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reading (Clay's Ark)
I finished Octavia E. Butler's "Clay's Ark" on Wednesday evening. I didn't realize this book was part of a series, but from reading about the series, this book seems only loosely connected to the earlier book in the series chronology.
I have real problems with this book. Reading this book felt like watching a sexploitation film from the early '70's. The plot seemed to twist around in order to get every ugly fetish from those movies played out in the roughest way possible. I feel like this is what you'd have if you stacked "Damnation Alley" between two Hustler magazines and left them in a dark corner for too long.
The two main female characters are Mary Sue and Peggy Sue with their tough aunt Betty Sue coming in a bit later. I mean really, these characters make Heinlein's female characters seem human and realistic.
I find the architecture of the disease to be more of an Escher painting than something that works in a logical way. It's a disease that spreads with something as simple as contact, then speeds the metabolism of the host, makes them impervious to almost all physical harm, increases breeding drives, and increases animosity among males.
Lets talk about how this disease is built. It is very adaptable and very effective at spreading. It's not a dumb virus, since it differentiates between previously infected and uninfected hosts. So when introduced into an environment with a limited food supply, it infects all available hosts, kills some of them, makes the rest virtually immune to all other infections and chances of random death, greatly increases their metabolism, and increases breeding drives. This would put enormous strains on food production capacity. This scenario would make the current population problem on Earth seem like nothing. The host environment would be decimated in no time. Any species not included in the list of hosts would be depopulated by overgrazing and the entire planet would be a desert in a hundred years.
There is a bit of confusion about the results of reinfection from another host. In the first part of the book it's explained that the infection acts as a toxin and reinfection from another host is necessary so that the two different mutated version of the disease battle each other and neutralize the toxin. Okay, think about the last really strong fever you've experience. That's what this is describing on a grand scale. In the last part of the book, reinfection is a method of communication and knowledge transmission.
I think the latter explanation makes more sense. But with either explanation, there comes a problem with gender. Why did this disease that's so keen on spreading and can be spread by a simple touch differentiate on gender? The males became more competitive and hostile while the women either maintained their old level of interaction or became more interactive. The is just an excuse to set the males up as either patriarchs of the harem or killers. Couple that gender differentiation with the fact that the infection kills males with much greater frequency than it kills females and you get a perfect excuse for a harem. Why does the disease kill off men more? The reason for death during infection is previous injury (broken bones). This doesn't explain why males die with much greater frequency than females. Oh, we've got to have a high population of females so there will plenty of possibility of rape and lots of pregnancy. You've got to kill off almost all the males or the animosity among them would cause perpetual fighting and healing.
Let's talk about that rape thing. Butler goes to great strides to set up a situation where a sixteen year old can get gang raped and desire it.
If you're still thinking of getting this book, read the last line under the cut again.
7. Octavia E. Butler "Clay's Ark"
I have real problems with this book. Reading this book felt like watching a sexploitation film from the early '70's. The plot seemed to twist around in order to get every ugly fetish from those movies played out in the roughest way possible. I feel like this is what you'd have if you stacked "Damnation Alley" between two Hustler magazines and left them in a dark corner for too long.
The two main female characters are Mary Sue and Peggy Sue with their tough aunt Betty Sue coming in a bit later. I mean really, these characters make Heinlein's female characters seem human and realistic.
I find the architecture of the disease to be more of an Escher painting than something that works in a logical way. It's a disease that spreads with something as simple as contact, then speeds the metabolism of the host, makes them impervious to almost all physical harm, increases breeding drives, and increases animosity among males.
Lets talk about how this disease is built. It is very adaptable and very effective at spreading. It's not a dumb virus, since it differentiates between previously infected and uninfected hosts. So when introduced into an environment with a limited food supply, it infects all available hosts, kills some of them, makes the rest virtually immune to all other infections and chances of random death, greatly increases their metabolism, and increases breeding drives. This would put enormous strains on food production capacity. This scenario would make the current population problem on Earth seem like nothing. The host environment would be decimated in no time. Any species not included in the list of hosts would be depopulated by overgrazing and the entire planet would be a desert in a hundred years.
There is a bit of confusion about the results of reinfection from another host. In the first part of the book it's explained that the infection acts as a toxin and reinfection from another host is necessary so that the two different mutated version of the disease battle each other and neutralize the toxin. Okay, think about the last really strong fever you've experience. That's what this is describing on a grand scale. In the last part of the book, reinfection is a method of communication and knowledge transmission.
I think the latter explanation makes more sense. But with either explanation, there comes a problem with gender. Why did this disease that's so keen on spreading and can be spread by a simple touch differentiate on gender? The males became more competitive and hostile while the women either maintained their old level of interaction or became more interactive. The is just an excuse to set the males up as either patriarchs of the harem or killers. Couple that gender differentiation with the fact that the infection kills males with much greater frequency than it kills females and you get a perfect excuse for a harem. Why does the disease kill off men more? The reason for death during infection is previous injury (broken bones). This doesn't explain why males die with much greater frequency than females. Oh, we've got to have a high population of females so there will plenty of possibility of rape and lots of pregnancy. You've got to kill off almost all the males or the animosity among them would cause perpetual fighting and healing.
Let's talk about that rape thing. Butler goes to great strides to set up a situation where a sixteen year old can get gang raped and desire it.
If you're still thinking of getting this book, read the last line under the cut again.
7. Octavia E. Butler "Clay's Ark"