Den of the Cyphered Wolf

Monday, April 6, 2015

Musings (AKA So Greg Read a Book or Two)

I really really really want to like Outlander.  It's setting up some really interesting stuff, before too long I don't doubt we'll see the Battle of Culloden and all that came with it before the end. But it also every so often does bodice ripper stuff that makes me want to facepalm. Claire is a really interesting character who is depicted as being ahead of her time even by (her) contemporary standards. She seems constructed to say one thing this crap (patriarchy) is stupid and she (and by extension the female audience) is not going to put up with this bullshit and a lot of the story is about the characters around her from the 18th century dealing with that she's not going to just do what they tell her because they're guys (or nobles).

Sometimes they love her for it, sometimes they hate her for it but at the end of the day the entire point is that they can't control her. She is what she is and they have to just deal.

And then the show came back from mid season break in the middle of a rape scene. And let's just say I think it could have handled it better.  Things get complicated. This is one of those values dissonance things that come with the territory of historical fiction. The script and the actress make it clear how messed up Clair views the situation but damn the music cue and direction undermines that she is getting beaten by her husband, who up until this point has probably been portrayed as the most sympathetic character other than herself, after being nearly raped and killed and frames the whole thing as a lovers spat.

On the other hand the show's narration has switched from Clair to Jamie so maybe that's how he views the whole thing.  It's just that up until this point the show had a clear raison detre and these events muddy it a bit.  Even after that there is a weird "make up" sex scene near the end of the episode.

All the same I generally like trapped in the past stories.

After some thought I realized that Outlander has the same basic plot if not the same setting as Octavia Butler's Kindred. It's been a long while since I read that book and I don't have easy access to a copy of it as I write.

Instead of an Scotish woman from the 50's you have an African American one from the 70's being "trapped in the past"

I'll be up front everything up until this point has been so I can transition into talking about Lilith's Brood but dispite how long its been Kindred is a great book as well. A lot of people call it a children's book because its more structurally if not morally simple than the Xenogenesis trilogy. Xenogenesis is coy being all sly metaphor and allegory laden post-apocalyptic fiction (WITH AN ALIEN INVASION) but from the get go Kindred is like this,  this is what we're talking about.

One of the reasons why I like Octavia Butler is that while yes I kind of want to do what she did, she very clearly uses science fiction to explore the African-American (and yes feminine) experience, and it kind of pisses me off a little that that is so hard to find.

But she delves deeper that just the usual obvious condemnations and tries understand colonialism and slavery to ask the questions of why and how while maintaining her own brand of indignation.

Specifically the thesis of Kindred is that Slavery was not just a crime against African-Americans but against society itself as we see characters warped by it. We see the antagonist as a child who is raised by his, aunt out of time. Its clear that despite how repulsed she is the protagonist feels something for this child and wants to see him not turn into the monster she knows he probably will.  He is a reverse Huck Finn.

We see all the forces in that kid's life pushing him away from her and towards "the world".

And that's the same of the Xenogenisis saga. The characters (and by extension the audience) meet most of the major alien players when thier kids and kind of flexible and a central theme of that stories is that while children may be more open minded they generally have limited political power until they've "grown up".

You know reading about the book the first thing that people describe is the allegory of colonialism that runs through it.  And it's pretty strong sure but what often goes uncommented upon is that Butler draws a strong parallel between the infantalism of colonialism and actual infantalism.

The idea that kids know what it's like to have the people in their lives assume their wrong just for who they are and as such kind of more receptive to understanding the injustice of the same from other sources.

In almost each book of the saga there is a character who believes how "the adults" are doing things is profoundly wrong but has to wait to rectify things because no one will take a child seriously.

Not only that but the book frames Lillith's, our human protagonist of the first book's"transformation" as a sort of rebirth with her developing in parallel with the first "child" figure of the saga. The story is very much about development (Lillith's BROOD) as Lilith (oh a thousand theologians punched the air) developes from an inarticulate ignorant child figure into the maternal figure to what humanity will become.

And then of course there alien puberty. The third book is particularly interesting in that one of the central problems of that text is that the biology of its "child" figure is in flux and nobody literally knows what it will be. Both it and its parents are freaked out worrying that it could either lose itself or worse change in a way that will cause it to harm others.

Especially sexually (I'll get back to it) but back to the colonialism.

What most interests me about the book is that its aliens are alien. Its clear they are sentient, they are people but their needs, biology, values and culture are radically different from that of humanity. Much of the book deals with how the original "colonists" viewed what they were doing (I'll get back to that) as an equal trade but later generations object and try to figure out how to make a situation that can't be undone more amenable as the over time the cultures and yes species become closer and more able to understand each other.

