The concept behind “Lillith’s Brood” is that there is an
alien species, the Oankali, that consist of three sexes, as opposed as our
typical two, make, female and ooloi that is a blend of the two genders. The
novel deals with the idea of being an alien in the sense that it tries to
determine what makes a species that “other” group of people, meaning what is it
that causes that dividing line of us and them.
To do so the novel has to explore the idea behind what it means to be
human and what it means to be alien.
The novel also explores the
relationship between humans and aliens with the consensus being that their
relationship is one of a slave and master relationship. I found this to be an
interesting point within the story because it reflects typical human-to-human
interactions as well. For extended periods of time within our own history
humanity has treated “others” or people that are different in a subservient
manner. We see this parallel time and time again in the case of Native
Americans and also with the enslavement of native African peoples.
So reading this part in the novel I
found this to be an interesting connection because that seems to be a trend in
the way “otherness” is dealt with. Another important thing to note in this series
is hat Oankali alien race has taken over the human race deeming them unfit to
rule themselves after they almost massacred themselves in an all out nuclear
war. The Oankali are essentially genetic manipulators and when they “adopted”
the human race they began to reconstruct their genetic code to reflect that of
their captives, the idea being that soon they would create a new species that
was uniquely Oankali and human and thereby destroy the human race all together.
This aspect of the novel reminds me
yet again of historical concepts, this one being the idea behind Manifest
Destiny. Manifest Destiny being the once wide spread belief that it is
America’s right to expand their territorial holds and shape the world within
their image. This series reminds me of this particular aspect of history in
that the alien race felt the need to take over the struggling earth and rather
than just help them rebuild their planet restructures them in their own image
quite literally. While that may not be the underlining theme of the series,
colonization is the one that sticks out to me the most as an apparent theme,
intentional or otherwise. I think having a historical basis that the audience
can identify helps ground this book in reality and gives the reader a tangible
notion by which to base the book.
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