#become ooloi

[rjalker]

Here's a summary of the Xenogenesis trilogy. Contains spoilers.

Trigger warning for discussion of rape. Because "consent" does not exist in this trilogy.

(Archived read more)

The Xenogenesis trilogy is about the Earth being almost completely destroyed in a nuclear war between the United States and Russia, and then some aliens, known as Oankali, just so happened to come along at just the right time to rescue people.

They bring Humans up to their living ship, and put them into suspended animation while they fix the Earth and remove the contamination.

They keep Humans in solitary confinement when they're not in suspended animation so that they can interrogate them and study them. Any Humans too violent to be allowed back onto Earth when the restoration is done will be kept permanently in a drugged state to be experimented upon.

The Oankali have three sexes: male, female, and ooloi. All three are required to produce offspring. The male and female provide the genetic tissue, and the ooloi combines it and removes any defective material and ensures that the offspring will fit whatever goal the Oankali currently have. All of their children are genetically engineered and the result of eugenics.

Male and female Oankali are unable to reproduce, or even have sex, or even touch eachother to show affection, without an ooloi, because the ooloi literally rewire the body chemistry of their mates so that they become literally addicted to the ooloi and can't be away from them for more than a few days without feeling like they're dying.

The Oankali travel through space on their living ships, constantly on the lookout for new species to "Trade" with. They are instinctively driven to search for new things, including new genetic material. Every time they find a new species to "Trade" with, they take over the planet, remove any members of the species that resist, and breed with the remaining survivors, who they grant longer lifespans and immunity to disease or disability, creating hybrid offspring.

A collaborator family start up consists of: A Human male, a Human female, an ooloi, an Oankali female, and an Oankali male. The ooloi acts as the go between for all the genetic material for the four other parents, so that each child has genetic material from two Humans and two Oankali.

In these families, you are expected to keep making babies until you are too old to do it any more. And since the Oankali give people increased lifespans, you're gonna be doing this for at least the next 200 years.

Like with the male and female Oankali, ooloi rewrite the body chemistry of their Human mates as well, so that they are literally addicted to the ooloi, and cannot leave it without intense psychological pain and withdrawal. They also become likewise unable to touch eachother, or even any other human, without feeling horrible disgust and repulsion. The only way for them to reproduce or even have "sex" now is to go through "their" ooloi.

The Oankali insist that everything they do is done with good intentions, and is done for the benefit of the species they're "trading" with. And if you don't like it, that's because you're just an ignorant savage child who doesn't know what's good for you.

There is no such thing as consenting to join with an ooloi, because you cannot say no to an ooloi. If you try, they'll literally paralyze you with tendrils they've inserted into your literal nervous system and tell you that your mouth might be saying no, but your body is saying yes, so that means you want it to happen.

Yes, that's just as horrifying as it sounds. Yes, it is rape. Yes, that is the point.

And once you have been bonded to an ooloi, with or without even the illusion of consenting to it, you literally cannot hate them. You can be mad for a few days at most, but you literally are now physically incapable of hating them or fighting back, and you can't leave.

and yeah I have a headache so that's all I'm writing right now.

[cocksuki2]

i just finished reading the xenogenesis trilogy by octavia e butler last night and holy shit... it was fucking fantastic. 

i found myself enthralled at every turn. every new piece of information, every twist and turn, seemed to do exactly what i wanted it to do without doing what i expected it to do. 

it’s difficult to explain what the series is about, as butler’s world-building is deeply immersive and highly detailed. however, the series synopsis boils down to: humanity, on the verge of itS planetary and species extinction due to a nuclear war, is discovered by an alien race called the oankali who wish to interbreed with them in order to create a perfect mix between the species, taking all of the good from both and leaving behind the bad. 

(spoilers beyond this point) 

the first book, dawn, follows lilith iyapo as she is awoken from suspended animation, made to become used to the grotesque oankali, and “asked” to awaken other humans with the intention of sending them back down to repopulate a restored earth with human and oankali hybrids. it deals beautifully with the concept of freedom versus choice, as well as survival versus morality. the book describes in painstaking detail, what it means for lilith to be human, as well as what it means to not just survive this alien invasion, but to thrive in it. 

the oankali do not kill unless on accident, but that does not mean that lilith has freedom. she’s given the choice of coopoerating with the aliens or returning indefinitely to suspended animation, where her genetic material would be used as a backup reserve. it’s not a choice at all, but it offers the illusion of choice to her and to her oankali captors, who cannot understand why humanity would be so resistant to combining genes. 

it’s difficult to express just how detailed and complex these books are. each one takes you deeper and deeper into butler’s science fiction world, drawing you into the story and iyapo family in a way you never would have expected. 

xenogenesis conjures up imagery of american slavery and global colonialism, of patriarchal society, of the politics of reproductive freedom. it forces us to reconcile the difference between person and property in this genetic context, as well as forces us to view just how profoundly power-dynamics can and do affect the way we interact with others.

