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Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago
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| Author | Octavia E. Butler |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Grand Central Publishing |
| Published | 1987-2000 |
Lilith's Brood is a collection of three works by Octavia Butler. The three volumes of this science fiction series were previously collected in the now out of print volume, Xenogenesis. The collection was first published under the current title of Lilith's Brood in 2000.
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Lilith's Brood introduces the alien species, known as Oankali, who come in three sexes - male, female and ooloi, a sex that mixes and manipulates the genetic material produced by the other two. The series also draws upon elements of the myth of Lilith, the first wife of Adam.
Lilith's Brood (formerly the Xenogenesis trilogy) refers to a collection of three novels. The central characters are Lilith and her genetically altered children. Lilith, along with the few other surviving humans, are saved by extraterrestrials, the Oankali, after a "handful of people [a military group] tried to commit humanicide," leading to a missile war that destroyed much of Earth. The Oankali have a third gender, the ooloi, who have the ability to manipulate genetics, plus the ability of sexually seductive neural-stimulating and consciousness-sharing powers. All of these abilities allow them to unify the other two genders in their species, as well as unifying their species with others that they encounter. The Oankali are biological traders, driven to share genes with other intelligent species, changing both parties.
In the first novel in the trilogy, Dawn, published in 1987, Lilith Iyapo is found in the Andes Mountains, and revived from a biochemically induced hibernation by the Oankali following a nuclear war on earth which causes the near-extinction of humanity and destruction of 80% of its population. The goal of the Oankali is to colonize earth with Oankali-human hybrids.
The novel is broken up into four sections with each changing the role of the protagonist, Lilith.
The story begins in the middle, after the human race has been almost entirely wiped out. Our first image is of Lilith in the fetal position,after being "awakened" for what we learn is not the first time. We are unsure of where she is and we become immediately dependent upon Lilith to be our eyes and ears. What we come to learn, is that she has been abducted on to a ship by an alien race that we come to know as the Oankali.Lilith becomes unable to trust her own senses let alone an alien-race at this point. The Oankali even in appearance are not what they seem. What Lilith believes are eyes turn out to not be eyes, what she sees as hair turns out to not be hair. The Oankali are presented to us a advanced race. Able to wield technology at will. The Oankali do not simply live on a spaceship, it is a part of them. They perceive things differently from humans. When speaking of the human race the Oankali point out two conflicting characteristics that they feel led to their destruction. The first was human intelligence and the second was the human nature to be hierarchical. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the rest of the novel as Butler makes a point about the human condition.
In this section, we continue to follow Lilith as the only human we have to associate with. Lilith becomes a liminal character throughout the novel, bridging the gap between the humans and the Oankali. Lilith longs for human contact but instead has her majority of contact limited to the Oankali. They grow to find the human race, and Lilith in particular, irresistibly interesting. She is in constant wonder of what her role will be in the Oankali plan to reproduce with humans to make a newer, "better" race. The Oankali are presented as superior to humans, not just with technology, but with their own characteristics. They are more aware, stronger, and smarter that Lilith appears to be able to keep up with. From a genetic stand-point it would appear as Oankali genes would be an improvement on the human condition.
Later in this part of the novel, Lilith is granted interaction with another human who has been awaken for some time, Paul Titus. Although Lilith longed for interaction, it was not the kind Titus had in mind. Under the belief that Lilith would "share sex" with him as he would told, Titus forced himself on Lilith. Despite them not going through with it, this possibly points back to human characteristic of hierarchy that caused they original downfall. As a man, Titus felt as though he had a certain amount of authority of Lilith, a trend we see in many cultures. Lilith expressed her feelings against it, but Titus' desire was more important to him than Lilith's will.
In this section of the novel, Lilith's role as a liminal character fully presents itself. She has gained the trust of the Oankali and has been given the responsibility to awaken a group of humans of her own choice to start the new race with. We see a great role-reversal as the Lilith is now playing the role of the Oankali she had been originally distrusting of. She has been genetically altered to be more like the Oankali. She was given increased strength and improved memory, and even the ability to control the ship like the Oankali themselves, able to make rooms and move walls. It could be said with her new-found position of authority she had been given more masculine qualities relating back to the theme of human hierarchies as a fatal flaw. As she awaken's humans based on careful considerations of their character, she plays the role similar to the very beginning of the novel as the Oankali; a mysterious figure that holds the key to survival. Much like Lilith in the beginning of the novel, the humans she awakens are hesitant to put their trust in her. She becomes close with a man she awakens named Joseph and for his protection, the Oankali make genetic changes to him as well. Having been relying solely on Lilith as the lone character we can identify with through the novel up to this point, we can start to question if these changes to the human structure are indeed an improvement over our former selves. Although not to same extent as Lilith, technology has played an increasing large part of our lives over time. The ideas and methods of the Oankali may not be as alien as first thought.
Here the novel concludes. The humans have paired up and we approach the point where humans must decide to either allow themselves to take part in the Oankali's plan or run away, possibly to their death, upon reaching Earth. The humans turn on Lilith and Joesph gets caught in the middle and killed by one of the humans, an event not even predicted by the Oankali. Later, Nikanj, one of the Oankali Lilith has spent much time with was injured and needed Lilith's help. Lilith helped Nikanj despite it cementing the human's view of her a traitor. Perhaps at this point, Lilith felt too distant from humanity to side them any longer following Joseph's death. The creation narrative as well as biblical references come through at this part of the novel. Lilith, the main character, shares many similarities with Lilith a character in Jewish mythology said to Adam's first wife. Rather than living as a subservient wife, however, she left the garden of Eden and mated with an archangel and mothered a race of demons. In "Dawn," Lilith's constant rejection of human hierarchy has led her to being the position of having the what she fears will be a monster, a product of Oankali engineering. She fights against this role, however wanting to quit believing she is serving as a "judas goat" to her own people, a reference to Judas Iscariot, known for his betrayal of Jesus.
Although she fights against it, Lilith finds herself left by the humans she awakened, and pregnant with a new race. In the end, she agrees to return with the Oankali and lead yet another human group through another awakening.
In the trilogy's second book, Adulthood Rites, published in 1988, Akin, Lilith's part-Oankali son is abducted by sterile human resisters, and held in a forest prison.
The final book of the series, Imago, was published in 1989. It is about Lilith's ooloi child, Jodahs, who comes of age and integrates human and alien societies. In entomology, an imago is the adult stage of an insect; it's also a term used in Jungian psychology.