![]() ![]() ![]() Yet for all this, the descriptions Butler employs of human/Oloi mating are profoundly sensual and deeply poetic, especially in their focus on the experiences of each other’s sensations. ![]() These partnerships represent not just sexual intercourse, but also something akin to forced marriage, given that the Ooloi partnerships are definitely long term, and people are not free to do anything but accept, if they want to get back to Earth. Is something rape if a person’s body completely responds and the person themselves is not hurt, even if they object, indeed Nikanj’s statement to one man: “your words say no but your body did not” is about as icky as it gets particularly when it’s made obvious that people have absolutely no choice about accepting the Ooloi partnerships. The Ooloi see nothing wrong with this, and yet it has some disturbing implications, implications which Lilith herself notes. One question which I found profoundly disturbing relates to the Ooloi, since the Ooloi have the ability to engage in three way mating with a human male and female partner, using their ability to control the human nervous system to create pleasure. Here Butler starts to introduce several different themes, including alienation, group dynamics and sexuality. Halfway through, matters change and we see Lilith become the teacher of a group of humans. I do wish we had the chance to know a little more about Lilith as a person, and indeed about other humans when we meet them, since while Butler puts us very in touch with Lilith’s experiences and thoughts, even her less pleasant ones, we only get her past in broad outlines, making the whole book feel something like a continual stream of consciousness. In particular, I credit Octavia Butler for managing to create an alien race who are both very alien, and yet have distinct individual personalities and characters, from the domineering Caguyat, to the gentle Jdiah, indeed Lilith’s ongoing relationship with the Ooloi Nikanj, a relationship which is part manipulation, part friendship, and part fencing match makes for some fascinating undercurrents, particularly in the things Nikanj gets right about humanity in general, and Lilith in particular, and the things it gets very badly wrong. In other hands, the exploration of Oankali culture and relations might have appeared dry, but through Lilith’s relations to what she experiences, as well as a very specific way of picking out details, I found this section truly fascinating. Thus the first part of the book sees Lilith having to not only learn about the Oankali, but also come to terms with being handled as a pet or a child, even though she is fully aware that the Oankali represent literally the only hope of survival either she or the rest of humanity has. As part of this trade, they see nothing wrong in controlling others, including Lilith, using a combination of gentle force, implacable patience and blatant psychological manipulation. The Oankali are genetic traders, and their ultimate goal is to fuse their race with humanity, creating hybrid human/Oankali children. Yet, it is not only externally that the Oankali are shown to be alien, but in the very way they think, which creates profound problems for Lilith, and the rest of the survivors. Butler does not concentrate on the war, but begins directly with Lilith’s solitary incarceration, then her experiences learning about the Oankali, from their disturbingly different technology, based entirely on genetic and biological manipulation, to their family structure, featuring three sexes, male, female and ooloi, the none gendered sex responsible for manipulating the biochemistry of others. Told in spare, straight forward prose with a deeply compelling rhythmic style, Dawn is one of the most riveting books I’ve read for some time. The Oankali will help humanity reclaim the Earth and start a new culture, but only at a price, a price which will change what it means to be human. 250 years have now passed, and the Earth is once again habitable. Neither does she remember her capture by the Oankali, the alien race who arrived just in time to salvage the last of the human race and place them in suspended animation aboard their massive biological ship. She barely remembers the war, the conflict between the USA and USSR which resulted in the almost total destruction of humanity. Therefore Lilith’s Brood was obviously a trilogy I needed to read, as it contains some of the strangest aliens ever written. As I’ve said before in reviews, one of my absolute loves in science fiction is exploring very alien aliens, beings who do not just look different, but think, react and relate to each other in a truly inhuman way. ![]()
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