each novel expresses a different aspect of this invasion, from the early stages of lilith’s orientation, all the way through to her large, hybrid family. butler’s books introduce us not only to the human side of the story, but to the alien one. through her books become attached to lilith, as well as to her oankali mates, ahajas, dichaan, and nikanj (her ooloi). despite the pain they put her through, we are still encouraged to sympathize with all of them throughout the story. 

dawn, the first book in the series, is told exclusively through a female point of view. the second book, adulthood rites, is told exclusively from a male point of view, following the first human born oankali-human hybrid (also called constructs). the third book, imago, is told through the eyes of the first (and accidental) construct ooloi, the third gender in the oankali reproductive unit. 

as the books cover each perspective, they become less and less human. each point of view loses a little more humanity than the last, until the third book thrusts us entirely into the alien world of sexual attraction through genetics rather than through physical appearance. we’re made to sympathize with all three aspects of gender presented in the xenogenesis trilogy, as well as sympathize not only with humanity, but with the oankali. they’re introduced to us in the later half of the series not as alien, but as half of the protagonists we’re rooting for. oankali blood becomes as much a part of the reader’s heritage as it is lilith’s children. 

overall, xenogenesis (also called lilith’s brood) is an incredible read that focuses on colonialism, american slavery, reproductive rights and autonomy, patriarchy, and what it means to be human through an increasingly unhuman lens. however, that’s not to say butler’s work ever loses it’s humanity. much like humanity in the novel, it changes. 

[inner--islands]

Interview with Soda Lite (June 2019)

1. What are some recent inspirations?

The ooloi of Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, the music and technological wizardry of the Middle Ages, Debussy, ambient music worldwide, the Little Wattlebird & the Common Myna, agroecology, Liffey (my dog companion), clay, Çatalhöyük, kale, the soil biology in my backyard.

2. Your earliest release as Soda Lite was in 2015. When did you start recording music and how long have you been releasing it (under any moniker)?

I started recording music when I was a teenager in 2005. I used a headset mic, Windows Sound Recorder and Audacity. Music like Beaches and Canyons (Black Dice) inspired me to experiment, and I made all sorts of noisy, organic alien sounds under all kinds of names for years…

3. What were your initial aspirations when starting the Soda Lite project?

I realised my listening habits were changing, drifting into New Age realms and brighter, slower sounds. I wanted to reflect this in my own compositions. I was also becoming more and more entranced by plants, animals and my local environment, and thinking more about the role of music in shaping time and space. Since wild places are rare and distant for people living in cities, I wanted to create sounds that would allow them to experience (within the safety of their home or headphones) the slow, sweet temporal flux of that vibrant world beyond the cement highways, machinery, automation, cars and other alienating intensities of petro-capitalism.

4. There is a definite shift in mood and palette on your album In Eco from 2017 that has carried forward into your work over the last couple years. What is behind that artistic shift for you?

Any shift of mood or palette is mostly incidental, arising from shifts in my own life rhythms, in the places I’m visiting or living in, or what I’m listening to or thinking about. When I sit down to make music I don’t actively try to wander away from the work I have done previously. A timbre or a melody captures me, not the other way around. The conditions of light, of air temperature, of nearby plants, clouds of pollen and a thousand other micro-sensual elements all lead me to a sense of what gels within a song.

5. What are the factors you consider when choosing field recordings for one of your pieces?

Sometimes it’s about the mood evoked, and sometimes it’s about really wanting to respond to a place that I’ve bonded with. The field recording is almost always where I start. They was especially important for some of the pieces on ‘Reveries in terra lerpa,’ where I really wanted the instruments to sound as if they were woven into the acoustic ecology of the recorded environment. For Vale & Stone, the recordings act more like topsoil, a fertile ground from which to grow the different tones and harmonies which make up the album. These are some of the places you can hear on the new album: on ‘Nyth’ it’s Firth’s Campground in Lerderderg State Park (Victoria) On ‘Moonah,’ it’s the backyard in my new home on the first day we arrived. In ‘Lyra’s Horizon’ it’s a seagull colony on an abandoned human-built island called South Channel Fort, in Port Philip Bay (Naarm/Melbourne)

6. Do you feel like music is your main artistic medium?

Not anymore. It definitely used to be.

7. What do you investigate and express in other mediums that you feel like you can’t with music and vice versa?

Through my art practise, I’m able to engage more pragmatically with various social and ecological subjects. For example, looking at the shape of avian intelligence and individuality, or working directly with audiences to determine our shared environmental responsibilities. The music I make is more affective, more emotional. In both, I’m trying to give imaginative shape to new worlds of possibility and ways of life. They crossover a lot.

8. You moved to Lutruwita (Tasmania) recently. How has that shift been for you? It seems like it’s affording you more opportunities to work with the land.

