Oryx and Crake Discussion Questions
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Turner
Jan 29, 2012, 4:58:22 AM1/29/12
to 4chanreads
Anyone whom has read the book feel free to post some discussion
question that you believe the group should talk about here.
question that you believe the group should talk about here.
4 Chan
Jan 29, 2012, 5:01:01 AM1/29/12
to 4chan...@googlegroups.com
Ill be doing that in the next few days, to be sure. It is 3am in the morning and I am exhausted in the best possible way. This is very exciting. Please help me spread the word good sir!
Thanks!
::E
Thanks!
::E
4 Chan
Jan 29, 2012, 12:48:29 PM1/29/12
to 4chanreads
While combing the web, I came across a collection of reviews, articles
and other miscellany concerning Oryx and Crake. I want to use this as
a starting off point to get into (or get people interested in reading)
the book.
http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/atwood/oryx.htm
Ill be posting two sets of questions shortly that I found on the web.
Thanks!
and other miscellany concerning Oryx and Crake. I want to use this as
a starting off point to get into (or get people interested in reading)
the book.
http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/atwood/oryx.htm
Ill be posting two sets of questions shortly that I found on the web.
Thanks!
4 Chan
Jan 29, 2012, 1:10:37 PM1/29/12
to 4chanreads
The first set of questions comes from the publisher. Personally, I am
not a big fan of these questions but I think, again, it is a good way
to start thinking about the book and something to chew on as we start
the book. Ill post another set of questions shortly to is a bit more
involved and interesting. Feel free to post your own questions as you
engage with the book - I know I will.
1. Oryx and Crake includes many details that seem futuristic, but are
in fact already apparent in our world. What parallels were you able to
draw between the items in the world of the novel and those in your
own?
2. Margaret Atwood coined many words and brand names while writing the
novel. In what way has technology changed your vocabulary over the
past five years?
3. The game "Extinctathon" emerges as a key component in the novel.
Jimmy and Crake also play "Barbarian Stomp" and "Blood and Roses."
What comparable video games do you know of? What is your opinion of
arcades that feature virtual violence? Discuss the advantages and
dangers of virtual reality. Is the novel form itself a sort of virtual
reality?
4. If you were creating the game "Blood and Roses," what other "Blood"
items would you add? What other "Rose" items?
5. If you had the chance to fabricate an improved human being, would
you do it? If so, what features would you choose to incorporate? Why
would these be better than what we've got? Your model must of course
be biologically viable.
6. The pre-catastrophic society in Oryx and Crake is fixated on
physical perfection and longevity, much as our own society is. Discuss
the irony of these quests, both within the novel and in our own
society.
7. One aspect of the novel's society is the virtual elimination of the
middle class. Economic and intellectual disparities, as well as the
disappearance of safe public space, allow for few alternatives: People
live either in the tightly controlled Compounds of the elites, or in
the more open but seedier and more dangerous Pleeblands. Where would
your community find itself in the world of Oryx and Crake?
8. Snowman soon discovers that despite himself he's invented a new
creation myth, simply by trying to think up comforting answers to the
"why" questions of the Children of Crake. In Part Seven-the chapter
entitled "Purring"-Crake claims that "God is a cluster of neurons,"
though he's had trouble eradicating religious experiences without
producing zombies. Do you agree with Crake? Do Snowman's origin
stories negate or enhance your views on spirituality and how it
evolves among various cultures?
9. How might the novel change if narrated by Oryx? Do any similarities
exist between her early life and Snowman's? Do you always believe what
she says?
10. Why does Snowman feel compelled to protect the benign Crakers, who
can't understand him and can never be his close friends? Do you
believe that the Crakers would be capable of survival in our own
society?
11. In the world of Oryx and Crake, almost everything is for sale, and
a great deal of power is now in the hands of large corporations and
their private security forces. There are already more private police
in North America than there are public ones. What are the advantages
of such a system? What are the dangers?
12. In what ways does the dystopia of Oryx and Crake compare to those
depicted in novels such as Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and
in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale? What is the difference between
speculative fiction-which Atwood claims to write-and science fiction
proper?
13. The book has two epigraphs, one from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's
Travels and one from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Why do you
think these were chosen?
