Oryx and Crake is a novel with dystopian elements by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Like The Handmaid's Tale, the book is often categorized as science fiction novel, but Atwood herself prefers to label it speculative fiction and "adventure romance" because it does not deal with things that have not been invented yet^[1] and goes beyond the realism she associates with the novel form^[2]. Oryx and Crake was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2003 and was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction that same year. Image File history File links Oryx_and_crake. ... Margaret Eleanor Atwood, OC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian writer. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... McClelland and Stewart is a Canadian publishing company. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ... A user viewing an electronic page on an eBook reading device An e-book (for electronic book: also eBook, ebook) is the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book. ... ISBN redirects here. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... A dystopia (or alternatively cacotopia) is a fictional society, usually portrayed as existing in a future time, when the conditions of life are extremely bad due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. ... Margaret Eleanor Atwood, OC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian writer. ... The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Speculative fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... For other uses, see Realism (disambiguation). ... McClelland and Stewart is a Canadian publishing company. ... See also: 2002 in literature, other events of 2003, 2004 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland. ...

Plot introduction

Returning to the dystopic themes of Atwood's earlier novel The Handman's Tale, Oryx and Crake presents a very different scenario than that novel's religious theocracy. However, in both novels the collapse of civilization quite noticeably echoes current events. Oryx and Crake critically examines developments in science and technology such as xenotransplantation and genetic engineering, particularly the creation of transgenic animals such as "wolvogs" (hybrids between wolves and dogs), "rakunks" (racoon and skunk), and "pigoons" (pigs and baboons, for organ transplants)^[3]. This society, which not only tolerates but promotes such extreme commercialization and commodification of life, has also produced an exacerbated gap between rich and poor, as well as the commodification of human life and sexuality in prostitution and online child pornography. Oryx and Crake does not depend on imagining new scientific or technological discoveries; the novel merely extrapolates on the basis of technologies that are, in principle, available today and carries current social and economic developments and their attendant ethical choices to their radical conclusions. However, this still does not exclude it from science fiction, since the genre has long accepted such "extrapolative" works within its canon. The work would fall within the sub-genre of social science fiction, which is not heavily concerned with gadgets and space opera for their own sake. This article is about the philosophical concept and literary form. ... Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      For the metal band, refer to Theocracy (band). ... Central New York City. ... Xenotransplantation (xeno- from the Greek meaning foreign) is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another such as from pigs to humans (see Medical grafting). ... Kenyans examining insect-resistant transgenic Bt corn. ... A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been deliberately altered. ... “Transplant” redirects here. ... Commodification is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, to assign economic value to something that traditionally would not be considered in economic terms, for example, an idea, identity, gender. ... Whore redirects here. ... Child pornography refers to pornographic material depicting children. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ... Social science fiction is a term used to describe a subgenre of science fiction concerned less with gadgets and space opera and more with speculation about human society. ...

Plot summary

Pigoons, Atwood's fictional transgenic creatures, look much like domestic pigs, but their DNA has been spliced with human genetic information and they have been engineered to grow multiple organs for transplants.

The protagonist of Oryx and Crake is Snowman, clad only in a bed sheet and a Red Sox cap, who appears to be the last human being on Earth. He's not entirely alone, however; strange hybrid beasts such as wolvogs, pigoons and rakunks are roaming freely. As well, a group of what he calls Crakers—strange human-like creatures—lives nearby. They bring Snowman food and consult him on matters that surpass their understanding; thus, Snowman comes across as a post-apocalyptic hermit guru. As the story develops, these assorted lifeforms are revealed to be the products of genetic engineering. Sow and five piglets from http://www. ... Sow and five piglets from http://www. ... A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been deliberately altered. ... Trinomial name Sus scrofa domestica Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Sus domestica The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica) is normally given the scientific name Sus scrofa, though some taxonomists use the term , reserving for the wild boar. ... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ... A bed sheet is a large piece of cotton or linen cloth used to cover a mattress. ... The Boston Red Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Apocalyptic science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization, through nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. ... For other uses, see Hermit (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Guru (disambiguation). ... Kenyans examining insect-resistant transgenic Bt corn. ...