It’s been amazing. Melbourne was a very big city and wracked with a hectic intensity which carried deep into peoples lives. The pace is much different here, and the natural world less ravaged. I was also doing full-time youth work in Melbourne and now I’m just part-time over here, which is much more sustainable. And yeah, I now have more physical and mental space to make experiments in food production, soil, animal care, etc. Food and energy sovereignty are extremely important to me, but it’s an immense project that will take decades to unravel. I’m pretty sure I will grow old and die here in lutruwita.

9. How do you use and engage with music in your daily life?

It’s woven into the fabric of everything I do. It’s rare that music isn’t playing in the background, or on my headphones. I’m listening to a lot of country music at the moment - from the Louvin Brothers to Loretta Lynn. Sounds of the Dawn is always a presence. 12th Isle mixes. Laraaji. Alice Coltrane. And a lot of medieval music…

10. Words of wisdom you like to recall in times of need?

‘Stay with the trouble’ – Donna Haraway 'Everything changes and nothing stands still’ - Heraclitus

Soda Lite has a new album, Vale & Stone, which is now available via Inner Islands on cassette and digital formats.

[theamityelf]

I love this analysis. I would say that the horror of Dawn is definitely centered on consent, pretty much squarely, whereas both sequels deal with smaller horrors that arise in the fallout of the initial premise in which autonomy is not held to be of value. The way I interpret the series, Dawn is largely spent accompanying Lilith on a journey from where she starts (wary, repulsed, rebellious) to "I don't have a choice."

(The question "Does Lilith have a choice?" is one that is either always no or an initial yes that becomes a no at some point in the first book, or a very very pedantic yes, which would be a cool distinction to analyze, but it's not really my point right now.)

As far as the humans she wakes (and humanity at large) are concerned, there is technically a choice. Exactly one binary choice. Yes to the Oankali, or no to the Oankali. Each is given its own book. And each has its own horror.

No to the Oankali is Adulthood Rites. We largely deal with the humans who did not agree to stay with their ooloi, and we address the horror of how they're living and what awaits them. We address the fact that they are on a planet that was doomed by human action, we address the fact that they will eventually (and comparatively soon) die out without help because the ooloi have sterilized them, and later we address the possibility that they will inevitably just start a war and kill each other, once they are allowed to procreate. The towns they create are subject to violent uprisings, and there are traveling ruffians just roaming around hurting people and selling stolen stuff. Because we now have a construct protagonist instead of a human one, being immersed into this theme of "Here is the horror of the choice to turn away from the Oankali" means he is forcibly taken from the Oankali way of things, at great personal cost. He can no longer have the alien bond with his sister (which seriously stresses him out and it stressed me out, too, as a reader), and he can no longer turn his eye from the plight of the unmated humans. The fact that he is born looking the most human out of his siblings plays into things. Akin is made to find mates in a comparatively human way, instead of the traditional Oankali way, and when his appearance changes so that he comes to look more Oankali, it is a huge inconvenience to his plans to help the humans.

Yes to the Oankali is Imago. The horror of agreeing to the Oankali way of things. Here, the way the main protagonist is immersed in the horror is by unintentionally becoming the first construct ooloi. The most alien of the constructs, and unable to control the way its ooloi abilities affect those around them. An ooloi without the capacity for restraint, and with a depth of need (to act out its mating instincts on humans) that impacts everyone it touches. As an inverse to Akin's transformation, Jodahs comes to look extremely appealing to humans, out of desperation to mate, and its way of securing its mates is quintessentially ooloi. For the rest of the cast, the horror is that of being complicit. Lilith consciously, knowingly allows her child to coerce two humans who don't understand that they soon won't have a choice anymore. She is letting what happened to her happen to them because she is a part of the family structure now and she loves her child too much to let it suffer their loss. (The fact that Jodahs might literally die makes this one more understandable than it otherwise would be.) And very shortly after Lilith becomes complicit in coercing two humans, the two humans themselves become complicit in coercing their relatives, to save Jodahs's sibling. A whole town whose identity was based in refusal of the Oankali way of life is swiftly transformed into breeding ground for construct ooloi because two humans who were initially strictly opposed to giving up its location assimilated into the family of the one who coerced them. A change made more easy for the audience because the town sucked anyway and we know the Oankali won't physically harm them.

The concepts that Octavia Butler invokes here, and the ways she makes the audience look at things, are deeply intriguing.

Having a lot of thoughts about Xenogenesis. [discussion of sexual violence and coercion below]

Yesterday I reread all of Dawn and almost all of Adulthood Rites; I stopped almost at the very end and I think that was enough. I remember Imago very well (I accidentally read it before the others and then I wrote yuletide fic for it) and so don't feel the need to revisit it at the moment.

Dawn remains very strong, stronger perhaps in reread when you know where it's going and can watch for the nuances. I don't think the others in the series work as well, and Adulthood Rites in particular I think isn't structured very effectively as a novel. I also think there are things that get lost in the shift into the pov of the human-Oankali construct characters.

