Daniel B. Stuart 

Oryx and Crake: Utopia, Dystopia and the World Outside

          A poignant bit of information gets passed along in Chapter 4 of Oryx and Crake that subtly points out some issues with utopian and dystopian literature. Jimmy's mother, stressed out as usual, has just referred to their life in the compound as living in a "barn," alluding to the fact that she feels like a prisoner. In response, Jimmy's father says that she doesn't understand "the reality of the situation" and can't understand why she would want anything else: "Didn't she want to be safe, didn't she want her son to be safe?" (Atwood, 53). The section underlines something which goes a long way to determine the difference between dystopia and utopia—the distinction between safety and freedom. Are safety, security and the privilege of better living standards worth the sacrifice of personal liberty in a utopia or dystopia? How does one define utopia or dystopia under similar conditions? Is someone's utopia always someone else's dystopia? This paper will explore such a quandary while admonishing the themes and conventions inherent in Oryx and Crake which identify it as both a utopian and dystopian work of fiction. It will also concentrate on several divergent characteristics which cause the novel to elude such a classification.

          There's such a sense of intimacy about Atwood's style that it's difficult for us to feel any sympathy towards the novel being utopian or dystopian when we first begin it. Both Snowman and Jimmy live in worlds in which their own conscious is exposited for the reader in a rather deliberate, composed manner. Any sense of urgency, of fear or dread seems distant. Even alarming sequences when Jimmy's mother leaves him or those instances alluding to the boys' voyeuristic habits of observing executions and watching pornography seem toned down for narrative purposes. Snowman's isolation, his now dejected state, and his disingenuous interaction with the Crakers is another example. It's a heady move by an author who knows how to craft characters within a setting and let them define themselves as the story moves forward. Tension, or at least intrigue, builds steadily from the introduction of Oryx onward. An interloper herself into a relatively new world, her presence helps escalate the conflict of the drama. In a sense, she is like the male trio in Herland becoming immersed into a new world or William Weston's journey to Ecotopia and subsequent meeting up with Marissa Brightcloud. It is at this point in the story (a little after midway through) that the conventions and themes of utopia and dystopia become relevant. Values of individualism and competition, of opportunity and private property ultimately start to seep in with her arrival. No longer can we, as if siding with Jimmy's father, argue that everything's alright as long as Jimmy's "safe"; rather, the choice for a more "alone, unique, self-created and self-sufficient" identity within the utopian/dystopian world seems the best kind of choice (Atwood, 176).

          In the very concept of Oryx herself, we get the symptoms of utopian ideology. For Jimmy, Oryx is the girl in the porno video; she represents the almost transcendent, dreamlike quality Jimmy felt when he first stared into the figure's eyes as a boy. Utopians likewise strive to make a vision reality. Their efforts are in large part due to a desire to live more practically, but it is also an ideal formation within the mind, a "good place" or "no place" as More would put it (White). Crake embodies this symptom in the practical sense, engineering the Crakers and employing his efforts to "play God" so to speak while Jimmy sees the inherent problems of doing the same, the limitations which accompany men who strive for such perfection. Jimmy sees the world as it is and would be content to be comforted by his somewhat objectified love for Oryx while Crake can never be content and will never, ever see that civilization orchestrated by man must inevitably fail. In this way, Atwood shows how all efforts toward a more perfect world, a utopia even, can never fundamentally be sustained; all utopias inevitably dissolve into, if not anarchy and dystopia, then a world continually having to make modifications to itself.

          As in real life, Atwood introduces her characters to a world of opportunity and competition which inevitably creates distinctions among men merely by exposing their personal merits. Jimmy, a words person, is subjugated to the Martha Graham Academy while Crake follows his abilities above and beyond. It is a scenario not unlike, and indeed very, very similar, to the world many live in today in which abilities and mental acuity (especially if facilitated and nourished within the right environment) determine what a person will do both after high school and during college. Engineers and technical professions are in greater demand than English teachers and copy editors and thus the rewards, like in the book, are higher in more ways than one. In this way, Atwood's world truly deviates from the utopian convention in which homogeneity is the norm and independent thought is discouraged. Crake, unlike Anthem, is able to capitalize on his naturally endowed gifts to not only flourish within his own world but incorporate his ingenuity. Crake's ingenuity of course, coupled with his freedom to do and observe his surroundings, ultimately forwards the plot from a mere utopian vision to an actual utopia and ultimate, post-millenial dystopia.

