Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago by Octavia Butler
Meep.
cricketk pimped this to me ages ago and I can understand why. The writing itself doesn’t stand out as ‘special’ but the content has me babbling to people trying to explain how I feel.
In brief: Humanity; devastated by war and on the brink of extinction finally makes contact with alien life. The Oankali rescue what humans they can and place them in suspended animation while they attempt to restore the planet. Lilith is the human they have chosen to awaken other humans and to start the process of ‘trade’. Then! Three books dealing with the consequences of two species driven by powerful inner compulsions.
babbling
It obviously took the Oankali a lot of selecting and interviewing to find Lilith - they needed someone stable and intelligent enough with corresponding drives towards motherhood - how awful for Lilith that those very urges mean that she both loves and hates them for it.
I’m impressed that in this writing the Oankali are written sympathetically enough that you can like and even admire individuals despite the fact that every time I try to describe them I end up appalled anew. The Oankali are unable to separate reproductive drive from morality - to reproduce and spread is what they do. There is no question or dialogue about whether they have the right to pounce on a new species, change them utterly and then destroy their planet.
I also don’t understand; given how powerful their own drive to reproduce and to control reproduction is; why they don’t understand why removing fertility from Humans drives them to insane violence.
They seem to have almost no empathy - this is kinda weird. It utterly works if you view them as genetic predators who co-opt the species they encounter but given they have to interact with them, form family units, breed new generations and live with them in close contact I think empathy would have been a useful trait.
What they remove from Humanity - the ability to touch each other which they dismiss as ‘neither useful nor pleasurable’ confuses me. I can’t imagine being physically isolated like that and being able to continue to function. I know the Ooloi provide physical pleasure and are very tactile but the fundamental changes to the sexual / family bonds that humans rely on are in my mind essential to functioning.
cricketk pimped this to me ages ago and I can understand why. The writing itself doesn’t stand out as ‘special’ but the content has me babbling to people trying to explain how I feel.
In brief: Humanity; devastated by war and on the brink of extinction finally makes contact with alien life. The Oankali rescue what humans they can and place them in suspended animation while they attempt to restore the planet. Lilith is the human they have chosen to awaken other humans and to start the process of ‘trade’. Then! Three books dealing with the consequences of two species driven by powerful inner compulsions.
babbling
It obviously took the Oankali a lot of selecting and interviewing to find Lilith - they needed someone stable and intelligent enough with corresponding drives towards motherhood - how awful for Lilith that those very urges mean that she both loves and hates them for it.
I’m impressed that in this writing the Oankali are written sympathetically enough that you can like and even admire individuals despite the fact that every time I try to describe them I end up appalled anew. The Oankali are unable to separate reproductive drive from morality - to reproduce and spread is what they do. There is no question or dialogue about whether they have the right to pounce on a new species, change them utterly and then destroy their planet.
I also don’t understand; given how powerful their own drive to reproduce and to control reproduction is; why they don’t understand why removing fertility from Humans drives them to insane violence.
They seem to have almost no empathy - this is kinda weird. It utterly works if you view them as genetic predators who co-opt the species they encounter but given they have to interact with them, form family units, breed new generations and live with them in close contact I think empathy would have been a useful trait.
What they remove from Humanity - the ability to touch each other which they dismiss as ‘neither useful nor pleasurable’ confuses me. I can’t imagine being physically isolated like that and being able to continue to function. I know the Ooloi provide physical pleasure and are very tactile but the fundamental changes to the sexual / family bonds that humans rely on are in my mind essential to functioning.