The interest in impossible choices, in attachment to your captor, in what I like to call concubine problems (Lilith taking off her clothes and lying down on the battlefield with the enemy!) is so sharp and nuanced in the first book. I think it's weirdly easy to miss this - the thread in which the humans' discomfort with the Oankali is based in prejudice against what is different, and in homophobia, is a tricky misdirection. But Butler is fundamentally interested in consent and the impossibility of consent.

The Oankali are supposed to be appealing (I think this is effective especially with Nikanj, whose appeal for Lilith is I think very well drawn), and in them the book does this queasy and fascinating thing in attempting to construct a moral framework that does not center around autonomy. But Dawn at least never loses the horror of that, alongside the fantasized erotics of a partner who knows your desires better than you know them yourself.

Butler cheats in this by putting Lilith in several impossible double bonds, one of which is the inescapability of sexual violence in the plot. The first human man Lilith meets tries to rape her; the other surviving humans almost instantly turn to it as a tool. This is so marked when the scene where Lilith interrupts the attempted rape within the human group is placed in the text almost exactly up against Nikanj forcing Joseph into ooloi-facilitated sexual contact for the first time, which I had not recalled as vividly as it struck me this reread. The time skips means that we don't see Lilith's first sexual experiences with Nikanj and its mates; we see her once it is already an accustomed part of her life. But we see Joseph saying no; we see Nikanj telling him that his body was saying yes, that it knows better than he does. And then, right at the end of the novel, we see it enacting this ultimate violation of impregnating Lilith without her consent, because it sees that she is 'ready.'

But there's the double bind, right, first because if, in this world, rape is inescapable, then what Nikanj and the other ooloi offer/force might be the better alternative. It's a violation of consent in which one is cared about, in which one has attachment and safety. Dawn as a text is clear-sighted about those tradeoffs. I think Adulthood Rites loses the thread somewhat, partly in Butler's increasing focus on genetic inheritance as the site of preservation, violation, and transformation, which does something else that I do not personally find as emotionally compelling. I think there would be ways of telling the stories of the second two books which would land better for me; in some ways it feels like Butler flinched away from some of the horror there. A lot still to think about.

[crazyskirtlady]

Become Cunning

Knowing is granted

Instinct Blꙮꙮms forth

•────────────────•

[alex-myers-ethn-100c]

Octavia Butler - Overall Takeaways and Analysis

In addition to imagining queer relationships and a third gender option, Butler prompts us to re-examine the role of toxic masculinity and virility in our movements. Time after time, the toxic man in the community causes problems that cause not only himself but the rest of the community to be in trouble. Keith in Parable of the Sower becomes too impulsive and leaves the community, causing his own death and creating the potential for a break in. Curt in the Xenogenesis books attacks the aliens that are trying to help him because he feels that they are stifling his free will and ends up getting himself killed by a reflexive sting as he punches one of the Oankali. In contrast, Gan in the short story “Blood Child” gives himself up to the alien that his family lives with so that his sister does not have to carry the alien eggs and potentially die in the process of extracting the alien larva when they hatch. Butler prompts us all, especially men, to re-evaluate our need to be constantly in control and be comfortable letting others take care of us and doing reproductive labor like taking care of others in the community.

Butler’s Parable of the Sower is ripe with teachings that apply to ethnic studies work and organizing. For instance, the central philosophy of ‘Earthseed’ that defies change but not in a way that absolves us of our responsibilities to the earth and to each other. We must be flexible and willing to adapt to the world around us lest we get left behind and trap ourselves in a deadend. Furthermore, the Earthseed religion and community reminds us of the basics of kinship. Rather than competing for limited resources in a capitalist, zero-sum game, we can share with each other and protect each other in order to ensure everyone gets what they need. Ultimately, one of the key questions posed at the end of Parable of the Sower is one of land: should we settle among the stars, what is our responsibility to the earth here? This question prompts us to re-examine our relationship with the land that we live on and engage Indigenous communities to create a world that addresses the needs of everyone as best as it can despite the incommensurability of our positionalities.

Kinship is not limited to Parable of the Sower. In her lesser known works, Butler struggles with power dynamics and new kinds of familial structures in the Xenogenesis trilogy and Fledgling. The Xenogenesis books imagine a parental configuration after a fictional alien species, the Oankali, makes contact with humans and integrates with them. There is a third sex option: the ooloi who links male and female and is responsible for healing and genetically altering the world around it. This theoretical third sex/gender pushes us to think outside of binaries and imagine what new forms of gender and sex identities we can tap into as our society and sense of self and kinship changes. Fledgling, a vampire story, takes a familiar genre and re-imagines the vampire as a polyamorous, bisexual being that forms a symbiotic relationship with human beings that is more mutualistic than parasitic. The formation of vampire communities is a fictional microcosm of different types of communities and kinship that are more open and welcoming than the nuclear, biological family that racial capitalist society upholds as ‘normal.’

[inner-islands]

Interview with Soda Lite

1. What are some recent inspirations? the ooloi of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, the music and technological wizardry of the Middle Ages, Debussy, ambient music worldwide, the Little Wattlebird & the Common Myna, agroecology, Liffey (my dog companion), clay, Çatalhöyük, kale, the soil biology in my backyard.

