First of all I would like to say that this is one of my favorite books books of all time- and it is of course running against some tough contenders.
This is not my first time reading this book, and now of course I am picking up on things I had missed before. Does anyone else think that Crake is responsible for uncle pete’s demise? I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure.
The thing I really want to talk about here is obsession- not Jimmy’s obsession with Oryx, but rather Crake’s fixation on jimmy.
Why does the extremely successful Crake keep coming back to (or for) Jimmy? Without Crake’s effort to keep in touch, the two would have lost contact long ago. It is partially Jimmy’s own feelings of inferiority- which colors the narration – that mind-bends the reader into thinking of Jimmy as lesser than Crake. Crake obviously does not think this way. Or rather, despite Jimmy’s numerous failings, he has what appears to be a genuine respect for Jimmy. Does Crake see Jimmy’s very well hidden but doubtless vast potential? Does he recognize Jimmy’s sarcastic genius? Or is Jimmy just one of the few people (maybe even the only person) that Crake considers his friend?
Characters aside, there are are some very interesting aspects of the future world that they live in that I find very interesting/strange.
First of all is the social hierarchy that is so different from our own. Scientists unfortunately don’t get the glory in our society. They certainly get the respect, but not to the extent that they do here. The students of Watson-Crick are considered the premier thinkers of a new world- but they are lacking in any kind of social skill whatsoever. Crake is not really an exception to this. Why have values shifted away from what they are now (entertainment, culture) to a super focus on technology?
In our world, experience and entertainment is one of the main parts of our lives- but here, such entertainment is outsourced to far away places (that are nonexistant in the eyes of the young viewers in the compound). Is the reason Jimmy and Crake watch such appalling internet programs because entertainment culture has vanished?
On another note, are Jimmy and Crake “normal” in their entertainment choices? In our world, this kind of graphic media certainly exists, but is consumed by a very small subset of people. So, even in this weird biotech-obsessed world, I don’t think that Crake and Jimmy’s choice of media is normal. It certainly is either a cause or result of many of their apathetic tendencies (I’m going to say result, but this is really an open debate).
Lastly, I want to talk about SoYummie Ice cream. Why, in this world of vast compounds and genetic engineering, is real food so rare? It would seem, from the context, that it simply became unimportant (as did the mysteriously absent entertainment industry), but in Watson-Crick it is described as a luxury. Why can’t they just grow more chickens on trees? Or better yet, why don’t they revert to the farming practices of old? they certainly don’t have moral objections.
Discussion question:
(Even though most of this post is made up of questions, I am still adding another one to the list.)
Oryx and Crake’s future world obviously does not match up with the trajectory of our society right now. So, for what purpose is the world skewed in this way? What is the message or satire here, or otherwise, why was it necessary in the story?
I think that this story is meant to show the extremes of the very worst the real world has to offer. Living in upper-middle class America, I think that we tend to be complacent of the current situation and tend to not give much thought on the state of the world today. While the Atwood’s view of our future appears to be exaggerated (endless riots, increased perversion, indifference towards human life) her story is meant to create a sense of shock to readers. Perhaps our world will not spiral into the level of chaos that Atwood describes, but her story is meant to show the trends of our modern world. It acts as a warning that if we continue to follow the patterns we abide by today, the future will only become bleaker with no hope of real improvement. If nobody cares about the world’s problems nothing will change.
Hot dang, there are quite a few questions in here, many of them very insightful. I’ll try ti answer a few here ad touch on as much as I can.
Your initial set of questions, those pertaining to Jimmy and his relationship with Crake, I found to be the most interesting. During my own reading I was struck with this bond, from the very inception of their friendship I was interested in how it would form to be so integral to the plot. When they began actually hanging out I was a little surprised as they seemed like two totally different individuals, but as time wore on, their similarities, along with their differences, became more apparent. To me, Jimmy is a lot smarter than he lets on. Yes he is what the Watson-Crick kids consider “neurotypical”, in my opinion, intelligence is relative. For instance though the geniuses at Crake’s school are, well, geniuses, as Jimmy’s dialogue with Crake demonstrates, they have trouble appreciating certain types of beauty, classical literature included.
The mis-matched trajectory of humanity was another, I suppose more broad, aspect of the work that stands out to me. In my opinion I feel that Atwood is aware of the dramatic nature of this future and we as readers should understand that she understands. What would a novel be if the world was nearly the same as it is now? Smaller, more confined narratives could exist in that future setting, but for something like Oryx and Crake to retain its level of drama, there must be some amount of tragedy and chaos in the world,
I just wanted to comment on the social hierarchy point, which got me thinking about our society in relation to the Craker society. With the absence of a racial or social hierarchy, the Craker’s are all on a level playing field, but one that is devoid of individuality. My question is taking into account the destruction of the world, wouldn’t this imply that if we try to all become the same our world would crumble, just as the Craker’s world did? However, the Craker’s do have a certain sense of hierarchy in that they praise Crake and they do many things for Snowman. This explains an innate desire in humans for a leader, when we think that we as humans have faults.
My main point I wanted to mention was an answer to your question about why the successful Crake keeps coming back to Jimmy. When Crake’s successful and superior identity is tied up within society, he is dependent on other, less successful people to keep his identity in line. Without Snowman’s subservience, Crake cannot lead and be superior. Both Crake and Snowman are dependent upon each other to confirm their place in society.
Why have values shifted away from what they are now (entertainment, culture) to a super focus on technology?
This is a really interesting question, one that definitely crossed my mind but never materialized into a chain of thoughts. Anyways, I am still wondering about this but it seems to me that the world has come to have a shift in values. Leaders today, and education systems value the “well rounded” student, meaning a student is engaged in humanities as well as sciences. Perhaps in this world one person, one who was very insistent on sciences, came to power and shifted the thoughts of the rest of the world? Another speculation could be that it was just simply necessary given the statue of the world they live in. With a wide variety of extinct species and a deteriorating ecosystem, it became necessary for the human race to focus on survival and new forms of technology to ensure sustainability as oppose to the seemingly frivolous world of the arts.
Either way, it seemed a convenience to have these highly intelligent students working away, for the sake of the story line it makes sense.