Butler, Octavia E. - Clay's Ark
Sat, May. 10th, 2008 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWow, 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...
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...
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Sun, May. 11th, 2008 06:38 pm (UTC)I think that beats Slammerkin's cleaver attack.
(no subject)
Mon, May. 12th, 2008 10:01 pm (UTC)