Butler, Octavia E. - Clay's Ark

[oyceter]

Wow, that was depressing. I mean, I do not read Butler books for the fun and frothy, but still.

It's the near-distant future, and society has deteriorated so that there are walled cities and gangs running amuck outside. Blake and his two daughters, Rane and Keira, end up being kidnapped, but not by the normal suspects. Instead, they've been kidnapped by a group of people infected with a strange organism from outer space.

It's particularly terrifying reading about the leader of the group, Eli's, flashbacks, from the unbearable compulsion to spread the organism, stay alive, and procreate. Of the Butler books I read, I think this one has the thinnest line between human and Other, and it's harrowing reading about the infected people's attempts to stay human, even as their humanity constantly erodes.

As usual, I like Butler's multiracial world, and it'd be interesting to do a closer examination of pregnancy and procreation in her books, since they're so often focused on extending the human race, or extending it as a hybrid of human-alien.

And then, the depressing (spoilers)

As stated, I generally don't read Butler for fluff; she's thought-provoking, intelligent and very good, but she also tackles weighty issues in interesting ways. On the other hand, I think I could have done without the ending of this.

It was mostly the combination of: You find your father, who has attempted to rape you because of the organism, has escaped the raping and murdering gang that has kept you captive. Only, you find him on a highway, his entire lower half smashed into pulp. As you talk to him, you realize he has infected the person who ran him over, and he dies in your arms, even though the organism renders people nearly invulnerable.

The guy who brought you all to his place to get infected finds you and tells you your twin sister is dead. You push him and ask how he knows, as again, the organism renders people nearly invulnerable. Turns out she was shooting at the gang and then they sawed off her head with a blunt blade and chucked it out the door at him.

Then no one can find the guy your dad infected, and a few months later, the organism infects the world, millions of people die, and the survivors are irrevocably changed. The end.

I think I would have been ok with everything if they just hadn't tossed her sixteen-year-old twin sister's head out of a door after sawing it off with a blunt blade...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah. That book depressed the shit out of me too.

(OT, I know, but I find it odd that O.B.'s books are so without queer people. Isn't it just weird that there's never any mention of queerness?)

[nojojojo.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is a mention of queerness in Patternmaster, the many-centuries-later sequel to Clay's Ark. The protagonist in that book (can't recall his name) is in love with a healer who's bisexual. The antagonist wants her too, and if I recall he tried to hold her by threatening her female lover at some point in her past... it's been awhile since I read it thought, could be mutilating that plot recollection.

There's also implied homoeroticism in the Lilith's Brood/Xenogenesis books, IMO, though it's hard to see since there's such a focus on reproductivity in those books. But as I recall, human men react badly to the ooloi (alien third gender) because they feel like there's something gay about sex with the ooloi. I think it's mostly that ooloi take a dominant role in sex, "seducing" partners and then controlling the encounter. But I also wondered how the Oankali would've reacted to a gay human, or a pair of gay mates.

[oyceter]

I was wondering the same with the Oankali!

[chesyaburke.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Clay's Ark, but yes, it was a hopeless ending.

I don't remember the bisexual healer in Patternmaster. However, you are right about the homoeroticism in the Xenogenesis series. If I remember correctly, the (mostly) men acted out and even tried in many cases to kill the Ooloi.

[oyceter]

There was a passing mention of queerness in this book, when one of the characters looking for a guy as a mate for a woman was like, "Oh, it's a good thing he's not gay," but I'd really like more of an examination of it, particularly given the book's emphasis on reproduction.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten the details, but I remember that I classed this one as horror/medical thriller/sf. Mostly horror.

I did remember that the world got transformed (I think this ended up fitting in with the Patternmaster sequence), which breaks out of the typical medical thriller mode, because the change isn't contained and order isn't restored. It's an antidote to the usual models of social transformation (even scary and scarily optimistic ones like Blood Music) because you see the price getting paid and you get that people actually die, instead of thoughtfully clearing out the world and leaving an emptiness for the protagonist to rebuild/repopulate in a thoughtful but nontraumatized way. I do see it as influenced by the genocide/enslavement undergirding the European colonization of the Americas.

[oyceter]

I think you are right re: horror. Sigh. If I didn't hate horror so much, I would try to read more to get a sense for the tropes, only I do not have the stomach for it.

I really like the thought of this as a reaction to European colonization of the Americas and wish I had better thoughts about that, except my brain is fried. I also want to gather together thoughts about Butler and humanity and enslavement, how the enslavement here literally deprives people of humanity, and how she makes the alien-as-other work for me because her humanity is multiracial.

[larryhammer]

I confess it's not one I reread often. Or, ever. I was somewhat blown away by it, but have had no desire to jump back in.

---L.

[oyceter]

I mean, it was good! And... Butler actually makes decapitated heads being flung around extremely tragic and horrifying, which most manga and anime completely fails to do. But, yeah. I do not think I will reread this for a very long time.

[myztified.livejournal.com]

This was the only one out of all her books I was actively hoping for a 'happy' resolution. Butler can teach a thing or to to the movie studios about writing horror though.

Unfortunately, the Clayarks don't catch much of a break from the Patternists in the next book.

[oyceter]

I.. yeah. I really wanted Blake's family to get out ok, and oh man. Rane...

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think I would have been ok with everything if they just hadn't tossed her sixteen-year-old twin sister's head out of a door after sawing it off with a blunt blade...

I think that beats Slammerkin's cleaver attack.

[oyceter]

I think so too! I mean, I think Butler did it better as it is part of the eventual death of the human race, but still! I am traumatized!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I must confess, I only read this one once. I agree with coffeeandink's interpretation.

[oyceter]

Yes! It makes so much more sense now as SF/Horror.

[sumofparts.livejournal.com]

here via 50books_poc

this was the first book i'd read by her and i was also slightly traumatized by the ending. but the book itself, like you said, very compelling. i can't say i liked the ending but i appreciated that she didn't shirk from providing an unhappy one.

[oyceter]

Yeah! I mean, I didn't mind the whole "Earth being overtaken by alien parasite"! Mostly it was the decapitation that was disturbing!