When looking at the major characters in Oryx and Crake, it seems somewhat apparent that they aren’t merely plot figures, but symbollic of greater overarching value systems. The title can be misleading in that the main conflict occurs between Jimmy and Crake, with Oryx laying somewhere in the middle ground in between the two. Though the in class discussions touched on the opposing forces of idealism and realism, along with the dichotomy of sensitivity and callous behavior towards society that Jimmy portrays versus Crake’s general pessimism, I’d like to look more in depth at this conflict especially in relation to the latter portion of the novel.
In the final parts of the book, we find Snowman trapped within the Rejoovenessence compound and simultaneously ensnared within the horrific past. As he traverses deeper into the pleeblands in this section, he travels further along in his own memories, recollecting information about the times and moments that led up to the destruction of the old world. At the beginning of Chapter 12, he focuses in on a few specific sexual encounters and can’t seem to escape his fantasies even when hurt and in danger. Snowman recalls a very intriguing comment Crake once made: “Nobody wanted to be sexless, but nobody wanted to be nothing but sex… Another human conundrum” (311). I think that this issue shows a much more grandeur importance throughout the novel than one might think, especially when analyzing the traits of the Crakers as the new human race. While Snowman has been also rendered sexless, Jimmy was the complete opposite and loved the trasient physical satisfaction he gained from sex, yet hated the implications involved with it. The Crakers also end up sexless in a way (though they still must do it to reproduce, their is no emotional attachement with it), and where does that really leave them? They still seem to develop complex and meaningful relationships with one another, but in a manner that lacks most ulterior motives that are present today.
In recent times, sexuality has expanded in modern culture and become something essential to an individual’s personhood. For some people, it is the determining factor of their entire personality. To think that in this society, one that’s much more open, perverse, and grotesque in every way (especially sexually), Crake would render the new world sexless is incredulous. What are the implications for removing sex from the world? Are sex and love as intertwined as we may think? Is Atwood making a broader statement here about what should be done in society or is she merely attempting to point out our current confusion with infatuation and love and the vagueness surrounded with that word in particular?
Great points, but I just want to hone in on the bigger issue here. I think that Atwood was not trying to create a distinction between love and sex, but with the “sexless” aspect, Oryx is presented as an object. While Jimmy and Crake both use Oryx, Jimmy does it out of love, while Crake just has sex with her. However, the issue of love vs. sex is not really what Atwood was trying to get at. I think that Atwood was trying to push gender boundaries with Oryx’s objectification and demonstrate that sexuality is formed from cultural and societal norms. Remember how Crake went to Asperger’s U? Well he definitely cares more about progress in the world than sex. Crake exhibits traits that are slightly on the spectrum because he doesn’t demonstrate much emotion or care for sex in a loving way. He believes that sex/love get in the way of progress and so he eliminated it from his ideal world. The rendering of the Crakers as sexless, shows more about Crake than it does about Atwood.
These are all really insightful points, a lot of this had been bouncing around in my head, but I hadn’t been able to really make any real conclusions. I found myself asking many of the same questions. To answer them then, is challenging. If I had to speculate on what the world would be like without sex I’d say it’d be much less passionate, or at least passionate in different ways, there are just so many factors that play into and are derived from sex and sexuality. Advertising, Jimmy’s field of work ironically enough, would change entirely. Brands like Axe and Old Spice would probably dissapear. In fact the beauty industry as a whole would probably crumble if it couldn’t rebrand itself as being useful for some other aspect of life. As for love I think Atwood is certainly making a point about how are society views that concept and is putting on display how much we prioritize sex over love, the ephemeral, immediate satisfaction over the long term, more difficult to obtain. In addition I just find it interesting. Atwood has this dystopian future to play around with, why not see what happens when love changes along with humanity?