2. Your earliest release as Soda Lite was in 2015. When did you start recording music and how long have you been releasing it (under any moniker)? I started recording music when I was a teenager in 2005. I used a headset mic, Windows Sound Recorder and Audacity. Music like Beaches and Canyons (Black Dice) inspired me to experiment, and I made all sorts of noisy, organic alien sounds under all kinds of names for years...

3. What were your initial aspirations when starting the Soda Lite project? I realised my listening habits were changing, drifting into New Age realms and brighter, slower sounds. I wanted to reflect this in my own compositions. I was also becoming more and more entranced by plants, animals and my local environment, and thinking more about the role of music in shaping time and space. Since wild places are rare and distant for people living in cities, I wanted to create sounds that would allow them to experience (within the safety of their home or headphones) the slow, sweet temporal flux of that vibrant world beyond the cement highways, machinery, automation, cars and other alienating intensities of petro-capitalism.

4. There is a definite shift in mood and palette on your album In Eco from 2017 that has carried forward into your work over the last couple years. What is behind that artistic shift for you? Any shift of mood or palette is mostly incidental, arising from shifts in my own life rhythms, in the places I'm visiting or living in, or what I'm listening to or thinking about. When I sit down to make music I don't actively try to wander away from the work I have done previously. A timbre or a melody captures me, not the other way around. The conditions of light, of air temperature, of nearby plants, clouds of pollen and a thousand other micro-sensual elements all lead me to a sense of what gels within a song.

5. What are the factors you consider when choosing field recordings for one of your pieces? Sometimes it's about the mood evoked, and sometimes it's about really wanting to respond to a place that I've bonded with. The field recording is almost always where I start. They was especially important for some of the pieces on 'Reveries in terra lerpa,' where I really wanted the instruments to sound as if they were woven into the acoustic ecology of the recorded environment. For Vale & Stone, the recordings act more like topsoil, a fertile ground from which to grow the different tones and harmonies which make up the album. These are some of the places you can hear on the new album: on 'Nyth' it's Firth's Campground in Lerderderg State Park (Victoria) On 'Moonah,' it's the backyard in my new home on the first day we arrived. In 'Lyra's Horizon' it's a seagull colony on an abandoned human-built island called South Channel Fort, in Port Philip Bay (Naarm/Melbourne)

6. Do you feel like music is your main artistic medium? Not anymore. It definitely used to be.

7. What do you investigate and express in other mediums that you feel like you can’t with music and vice versa? Through my art practise, I'm able to engage more pragmatically with various social and ecological subjects. For example, looking at the shape of avian intelligence and individuality, or working directly with audiences to determine our shared environmental responsibilities. The music I make is more affective, more emotional. In both, I'm trying to give imaginative shape to new worlds of possibility and ways of life. They crossover a lot.

8. You moved to Lutruwita (Tasmania) recently. How has that shift been for you? It seems like it’s affording you more opportunities to work with the land. It's been amazing. Melbourne was a very big city and wracked with a hectic intensity which carried deep into peoples lives. The pace is much different here, and the natural world less ravaged. I was also doing full-time youth work in Melbourne and now I'm just part-time over here, which is much more sustainable. And yeah, I now have more physical and mental space to make experiments in food production, soil, animal care, etc. Food and energy sovereignty are extremely important to me, but it's an immense project that will take decades to unravel. I'm pretty sure I will grow old and die here in lutruwita.

9. How do you use and engage with music in your daily life? It's woven into the fabric of everything I do. It's rare that music isn't playing in the background, or on my headphones. I'm listening to a lot of country music at the moment - from the Louvin Brothers to Loretta Lynn. Sounds of the Dawn is always a presence. 12th Isle mixes. Laraaji. Alice Coltrane. And a lot of medieval music...

10. Words of wisdom you like to recall in times of need? 'Stay with the trouble' – Donna Haraway 'Everything changes and nothing stands still' - Heraclitus

Soda Lite has a new album, Vale & Stone, which is now available via Inner Islands on cassette and digital formats.

[psychosynchrony]

Xenogenesis Trilogy

Title and Author: Lilith’s Brood (Xenogenesis #1-3) by Octavia E. Butler Rating: 5/5

Thoughts: (This review contains spoilers within the main section below the cut)

The Xenogenesis trilogy is compelling, sensual, and really, truly disturbing. Read in omnibus as Lilith's Brood, it is a cohesive work, troubling in both its insight and its predictions. I have so very many thoughts and feelings about this story. I like a book that makes me think, and this certainly did that. Butler takes a pessimistic view of human nature, lampshading what the book calls "the Human Contradiction" of intelligence and hierarchical behavior as a fundamental, deterministic flaw. But if she's criticizing human nature, she's also using her alien characters to dig down into imperialism, colonialism, and slavery.