In flashbacks, we learn that Snowman was once a young boy named Jimmy, who grew up in the early 21st century. His world was dominated by multinational corporations which kept their employees' families in privileged compounds separated from a global lower moiety of pleeblands. Shortly after Jimmy's family moved to the HelthWyzer corporate compound (where his father worked as a genographer) Jimmy met and befriended Glenn (later known as Crake), a brilliant science student. 20XX redirects here. ... Entrance to a guard-gated community (Paradise Village Grand Marina Villas, Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico). ... Look up moiety in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In Ancient Rome, the plebs were the general body of Roman citizens, distinct from the privileged class of the patricians. ...

Atwood's satirical take on current society is presented most pointedly in the jaded activities of these two youths. Jimmy and Crake spend a lot of their free time playing online computer games such as Kwiktime Osama (a reference to Osama bin Laden) and Blood and Roses, or watching live executions, Noodie News, frog squashing, graphic surgery and child pornography. 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: ‎; born March 10, 1957[1]), most often mentioned as Osama bin Laden or Usama bin Laden, is a Saudi Arabian militant Islamist and is widely believed to be one of the founders of the organization called al-Qaeda. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A man in Shanghai who is asking for money and carrying a monkey that is missing a limb. ... “Surgeon” redirects here. ... Child pornography refers to pornographic material depicting children. ...

One of Glenn's favourite pastimes is an online game called Extinctathon, a trivia game which requires immense knowledge of extinct animal and plant species. Using the codenames Thickney (Jimmy) and Crake (Glenn), they both play as teenagers. It is not until they are both in university that Jimmy discovers that Crake has worked his way up to become a Grandmaster. Look up trivia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Extinction (disambiguation). ...

On another trip through the dark underbelly of the Web, they come across an Asian child pornography site, where Jimmy is struck and haunted by the eyes of a young girl. Unknown to Jimmy, Crake is similarly affected by the sight of this young girl. Crake eventually finds this girl (or a woman who could be her) and hires her, as both a prostitute and a teacher of the Crakers. Her name is Oryx. Jimmy identifies the haunting memory of the young girl with Oryx, though it is never made clear as to whether or not the two are the same person. Oryx eventually becomes intimately involved in the lives of Jimmy and Crake, and both fall in love with her. Oryx, however, views their relationship as strictly professional and only admires Crake as a scientist and "great man". For fun and affection she turns to Jimmy, though her feelings for him are not as clear. The two hide their relationship from Crake, and Jimmy is often plagued with the thought of Crake finding out about his betrayal. Child pornography refers to pornographic material depicting children. ...

Crake uses his prominent position at a biotech corporation to launch a project to create the Crakers. His goal is to create a peaceful society that will live harmoniously with each other and nature. These genetically engineered humans are leaf-eating herbivores and they only have sexual intercourse during limited breeding seasons when they are polyandrous. Thus, many of the apparent conflicts in human culture are replaced with a mockery of intelligent design. The structure of insulin Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. ... In Zoology, a folivore is an animal that specializes in eating leaves. ... A deer and two fawns feeding on some foliage A herbivore is often defined as any organism that eats only plants[1]. By that definition, many fungi, some bacteria, many animals, about 1% of flowering plants and some protists can be considered herbivores. ... It has been suggested that Duration of sexual intercourse be merged into this article or section. ... In social anthropology and sociobiology, polyandry (Greek: poly many, andros man) means a female forming a stable sexual union with more than one male. ... For other uses, see Intelligent design (disambiguation). ...

At the same time, Crake creates a virulent genetic pandemic that, apparently, killed off all humans except for Jimmy. Jimmy was unknowingly vaccinated with the intention of acting as a guardian for the Crakers. Thus, Crake represents a mad scientist; he is maddened by the troubled society that he lives in. His rationale is that he is heroically saving intelligent life from an inevitably dying society. In the story's climax, Crake's perfected "hot bioform," present in one of his company's products, is activated and spreads throughout the world. When called to account for his actions by Jimmy, Crake kills Oryx by slitting her throat. In rage and panic, Jimmy shoots Crake, resulting in his being left to obsess over his vanished world and unanswered questions. This article is about large epidemics. ... A vaccine is an antigenic preparation used to establish immunity to a disease. ... A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. ... They LAUGHED at my theories at the institute! Fools! Ill destroy them all! Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing — one popular stereotype of mad scientist. ... The climax (or turning point) of a narrative work is its point of highest tension or drama in which the solution is given. ...