To that end I have to explain this.

Okay. These aliens survive by "trading" genetic material with various compatible species into themselves via mating to the point that the species become one (I know I'll get to it later)  that doesn't sound so bad but remember what I said about alien alien. The first book is more concerned about Lillith's, i.e. humanity's point of view but the second and third are all about various aliens who understand why their parents did what they did and came to the decisions they came to (yeah yeah I already said this)

The aliens are much more in tune with biology than humans. We communicate with our words and expect that to be it they communicate with words... and smells. and touches and when words don't align with that stuff (remember what I said about hurting someone sexually)

Again what makes the alagories in the saga work is that Butler is very good at mixing metaphor and literal imagery. Remember these "trades" happen via mating and its revealed much later in the story that this type of communication is a two way street something humans are kind of unprepared for and doesn't get explained to humanity until its waaaay too late. In other words the aliens are literally and metaphorically raping the whole of humanity.

That said part of what makes them so alien and drives the conflict and how they handle things is they don't exactly have a choice in the matter. "Baby It's Cold Outside" is kind of just part of their biology and has been for so long that the idea that volition (both sexual and non) exists outside of "biological consensus" takes a while for them to accept and internalize.

Which is the point the story wishes to create a scenario where no matter what people say the aliens will believe they "know what's best". Most obviously sterilizing old school humanity humanity.

The first book is about how we got to this point and Lillith's guilt regarding basically "betraying her race" to the borg and her anger and acceptance after learning those weren't fully her calls. What is interesting is that while Lillith eventually does accept things as they are and takes the good changes (Cancer is good?) with the bad its also clear she's not strictly speaking "over it"giving a long monologue at the start of the second book (which serves basically as an episode recap for versions that aren't in the same volume) about how the rest of humanity isn't exactly wrong to hate her guts and the current state of affairs are at least partially due to her failings in the first book but also admitting she did what seemed best at the time which is congruent to everything she said "at the time".

While I love that this book is so complicated it is a bitch to explain the plot

Lillith was chosen to be the first human to be returned to earth after an collapse that was "fixed" by the aliens.  She is tasked with leading a a group of humans on the "new" planet and making sure they don't get themselves killed. At the time she feels she understands the aliens better that most people, who either flee in abject terror or try to shoot them on sight and doing a rough job is better than an unwinnable war which is also something the aliens don't want since they want to "trade" with us rather than kill us.  (I know, I know)
She bargains with the aliens and leads the rest of humanity, or at least tries to lead the rest of humanity into that bargain. A central conflict in her story at least is that the aliens are very seldom clear about which such bargains entail until waaaaaay after the fact. THEY ARE MANIPULATIVE ASSHOLES. Or maybe its that whole not understanding the concept of volition thing.  Again the later books are much more sympathetic to the aliens than the first.

The thing about Lillith is that she is also kind of cynical out of necessity and believed that yes if she didn't handle everybody with kids gloves they would murder each other (which by the way happens a few times) So in the first book she was trying to balance her indignation at not being told things by her alien captors/bosses/masters whatevers and not telling people stuff that would make them make stupid mistakes.

The result of toeing or not toeing this line is a rebellion that sets the stage for the later books. I segment of humans who want to be left alone but at the same time were irrevocably changed by the aliens who don't incorrectly blame Lillith (oh there is that name again) for it all.  But this is Lilith's Brood after all. While I personally feel that the first book is the best and that Lillith is the most well developed protagonist of the series the second two books aren't really about her. Heck she's barely in them.

It's about her kids who have spent enough time with her to know how she (and by proxy) the rest of humanity feels about assimilation. At first this is just an understanding that humans were wronged but by the third book her decedents are able to understand exactly how humans were wronged and why thier alien ancestors made the choices they made as well. There is a Liberia analogue and like in real life it doesn't magically solve anything.

But the books are also clear, both the humans and the aliens have been changed and trying to ignore or undo said change is foolish at best and ... you know what inbreeding. Yep trying to keep the "races" pure leads to inbreeding. and while I've been hinting at it I'll say it here the book is good science fiction in that it both explains and details what happens when you are your own uncle... for a few generations. It aint pretty.

The third and second books are all about the futility of trying to stave off external cultural, social and technological influences. Which of course is a central part of the African-American experience and has been for a long time. How do you condemn colonialism and even slavery while exploiting things that are a direct consequence of it.

And that's something all of the human, "bargainers" struggle with. A lingering anger at what has been done but at the same time a familiar comfort with the lives they have built around it.


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