Fledgling (spoilers): the Ina-Symbiont relationship

[[deleted user]]

Hello everyone!

In myth and legends vampires are perceived as night predators, the silence stalkers who hunt down their prey and drain life from the throat of the victims. Personnaly I associate them to rapists.

Anyway, Fledging propose an interesting approach of vampires, also called Ina. In that case, they are not describe as "murderers" (in general). Indeed, whenever an Ina bite a human, the human takes pleasure (unless she/he is the symbiont of another Ina) and he/she becomes addicted to a chemical substance contained in the vampire's saliva. Furthermore an intense relationship starts. It is not only emotional and psychological but also physical.
The Ina and the symbionts are somehow bounded and take care of each other.

Several times, we are told, while Shori learns again the uses of Ina society, that this bounded is a symbiosis and that the humans can refuse to be symbionts. Of course potential symbionts are explained what will be their life after being bounded.

However, I am tempted to question the Ina logic and the so called symbiosis. It does not seem harmful or noxious but humans who are bitten for the first time are not told the consequences before being bitten and a bound seems to rise even after the first bite. They are not forced but their addiction seems to hinder their free will. Several times, Wright challenges this idea of symbiosis and states that maybe if he had the choice he would not have made that decision.

The other point is the multiple relationships Ina-Symbiont and Ina and their mates. The relationship between an Ina and her/his symbionts is somehow sexual (in my opinion) even if there is no physical sex (once again, it depends). Ina mention that competition between symbionts may occur (like a pack of wolves), probably because of jealousy. Since the symbionts may not really accept this symbiosis (they are addicted) they may be forced to be involve in such multiple relationships. I do not judge those relationships (even if it is something I definitely would not do) but the consent is not clear.

Also, at some points Shori is in need of blood and symbionts and she decides to stalk people and take meals from them without their consent. She is a strong character and there are some part of her personality I really love, the way she cares about people and how she protect them, but stalking people to feed herself... No, that sounds like an intrusive behaviour and somehow may be perceived as a rapist behaviour.

Any thoughts about those points? ☺️

I know that this suggestion did not receive many votes but I hope some OSS members read (or will read) this great book and are willing to discuss it. I take a risk to have no answers but the book deserves it!

Anyway great suggestion so thank you! 😉

[Katherine]

Florian wrote: "Hello everyone!

In myth and legends vampires are perceived as night predators, the silence stalkers who hunt down their prey and drain life from the throat of the victims. Personnaly I associate t..."

I am glad that someone else read Fledgling! I had been wanting to read some Octavia Butler for a while, and I read Rebecca at school (ages ago), so I thought I'd take the chance.

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I did wonder about the humans' free will in the symbiont relationship. It seemed that Shori tried to give her symbionts the choice of whether to stay with her or not, but the fact that they had already received an addictive chemical from her meant that they weren't really making a free choice. So I agree with you there. Shori could make them think that she was a dream, but I think that only happened when she decided not to keep them as symbionts. I don't remember any symbionts in the novel deciding not to stay with their Ina.

I also agree with you that the symbionts don't give consent for the group relationship. Wright seems quite unhappy about it, in fact. Perhaps the only one who goes into the symbiont relationship with full informed consent is the symbiont who attaches to Shori at the compound. I'm sorry, I've forgotten his name. I read the book a few weeks ago now!
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I read someone's comment that Fledgling seemed like the first part of what was intended to be a series, and I agree. There seemed to be issues in the book that deserved more examination.

Thanks for your comment, Florian. Fledgling was a really interesting book. I was worried that it might be gory and nasty, but instead I found it thought-provoking.

I think it would be a good future choice for OSS, because it covers race, prejudice, consent, sexual relationships and lots of other things that are relevant for a feminist book club. It's also a great story!

Katherine

[[deleted user]]

Wonderful! A comment with thoughts about this book! Thank you! I hope more people will share their opinions :)

Did the relationship between Shori and the symbionts (especially Wright at the beginning) make you uncomfortable. I mean, she is older that she looks like but still they had sex with someone that looked like 10-11 years old. It sounded so wrong to me... In addition they had no idea how old she was

Indeed, Butler's book approaches many points including racism. I do not think it will be selected for a two month reading but I hope that the OSS team will show how wrong I am! 😋

To be honest, when I finished my reading of Fledgling I looked for the next book because to me, just like you mentioned it, it was some kind of starter. However I did not find anything.

Ps: no real need to insert the spoiler brackets since there is [Spoiler] in the title. I asked Jo to be sure and she told me it was all fine ;)