Humanity has destroyed itself in nuclear war (recall that this is 1980s sci-fi). But fear not! The alien Oankali have stumbled upon earth just in time to save humans from extinction... by genetically blending with them, whether they like it or not. The three-sexed Oankali are "Gene Traders," on an endless spacefaring search for new life to incorporate into their own. All Oankali can 'taste' genetic and biochemical information, but it is the Ooloi (third sex) who can directly manipulate genetic material to change an existing organism or generate offspring from its mates' genetic material. The price for humanity's rescue is, in many ways, the end of humanity as a species, as the rescued survivors are expected mate and produce offspring with the Oankali, or live out their lives in sterility. (Human objections to this trade are universally met with incomprehension on the part of the Oankali) It's a messy, complicated story, with themes that prevent the reader from simply deciding "Oankali good, humans bad." The humans tend to be nasty and brutish. The Oankali tend to be callous and arrogant--alien enough that negotiating on human terms is impossible. As we move through the trilogy, we hear first from Lilith Iyapo, a human woman held captive by the Oankali, as she navigates between terrible options to carve out something of a life for herself in the new status quo. The second book is told by her Construct (Human/Oankali hybrid) son Akin, who struggles between his two identities. As Oankali, he 'knows' that the blending is really for the good of humanity, but as human, he struggles against the notion of biological limitations on free will. Ultimately, he becomes an advocate for allowing a small group of humans to settle on Mars without Oankali interference (much as one group of Oankali were permitted to keep traveling in case the gene-trade with humans went wrong). Both he and the Oankali are certain that the settlement is doomed to self-destruction, but Akin argues that they deserve the right to try to save themselves anyway. Finally, the third book deals with another of Lilith's children, a Construct Ooloi who uses its abilities to renegotiate the relationship between humans and Oankali. The increasing otherness of the narrators forces the reader to ask questions about values and consent, about interference vs. the right to self-determination, about nature vs. nurture, and about human nature itself. For the Oankali, biology is fate; to leave humans alone as they are would be as good as murdering them. For humans, the forced assimilation bears strong resemblance to a campaign of rape and genocide, and many respond accordingly. The trilogy ends on a hopeful note, but without resolving every question. It's given me a lot to think about, and I'm pretty sure I'm only scratching the surface.

[incendavery]

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (None of them have names yet, sorry.) (Action takes place sometime after the events of Imago, but doesn’t cross over with those characters.)

[HUMAN 1], Human Cis Man. Mates with [OOLOI 1]. [HUMAN 2]’s brother.

Hates his Ooloi mate, despite their immutable bond. Gets into all sorts of mischief with his sister, ranging from benign annoyance to something as dangerous and cruel as seducing [HUMAN 5]. Hangs out with [HUMAN 3] sometimes; bad influence.

[OOLOI 1], Oankali-construct Ooloi. Mates with [HUMAN 1] and [HUMAN 2].

Wants to love its mates, despite the fact that they openly hate it. Envies [OOLOI 2], who has one mate, [HUMAN 3], that loves it and a second human, [HUMAN 4], who truly longs to be with it. Lonely.

[HUMAN 2], Human Cis Woman. Mates with [OOLOI 1]. [HUMAN 1]’s sister.

Helps [HUMAN 1] seduce [HUMAN 5], partially out of spite for her mate and part boredom.

[OOLOI 2], Human-construct Ooloi. Mates with [HUMAN 3].

Met [HUMAN 4] in the woods; wants to be his mate. Being forced to stay away from [HUMAN 4] pains it. If it were allowed to heal [HUMAN 6], which it wants to do anyway, [HUMAN 4] could come be with it. But [HUMAN 4] says even if it promised not to reveal the location of his band to another living soul, bringing the Ooloi to heal him would be against his father’s wishes, and too dangerous besides.

[HUMAN 3], Human Trans Man. Mates with [OOLOI 2].

Former rebel. Left his band of humans for [OOLOI 2], who found him wounded in the woods and healed him. As he lay dying, he considers his life up to this point, and chooses life and love with his rescuer. As soon as he can stand, he’s raring to go. Hangs out with [HUMAN 1] and [HUMAN 2] sometimes, but they’re honestly a bad influence. Resents [HUMAN 4] for taking away so much of [OOLOI 2]’s time and energy. When they finally do meet, they can’t deny a mutual respect, which grows to affection.

[HUMAN 4], Human Cis Man. [HUMAN 6]’s son.

Meets [OOLOI 2] in the woods; instantly and intensely desires to go be with it, but can’t, as he needs to care for his ailing father

[HUMAN 5], Human Cis Woman. Part of [HUMAN 6]’s feral band.

[HUMAN 1] tries to seduce her away from her home, despite having no intention of being able to become her mate and not telling her this, which would leave her unable to return to her family without revealing their location, and forced to pick between mating with an Ooloi or going to the Mars colony.

[HUMAN 6], Human Cis Man. [HUMAN 4]’s father.