          More is at stake of course than just distinguishing the motives of the characters or identifying Oryx and Crake as a utopian or dystopian novel. Atwood asserts that the book is speculative fiction rather than science fiction and this is a key principle. In describing the world as it could be and inhabited by characters who fit similar descrptions of everyday individuals, the author is showing us what it is to be human. This fact is shown to us by what we are and can be—a Jimmy, Snowman, Crake or Oryx, et. al.—as well as by what we are not—Crakers and bioengineered species of animals. Not all science fiction does this; likewise with dystopian or utopian fiction. Do we really get a sense of what it is like to be human from Raphael Hythloday's descriptions, Gilmore or Bellamy's Socratic dialogues, or even Callenbach's rhetorical style as much as we do from Atwood's acute descriptions of biological sensation, of relational discord, and of the subtle allusions to artifice and facade? It is in this way that such a genre crossing and intermingling can produce an even greater work with more depth and substance than a perfectly realistic or contemporary work of fiction can. We only need to look at Snowman's first observations of the Craker women's unblemished forms to get a sense of how he longs for human contact rather than the superficiality of describing scenarios to the biologically engineered beings.

          Even the word "speculative" speaks volumes about what Atwood is all about with Oryx and Crake. To quote Bakhtin, "the prose writer confronts a multitude of routes, roads and paths that have been laid down in the object by social consciousness" (Bakhtin, 1090). The book is as much social commentary and even satire as speculative fiction or utopian / dystopian literature, alluding to the growing environmental crisis, information overload, bioethical issues, segregation, secondary and higher education as well as interpersonal relationships. All of these are issues which Atwood speculates on, observing trends, relying on socio-economic patterns and introducing some not too impractical situations to a reader who should be at least somewhat aware that we live in a world inhabited by both opportunity and danger. There exists the ability for practical miracles every bit as much as obscure disasters which both enhance and threaten all life on earth. It is of course Atwood, the author, whose skill at developing the story and integrating such devices allows for the very condition of speculation by both character and reader. She, not unlike Tolstoy (who Bakhtin also made reference to), excels at the mise-en-scene aspect of inhabiting the character and occupyig a place and time. Few authors are gifted enough to deliver such a work of prose to the reader. And with all due respect to our other authors studied this semester, none have the capability she does to fashion such a circumstance.

          The inclusion of Oryx and Crake into the seminar is both relevant and congruous with the material studied throughout the term. So much of utopia and dystopia within literature is exacted through fragmented or anecdotal form. Both Herland and Utopia rely on fanciful creations of far-fetched concepts, Ecotopia and Looking Backward rely on abrupt changes in reality, Anthem rigidly limits access to other characters, and examples of actual intentional communities generally fail to introduce a comprehensive analysis of their society. But Oryx and Crake is a story which incorporates nearly all the conventions and themes of utopian literature and yet manages to maintain its identity as a successful work of fiction. The book contains Socratic dialogue and satire, the dueling nature of individuality and community, opportunity and limitations. It introduces well-rounded characters and substantiates their motives; it provides a setting that is both believable and uniquely utopian and dystopian at the same time; and, it shows the cycle of life both inhabiting within an intentional community, a formulaic utopia and ultimately a dismembered dystopia. It is a book which meets characteristics and yet it is also a novel which neither claims any type of perfected society nor ascribes that such a scenario is possible. In many ways it is merely a coming of age tale with no genre pretensions at all. Jimmy is just a boy coming to terms with reality at the same time that Snowman is similarly finding his way in the "new" world. The seminar needed this book every bit as much as it needed the other texts to ensure the well-roundedness of this particular subject.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2004.

Bakhtin, Mikael M. "Discourse on the Novel" The Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism and Theory. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.

White, Craig. UHCL Coursesite.