WEEK 12: Diverse Position Science Fiction | Dawn Response

This week I chose to read Dawn by Octavia Butler. At first, I was quite confused by this work and had a hard time connecting to the subject matter. With that said, I have a great respect for Octavia as an author and love what she represents in the literary world. Throughout the last two decades, we have seen science fiction become more diverse. Openly dealing with topics such ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or residency in the third world. I think the question we can ask ourselves is "have the tropes of science fiction shifted to accommodate a more diverse audience?". Science fiction is merely not just space wars for young boys to "wow" at and I think Dawn is a perfect example of this evolution. 

While reading I came across secret scars, aliens, and gross surgeries the Oankali have been preforming while the human, Lilith, was asleep. I get the idea that the Oankali want to intermix with humans? Their species survives by combining its genetic materials with those of other creatures, and they're pretty sure that humans will be a great match. The Oankali aren't just talking about a little gene splicing here and there: they're talking about the total mixing of the two species. In a few generations, there won't be any pure humans like Lilith left on Earth, but there won't be any pure Oankali either: both species will survive by becoming one. 

The most powerful line in the book is when they first tell Lilith about her cancer, they tell her something else about the human species and how it's genetically flawed in a big way. The alien's societies are hierarchical and humans are predisposed to conflict, oppression, and war.  By intermixing with the Oankali, the humans are going to become cyborgs. They'll be breaking down the distinctions that separate what counts as "human" from what counts as "other"—and by doing that, they might just redeem the species as a whole. If only the galaxy where that happened didn't have to be far, far away.

-Abigail