Used to rule his colony with an iron fist. Now losing his grip as he ages. Hates the Oankali with a passion.

lost in thought

[rjalker]

imagine if Russel T Davies weren't transmisic and the Doctor could have this fucking conversation.

"I don't think you have to worry about becoming a woman," she said. "No." "You're almost a man now." I stepped in front of her and stopped. She stopped obligingly and watched me, waiting. "I'm not male. I never will be. I'm ooloi."

[fragileshelfesteem]

Rating: 5/5 Title: Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis #2) Author: Octavia Butler

Goodreads Summary: In this sequel to Dawn, Lilith Iyapo has given birth to what looks like a normal human boy named Akin. But Akin actually has five parents: a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a sexless Ooloi. The Oankali and Ooloi are part of an alien race that rescued humanity from a devastating nuclear war, but the price they exact is a high one the aliens are compelled to genetically merge their species with other races, drastically altering both in the process. On a rehabilitated Earth, this "new" race is emerging through human/Oankali/Ooloi mating, but there are also "pure" humans who choose to resist the aliens and the salvation they offer.These resisters are sterilized by the Ooloi so that they cannot reproduce the genetic defect that drives humanity to destroy itself, but otherwise they are left alone (unless they become violent). When the resisters kidnap young Akin, the Oankali choose to leave the child with his captors, for he the most "human" of the Oankali children will decide whether the resisters should be given back their fertility and freedom, even though they will only destroy themselves again.

It ended so abruptly!! I know there's another book in the series, but this was practically broken up like the movie version of the last Harry Potter, or Hunger Games, or Twilight. After making such a huge jump between Dawn (from Lillith's perspective) to Xenogenesis (from Akin's), I just wasn't expecting such a cliffhanger for this book. I'll be interested to see where the next one picks up. I got this book using interlibrary loan for the first time and I didn't think I'd be able to finish it in the allotted week, but I flew through it. It makes for very quick and fun reading. It's been a long time since I read Dawn, but I didn't feel like it impeded my enjoyment or understanding of the story at all. I'm just so drawn to the way Octavia Butler writes people and relationships, I can't get enough. Will she ever stop blowing my mind?

[410blackspace]

Adulthood Rites Part 1 Response

Octavia Butler's Adulthood Rites is the second volume of Lilith's Brood, the trilogy formerly known as The Xenogenesis Trilogy. The sequel is the story of Akin- pronounced like Joaquin, Lilith's half-human, half-Oankali son born thirty years after the first novel, Dawn takes place. Akin, like all human-Oankali children, is called a "construct,” equally belonging to and being rejected by humans and Oankali, almost like a biracial child.

The dynamic of the construction of Oankali parenthood is very intriguing. each child has five parents of three different genders. There are the human mother and father, and the Oankali mother, father and ooloi�� the third sex in Oankali species. He lives in one of Earth's trade villages, communities where humans and Oankali interbreed and have hybrid children.

The human legacy will live and die with the children as humans who have chosen not to take Oankali mates have been sterilized and will only have their fertility restored if they elect to conceive construct children. However, humans who have chosen Oankali mates have lost the ability to show affection in the common forms that they were used to such as kissing, hand holding, etc. Since “humans who accept Oankali mates give up that kind of touching... once they mate Oankali. They find each other’s touch repellent” (Lilith’s Brood, Adulthood Rites 433). The Oankali have manipulated the body’s chemistry to receive a human mates touch as a negative” stimuli further discouraging the idea of human intimacy and the possibility of fully human children.

In an effort to “have” children and restore a purely human civilization, human resisters have resorted to stealing and selling construct children who appear to look human which ends up happening to Akin. “It becomes the way humans have to live (Lilith’s Brood, Adulthood Rites 377). The humans want children so they buy them, hover they are still not their children. " They want to have kids. sometimes they hate us because they can't. And sometimes they hate us because we're part of the Oankali and to Oankali are the ones who won't let them have kids" (Lilith’s Brood, Adulthood Rites 406).

We've learned that in Dawn the purpose of Lilith mating with the Oankali was to ensure the legacy of the human species, however, the exact opposite is happening. The Human race becomes more and more extinct every time a construct child is born. This suggests that Butler is indicating that extinction of the human race is essentially the consequence for the destruction of the planet.

Butler, Octavia E. Lilith's Brood. Grand Central Publishing, 2007.

