Oryx & Crake (MaddAddam #1)

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Ah! So many comments I want to respond to since last I checked in on this thread!

Kelly: (view spoiler)[ I also found Atwood's way of writing such a deplorable thing not as disturbing as I might otherwise find it. I think part of this is because of the indifference with which the characters themselves approach the subject. Much like in Room, where the subject matter is absolutely horrifying and I thought I would have a lot of difficulty getting through it, but because it is from such an innocent child's point of view, it's not as bad to read as I thought. (Not that the characters in this book are innocent.) (hide spoiler)]

Kelly/Brittany: (view spoiler)[The genetics stuff in this book is really interesting to me. While my area of study in school was never specifically for this, I always found it the coolest part of any science class. As far as your thought of Atwood predicting the apple watch, and Brittany's observation about the parallels on how wealthy countries are actually killing poorer countries with their "need" for trending foods, Kristin already said Atwood put things into the story that were already technologies and stuff that was either already being used or on the horizon.
To add to that, even the gene-splicing and making chimera animals has been done for years. I did a speech on this subject probably 6 years ago, and the process had been around for years then. Putting jellyfish genes in pigs so their noses glowed and the like. Some of what they can do is sort of scary, like the classic Jurassic Park line: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." But a lot of it they are trying to do good with (such as making genetically modified food with more nutrients in countries that only have access to certain foods). The unfortunate thing, as with any scientific advancement, is because it is so new, there's not really a dependable way of determining long-term effects of these things. (hide spoiler)]

Kristin: I have a B.S. in Psychology as well and loved reading your interpretations! Your Chaper 7:1 thoughts: (view spoiler)[A lot of your observations sort of mirror my thoughts on the characters and society as a whole. For Jimmy's obsession with Oryx's past, I think it's a good example of how we can become desensitized to the awful things happening in the world. In the Information Age, we have access to the knowledge of ALL of it, making it almost necessary as a coping mechanism to quell our empathy a little bit. Otherwise we'd all be walking around as worthless, anxious, depressed shells of ourselves. This is a problem anyway if you just look at the rise of mental disorders, particularly in 1st world countries where most of us have our needs met and therefore have the time/energy/motivation to look outside of ourselves and family to see how the world is doing. It's just so overwhelming that we then turn back in on ourselves to shield us from atrocities being committed in other parts of the world, or even just in the next town.
Anyway, when those atrocities come into your circle (when Oryx shows up in person), all that empathy we've been keeping a leash on, sort of spills out in inappropriate ways. Their pain becomes our business, whether the actual victim of the trauma wants to discuss it or not. We don't want to be these desensitized creatures we've become because somewhere in there, there is the superego, the evolutionary need to care about one another. We need to reach out and try to fix humanity (as a whole and our own), even if it just happens to be the one person standing in front of us that symbolizes all the victims of abuse that we've been ignoring for so long.
Alongside this, is just human nature's need to understand and explain. Especially in this age where the answers to everything are in our pockets. It's frustrating when a person shows up in front of us with a past we cannot relate to, so our desire to gain that knowledge again spills out in inappropriate ways. (hide spoiler)]

Roles of main characters: (view spoiler)[Spot-on with your Freudian rundown of the 3. Although when I think about them, I picture Maslow's Hierarchy. Very similar. Jimmy is the bottom 2 sections of the pyramid: Physiological (food, water, rest) and Safety needs. Oryx is the middle one: Belongingness and love (not that she herself necessarily needs this, but that she symbolizes it), and Crake is definitely the top 2: Esteem needs (prestige and accomplishment) and Self-actualization (achieving one's full potential). When Crake culminates his plan, it forces Jimmy to take on the roles of the entire pyramid because he's the only one left.
I said something similar defending the "flatness" of the characters in my review. Although I again felt the reason for that being the disillusionment of society as a whole.
I had the same thought about the Crakers. How long will they remain the innocent-to-the-world creatures they were created to be? Snowman will only be able to protect them for so long before something happens that changes this. For instance, they aren't afraid of guns now, but if one of them gets killed by one, it introduces fear and mortality into their lives, which are two huge things that are sort of a driving force for humans to act as they do. (hide spoiler)]

Other Atwood books: (view spoiler)[ Possibly has to do with what I said above when talking about society's empathy? A commentary one while we feel the need to hide our emotions away to protect ourselves, there will always be that longing to connect with another human being and it becomes almost taboo to want that? Or maybe Atwood just really likes the idea of an affair. (hide spoiler)]

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Kristin wrote: "SarahKat, I do not have time presently to respond properly to your post, but it was wonderful and so thought-provoking. Thank you!!"

I second that!