Jimmy contemplates abandoning the Crakers but is constantly haunted by the voice of Oryx, and reminded of his promise to her to watch over them. Though Crake opposed and belittled human religion, Snowman instills the Crakers with his own invented religion revolving around Crake and Oryx. Oryx becomes the guardian of the animals and Crake the creator god.

Crake suffers from unremembered night terrors. During visits, Jimmy hears Crake screaming in his sleep. Crake claims to not remember them. This forms one of the book's most profound ironies. Crake is a leader in the most advanced (and corrupt) health care system in human history, and Jimmy is unable to save humanity by simply getting Crake's head examined. At the same time, however, Crake attends a university referred to as Asperger's U, referring to the university's high population of incredibly intelligent, socially awkward people, which might suggest that his idea was not the product of insanity or something 'wrong' with him, but rather the knowledge that everything else around him was wrong. For other uses, see Night Terror. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... Asperger syndrome (also Aspergers syndrome, Aspergers disorder, Aspergers, AS, or AD) is one of several autism spectrum disorders (ASD) characterized by difficulties in social interaction and by restricted and stereotyped interests and activities. ...

During Snowman's journey to scavenge supplies, he is uncomfortable wearing shoes now that his feet have become toughened without them. He cuts his foot on a tiny sliver of glass. Infected by who-knows-what descendant of transgenic experiments, his body cannot fight back, and his leg becomes inflamed. A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been deliberately altered. ...

Returning to the Crakers, he learns that three ragged true humans have camped nearby. He follows the smoke from the fire and watches as they cook a rakunk. Uncertain of how he should approach them (Blast them to bits to protect the Crakers? Approach with open arms?) he checks his now unworking watch and thinks, "Time to go," leaving the reader to speculate as to what his actions and future will be.

Main characters

• Snowman, whose original name is Jimmy, is the main protagonist; the story is told from his perspective. The name "Snowman" is short for "abominable Snowman," a reference to the Yeti, a mythical ape-like creature of the Himalaya. For the online-game Extinctathon, Jimmy temporarily also has the animal code name "Thickney," which Crake chooses for Jimmy from an Australian bird known for inhabiting cemeteries (p. 81).
• Crake is Jimmy's childhood friend; an excellent student in high school, he becomes a brilliant geneticist and turns into a version of the mad scientist when he devises a plan to rid the earth of homo sapiens and to replace this destructive species with a more peaceful and environmentally friendly human-like creature: the "Crakers." His code-name for Extinctathon is from the Red-necked Crake, a small Australian bird, and remains his name for the rest of his life, although we do know from Jimmy that his real first name is Glenn. His surname is never given. (p. 81)^[4].
• Oryx is a mysterious woman, the third protagonist and symbolically related to the waif-like girl from an online child-pornography site that begins to haunt Jimmy as an adolescent; Crake first hires her for sexual services and as a teacher to the Crakers, but she becomes Crake's (and Jimmy's) lover. After the catastrophe, she remains present to the Snowman as a haunting memory. Her name is from the Oryx, an African antelope: "It's not even her real name, which he'd never known anyway; it's only a word. It's a mantra" (110).

