a post catastrophic world, near a group of humanoid creatures that he calls the Crakers. He is in a fairly bad physical shape: nearly starving, drained, and damaged by the sun. Apparently the Crakers are not affected by these issues; they live on plants, they are sturdy and resistant to external factors. They are peaceful, gentle people and only have sexual intercourse during certain breeding seasons. They idolize Snowman as some sort of iconic figure and their teacher, and are in distant but constant touch with him.
Snowman used to be a boy called Jimmy who grew up in a
privileged, gated community sort of establishment for employees of
multinational corporations. In a world where genetic engineering of animals for
human purposes is essential, Jimmy’s father works for HelthWyzer as a
genographer. Shortly before his mother left the family to join some rebellious
political group Jimmy meets the ingenious student Glenn whom he refers to as
Crake, his nickname in the online game Extinctathon. They become friends and
spend most of their time playing games, smoking weed and watching graphic
underground videos.
The two boys are admitted to different colleges; Jimmy attends
the more mediocre Martha Graham Academy while the brilliant Crake goes to the
respected scientific Watson-Crick-Institute. Jimmy ends up writing ad copy and
leading an unsatisfying life. Crake on the other hand becomes a bioengineer at
RejoovenEsence where, under the cover of anthropological research, he creates
the Crakers with a team of the most skilled players of Extinctathon.
He includes Jimmy in the team as a marketing specialist for
a super important project; a pill called BlyssPluss that supposedly promises
potency and health. It is in fact a secret bio-weapon which will have fatal
effects.
At the Rejoov compound Jimmy recognizes a girl that he has
seen in one of the underground videos when they were teens and on whom he had a
crush. Crake introduces her as Oryx and explains that she is there for
teaching the Crakers about nature and for her sexual services. Oryx has come
from another, less privileged country where she was sold as a child to a gang
of beggars, who then sold her to a ring fence of child pornography. Jimmy and
Oryx start having an affair that is dominated by Jimmy’s fear of Crake finding
out and his obsession with her seemingly tragic and secretive past.
The launching of BlyssPluss immediately sparks a pandemic
leading to chaos and panic outside the protected Rejoov compound. Jimmy
realizes that this has been planned by Crake and takes a gun to confront him.
Crake and Oryx are returning to the compound and he asks Jimmy to open the
door. Oryx is injured and unconscious, so Jimmy lets them in. Crake looks at
Jimmy and says his last words "I'm counting on you" and slits Oryx's
throat with a knife upon which Jimmy shoots and kills him.
Meanwhile Snowman decides to look for more supplies in the Rejoov
compound and sets off on a journey that soon becomes dangerous not only due to
his frail state but also because of intelligent altered animals and the rough
climate. He injures his foot but still manages to get some supplies and returns
to discover that three humans have camped nearby the Crakers’ habitat.
The book ends in the ambiguous situation where Snowman,
uncertain whether the new humans are friendly or not, draws near their camp.
End of spoilers!
A large part of our conversation centered on the characters
of Oryx and Jimmy (Crake, though titular and the main driver of the plot,
seemed to be a less interesting person). As a result of the (very different)
abuse and alienation they experience as children, Jimmy turns into an aimless
loner, incapable of creating meaningful relationships with others, whereas Oryx
develops a high emotional intelligence and adapts to whatever situation she
finds herself in. We had a lively discussion about the agency of all three
characters.
Regarding the book's well-developed setting, we mostly dwelt
on the uber-capitalism that Atwood depicts in the shape of genetic exploitation
of animals and children, as well as of the division of privileges in society
leading to the formation of the described compounds versus the so-called
pleeblands. These elements seemed to be prescient of the way the real world has
been developing since the book's publication, and serve as a cautionary
suggestion of “let's not do that”, similar to other dystopian fiction. We also
discussed the amount of recreational drug use, the ubiquity of violence in
online movies, the anachronistic nature of some apparently outdated elements
described, and Atwood’s aim by choosing somewhat tacky neologisms.
We enjoyed reading and talking about this deeply sarcastic,
dark but somewhat humorous book so much that we ultimately decided to give it
full recommendation! It now is “OSFBC-approved”!
What an honor...
Our second meeting took place on September 9th,
where we talked about All the Birds in
the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders and next time (Friday, October 14th)
we’ll discuss Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
by James Tiptree Jr.
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