Oryx and Crake
I finished a book by Margaret Atwood recently, called Oryx and Crake, and I ran across a passage that I thought was really interesting in the context of what the class was about, which made me start thinking about the whole book in those terms.
Basically, the book is centered around a post-apocalyptic world and its sole survivor, Snowman. In flash backs to the society that fell, we see that genetics had become the new language, genes like words and the genetically-modified people like masterpieces (if you think about it, the entire genetic code of a human is composed of symbols– ATGC on random repeat). Crake is the grand creator of a group of grand new creatures, lovingly called Crakers, and Oryx is their teacher, the nurturing force that instructs them on the ways of their oh-so-limited world. And while I don’t want to ruin anything, figuring out how Oryx and Crake disappeared turns out to be an awesome parallel to the ancient goddess, the Christian God and humanity, if you think about it.
I also found it interesting that the book uses a lot of magical thinking when it comes to names. HelthWyzer is the company that distributes treatments to promote physical and mental well-being. OrganInc Farms manufacture artificially-engineered organs. And (this is where it hit me like a ton of bricks) the main character says at the end of the novel, “It’s Snowman.” It’s no man.
Anyway, here’s the passage that I particularly picked out:
“Watch out for art, Crake used to say. As soon as they start doing art, we’re in trouble. Symbolic thinking of any kind would signal downfall, in Crake’s view. Next they’d be inventing idols, and funerals, and grave goods, and the afterlife, and sin, and Linear B, and kings, and then slavery and war. Snowman longs to question them– who first had the idea of making a reasonable facsimile of him, of Snowman, out of a jar lid and a mop? But that will have to wait.”
Also, one more quick, interesting tidbit. Not only did this book have an ‘About the Author’ section at the back, but it had an ‘About the Type’ section. It informs the reader, “The book was set in a digital version of Monotype Walbaum,” among other things.
Leahanne