Skip to main content

Week Thirteen: Literature and Speculation - Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (# 6 points)

 


   The world behind Oryx and Crake is quite familiar to us. Environmental pollution has destroyed a significant part of nature, and animals and plants are facing extinction every moment. Humans acquired innovative technology and science, and continuously create new life forms and try to modify our bodies to obtain youth and eternal life through genetic manipulation. The novel begins with the human, Homo Sapiens nearing extinction, and the story reveals the reason why the human reached extinction by following the only human Snowman's story.

    The thing that caught my eyes was the game called ‘Extinctathon’. The writer continues to try new word combinations and constantly gives characters and objects nicknames like Oryx, Crake, and Snowman. I feel like the writer used this book as a kind of an encyclopedia for extinct things. To record and remember raccoon, skunk, wolf, dog, pig, cormorant, Oryx and Crake, the author chose combined names of pre-existing names rather than new fancy names for the new species, like Pigoons(Pig+Raccoon), Woolvog(Wolf+Dog), Rakunks(Raccoon+Skunk), and Snat(Snake+Rat). I think the Extinctathon is the author’s warning about all extinctions. 

    These unconventional names blur the boundary between extinction and evolution as well. For example, the birth of the Rakunks feels like the extinction of the raccoon and skunk and can be an evolution of them at the same time. Languages have diversified, misunderstood, extinct, and evolved their meanings according to the environment in which users are located. 

    In the cities of the future and the climate and environment of the future, the language is bound to be changed. This story shows how language changes in the future, how language becomes a way of survival for the last human beings left alone, and how language becomes religion and art for new generations. 

    In fact, several warnings that scientific achievements may rather contribute to the extinction of humans are now approaching us with more real signs beyond the stage of imagination. Climate change catastrophes are proof. The novel ‘Oryx and Crake’ may be a near future that we have to face.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 3_1: Confessions by Kanae Minato (#5 points)

   The main background of ‘Confessions’ is a normal school. The homeroom teacher, Yuko, says her four-year-old daughter is murdered by her class at the school where she works. The story begins with the teacher confessing this murder case like a speech in front of her students on the day of the closing ceremony. Yuko is the parent who lost her daughter and couldn’t protect her daughter, and at the same time, she is a teacher who has a duty to guide her students in the right way. She confesses about the law and order, ethics, and moral ideas in a calm and grim tone, in front of the criminals in her class who killed her daughter. Everyone is quietly holding their breath.  The incident begins with the death of Yuko's only four-year-old daughter, Manami. Manami was found drowned in the pool, but in fact, it was done by Yuko's students Naoki and Shuya. Shuya wanted to get his mother's attention by killing Manami, and Naoki pushed Manami into the pool to show Shuya, who i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 2: Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice (#6 points)

      I grew up watching movies and was enthusiastic about Vampires, invisible men, wizards, and goblins, so they are like childhood friends in my imagination.     Among these imaginative creatures, my favorite is a vampire, because they have special abilities surpassing humans. Furious power, and immortal ability to live forever while maintaining youth. They can sustain life only by drinking human blood. This vampiric act may be scary, but also feel like a fatal temptation. They are attractive because of their distinction, but at the same time, I like vampires due to their familiarity. The fact that they have the same appearance as humans (except the colors of eyes and skin) and that they were humans in the past make vampires more intimate. They can fall in love with a human, and they can even make children with a human. These characteristics of vampires make me feel that they might exist.     Louis, who unwillingly became...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 6: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (#6 points)

        <Hobbit> has praised that it is a novel everyone should read before we die, so I have always wondered about the story of Hobbit, and this was a great time to read it. As I read this book, I couldn't help but admire the story, even though it was written in the 1930s, is still entertaining and inspiring.        “In a hole, in the ground, there lived a hobbit.” The adventure story of The Hobbit, a race that is only half the height of humans, begins with this. The main character is the Hobbit named Bilbo. Like the other hobbits, he pursues a comfortable life living peacefully in a comfortable cave, however, I think Bilbo has a spirit of adventure at the same time.       One day, he meets strange visitors, the wizard and the 13 dwarves, tell the story of a mountain that a dragon lives in. The story of a gold-filled dwarf kingdom, a prosperous city, inspired Bilbo's curiosity, and the offer to get some of the tremendous...
Post a Comment
Read more