A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ... Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. ... For other uses, see Yeti (disambiguation). ... Perspective view of the Himalaya and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... For other uses, see Bird (disambiguation). ... Graves at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York A cemetery is a place (usually an enclosed area of land) in which dead bodies are buried. ... A geneticist is a scientist who studies genetics, the science of heredity and variation of organisms. ... They LAUGHED at my theories at the institute! Fools! Ill destroy them all! Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing — one popular stereotype of mad scientist. ... Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man) is the scientific name for the human species. ... Binomial name Gray, 1858 The Red-necked Crake (Rallina tricolor) is a waterbird in the rail and crake family Rallidae. ... Waif is used to described a very thin (almost unhealthy thin) looking person, usually a woman. ... Porn redirects here. ... A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ... Species Oryx beisa Rüppell, 1835 Oryx dammah Cretzschmar, 1827 Oryx gazella (Linnaeus, 1758) Oryx leucoryx Pallas, 1766 An Oryx is one of three or four large antelope species of the genus Oryx, typically having long straight almost upright or swept back horns. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... This article is about the herbivorous mammals. ... In Tibet, many Buddhists carve mantras into rocks as a form of devotion. ...

Allusions/references to other works

Coral Ann Howells argues that Oryx and Crake is in some ways a sequel to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale in that it carries the national catastrophe in the earlier novel to global level^[5]. A major reference seems to be to the "Last Man" topos in science fiction, which was inaugurated by Mary Shelley's The Last Man, also a post-apocalyptic novel, whose main character is the only survivor of a plague that has killed off all other humans. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) had a working title that relates it to Shelley's book: "The Last Man in Europe"^[6]. Other references, of course, include Shelley's Frankenstein (1818/1831) as well as Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels^[7] (1626/1635). For other uses, see Sequel (disambiguation). ... The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985. ... In the context of classical Greek rhetoric a topos (literally a place; plural: topoi) referred to a standardised method of constructing or treating an argument. ... Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English romantic/gothic novelist and the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... This article is about the novel. ... Apocalyptic science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of the world or civilization, through nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. ... This article is about the Orwell novel. ... This article is about the 1818 novel. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and... First Edition of Gullivers Travels Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. ...

Gulliver's Travels is also the source of one of the two epigraphs and puts emphasis on the claim that the speculation about the near future in Oryx and Crake serves to make a point about the present state of the world. Swift's speaker as quoted by Atwood says: "my principal design was to inform you, and not to amuse you" (Oryx and Crake, Epigraph). The second quotation from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (1927) refers to the absence of safety in the word, pointing to Snowman's existence in the world after Crake's catastrophe. In literature, an epigraph is a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or theme of what is to follow. ... For the American writer, see Virginia Euwer Wolff. ... To the Lighthouse (5 May 1927) is a novel by Virginia Woolf. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Atwood, 2004: 513.
2. ^ Atwood, 2004: 517.
3. ^ Such transgenic chimeras, including the merging of the parent species names, already exist. The Geep, a genetically engineered cross between a goat and a sheep is an example.
4. ^ Atwood conceived of Oryx and Crake on a birding expedition in Australia (Atwood, 2004: 517).
5. ^ Howells, 2006: 161
6. ^ Cf. Steven Kreis. "George Orwell and The Last Man in Europe." The History Guide. 2000. http://www.orwell.ru/a_life/dystopia/e/e_dyst.htm. accessed 06/29/2006.
7. ^ Howells, 2006: 164.

A geep is a chimera produced by combining the embryos of a goat and a sheep; the resulting animal has cells of both sheep and goat origin. ...

References and further reading

• Atwood, Margaret. "The Handmaids Tale and Oryx and Crake in Context." PMLA 119 (2004): 513.
• Ingersoll, Earl G. "Survival in Margaret Atwood's Novel Oryx and Crake." Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy 45.2 (2004): 162-75.
• Howells, Coral Ann. "Margaret Atwood's Dystopian Visions: The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake." The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood. Ed. Coral Ann Howells. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 161-75. ISBN 978-0-521-83966-2 (hardback) ISBN 0-521-83966-1 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-521-54851-9 (pbk.) ISBN 0-521-54851-9 (pbk.)
• Mundler, Helen E. "Heritage, Pseudo-Heritage and Survival in a Spurious Wor(L)D: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood." Commonwealth Essays and Studies 27.1 (2004): 89-98.

External links

• Oryx and Crake Official Website
• Margaret Atwood Feature article, exclusive interview and book excerpt published in Bold Type, an online literary magazine.