[queerdirect]

Reading the second book in the series of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis : Adulthood rites. So good 💥😚🌈👽 In this sequel to Dawn, Lilith Iyapo has given birth to what looks like a normal human boy named Akin. But Akin actually has five parents: a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a sexless Ooloi. The Oankali and Ooloi are part of an alien race that rescued humanity from a devastating nuclear war, but the price they exact is a high one the aliens are compelled to genetically merge their species with other races, drastically altering both in the process. On a rehabilitated Earth, this "new" race is emerging through human/Oankali/Ooloi mating, but there are also "pure" humans who choose to resist the aliens and the salvation they offer. These resisters are sterilized by the Ooloi so that they cannot reproduce the genetic defect that drives humanity to destroy itself, but otherwise they are left alone (unless they become violent). When the resisters kidnap young Akin, the Oankali choose to leave the child with his captors, for he the most "human" of the Oankali children will decide whether the resisters should be given back their fertility and freedom, even though they will only destroy themselves again. #queerreadings #lgbtbooks #lgbtreading #lgbt #alien #OctaviaButler #Xenogenesis #books #lgbtqiplus #lgbtarts #queerarts #sifi #picoftheday #bookoftheday #lgbtcommunity #gay #instagay #queerarts

[crazyskirtlady]

〰️👁️👁️👄👄👁️👁️〰️

eyes and mouths flowing from my head growing from my hair

[crazyskirtlady]

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕚𝕥𝕦𝕒𝕝

─────────────────────────────────

When I begin to perform The Ritual I was fueled by desperation

I had no one to turn to

No one who would or could, help me...

I was also so unsure of how to go about performing the ritual as the book (while expounding heavily upon what to expect with success) was not as detailed in describing the catalyst steps.

I understood that I needed to perform The Ritual consistently for at least 1 entire moon cycle (which is 28 days) but since it wasn't exactly specific I decided 30 days would be better.

I built the altar described; a flattened mound of thick clay mixed with crushed shells and powdered mushrooms, nestled at the foot of a tree as per the instructions.

I understood that "trade offerings" needed to be presented every night upon the altar, clippings of my hair or nails were acceptable as well as my spit, urine or blood.

The importance of the offerings was greatly expounded upon, stressed that the success of The Ritual hinged upon the faithful placement of them nightly, and fresh. Nothing earlier gathered and stored or substitutions of any kind were considered acceptable.

At first it was awkward, kneeling at the altar in the dark of night, calling upon the full name of the entity described in the book and making my offering of spit.

Along with the "trade offerings" were suggestions for "tribute offerings" which would add to the enticement of the entity and boost the speed of success for The Ritual.

As beeswax was considered an acceptable "tribute offering" I sat one night in the flickering light of a small beeswax candle I had made myself and clipped my nails, adding them into the dense clay which was staying moist and pliable without being unstable.

Adding a dried gourd to the altar as a "tribute" made a simple container of just the right shape and depth to hold an offering of urine which seemed to evaporate with unusual quickness.

I was able to cut a long lock of my hair to tie around the base of the altar, my hair was definitely thicker and fuller lately, even growing quicker.

When my menstrual cycle began during my 30 day journey through The Ritual it seemed fitting to empty my moon cup onto the altar.

The night after I did so the altar was covered in worms, this was described in the book as a powerful omen that I had activated the altar successfully and now the attention of the entity was upon me.

I intoned their name again and again and offered my blood upon the dark, black, rich loam which was now beginning to sprout tiny mushrooms amongst the writhing night crawlers.

From that point onward a sweet floral scent surrounded me day and night wherever I went.

My menstrual cycle was over but I still had days left to finish The Ritual. There was one other acceptable "trade offering" I had not yet placed upon the altar, described by the book as "the nectar of ecstasy"

I had already woven a crude mat of raffia, as plant fibers were considered acceptable "tribute" to the altar.

Lying on the mat and feeling the cool earth beneath me, the night air sweet with the heavy aroma of a thousand invisible flowers, the long thick locs of my hair cradled my head and caressed my back and shoulders as I called upon the entity. softly at first, in a shy whisper but as I focused on my body and the feelings of pleasure I heard my own voice rising in volume and almost beyond my control as I reached my climax I screamed out!

Felt something loose in my mouth and I coughed, the molar in the back that had a cavity I was unable to treat lay in my palm and my tongue explored the vacant spot to find the sharp ridges of another tooth growing up within the space. An in-depth examination the next day confirmed the impossible truth.

I ground the tooth to fine powder and sprinkled it upon the altar

"Blood of my blood, bone of my bone and flesh...

"...ó̷͞f̛͖̘͗ ̡ͮm̴̫̀y̶̯̱҉ ̢͘͜͝f̺̥҉̢̛͏ḽ̟e̢̙̥͘͟s͖̠̀̀h̫̤͑҉̛ ̢̊͏̨"

They had answered me, the entity described in the book, with a voice like water rippling through willow leaves, with a sound like whispers in the shallows left by low tide.

I was shaking, darkness clouded my vision as They embraced me with a thousand thousand touches light as spider silk and tight as coiled serpents. My body was simultaneously pierced at every nerve and awakened to an intensity of perception I had no words for. My mind reeled from the wave of information as I was plunged into my own systems in a feedback loop that grew deeper endlessly deeper rushing understanding of every cell and microbiota that was housed within me and in turn became the house for which I could realize myself!

From the many... One

And I awoke from what felt like a trillion lifetimes, lifetimes lived to give me life.

I knew that now I had within me the abilities to help myself.

And I looked upon the world...

With new power

[crazyskirtlady]