14. The ending of the novel is open, allowing for tantalizing
speculation. How do you envision Snowman's future? What about the
future of humanity-both within the novel, and outside its pages?
not a big fan of these questions but I think, again, it is a good way
to start thinking about the book and something to chew on as we start
the book. Ill post another set of questions shortly to is a bit more
involved and interesting. Feel free to post your own questions as you
engage with the book - I know I will.
1. Oryx and Crake includes many details that seem futuristic, but are
in fact already apparent in our world. What parallels were you able to
draw between the items in the world of the novel and those in your
own?
2. Margaret Atwood coined many words and brand names while writing the
novel. In what way has technology changed your vocabulary over the
past five years?
3. The game "Extinctathon" emerges as a key component in the novel.
Jimmy and Crake also play "Barbarian Stomp" and "Blood and Roses."
What comparable video games do you know of? What is your opinion of
arcades that feature virtual violence? Discuss the advantages and
dangers of virtual reality. Is the novel form itself a sort of virtual
reality?
4. If you were creating the game "Blood and Roses," what other "Blood"
items would you add? What other "Rose" items?
5. If you had the chance to fabricate an improved human being, would
you do it? If so, what features would you choose to incorporate? Why
would these be better than what we've got? Your model must of course
be biologically viable.
6. The pre-catastrophic society in Oryx and Crake is fixated on
physical perfection and longevity, much as our own society is. Discuss
the irony of these quests, both within the novel and in our own
society.
7. One aspect of the novel's society is the virtual elimination of the
middle class. Economic and intellectual disparities, as well as the
disappearance of safe public space, allow for few alternatives: People
live either in the tightly controlled Compounds of the elites, or in
the more open but seedier and more dangerous Pleeblands. Where would
your community find itself in the world of Oryx and Crake?
8. Snowman soon discovers that despite himself he's invented a new
creation myth, simply by trying to think up comforting answers to the
"why" questions of the Children of Crake. In Part Seven-the chapter
entitled "Purring"-Crake claims that "God is a cluster of neurons,"
though he's had trouble eradicating religious experiences without
producing zombies. Do you agree with Crake? Do Snowman's origin
stories negate or enhance your views on spirituality and how it
evolves among various cultures?
9. How might the novel change if narrated by Oryx? Do any similarities
exist between her early life and Snowman's? Do you always believe what
she says?
10. Why does Snowman feel compelled to protect the benign Crakers, who
can't understand him and can never be his close friends? Do you
believe that the Crakers would be capable of survival in our own
society?
11. In the world of Oryx and Crake, almost everything is for sale, and
a great deal of power is now in the hands of large corporations and
their private security forces. There are already more private police
in North America than there are public ones. What are the advantages
of such a system? What are the dangers?
12. In what ways does the dystopia of Oryx and Crake compare to those
depicted in novels such as Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and
in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale? What is the difference between
speculative fiction-which Atwood claims to write-and science fiction
proper?
13. The book has two epigraphs, one from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's
Travels and one from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Why do you
think these were chosen?
14. The ending of the novel is open, allowing for tantalizing
speculation. How do you envision Snowman's future? What about the
future of humanity-both within the novel, and outside its pages?
4 Chan
Jan 29, 2012, 1:55:45 PM1/29/12
to 4chanreads
Here is a better list of questions/prompts to get us thinking about
themes and ideas in Oryx and Crake. Give them and the other questions
a read through before you start reading.
• Satire? Do you think O&C is a satire? (CorpSeCorp? And yet....) How
& why or why not? Why flag Gulliver?
• What do you make of the epigram from Woolf’s To the Lighthouse?
• Education: Here we see bidding wars for students; an evolved value &
purpose to an education; an economic class division between arts &
sciences; generalized illiteracy; a selective amnesia of history; the
comparative roles of “Student Services”.
Although it’s clear which skills & fields this society values, & the
author herself is obviously a ‘word person’ (several of Atwood’s close
relatives are scientists), the descriptions of each institution play
out in scenes sparing neither side its particular degradations,
disgrace, damning (a)morality, or ridicule.
→ What's the critique here?
→ Do you see academia heading in this direction?
• Class. Talk about economic class.
Here’s the rich /poor gap in extremis: the compounds vs. the
pleeblands; the elimination of the middle class. I admire this book
for deftly creating a (literal) bubble of privilege & class freedom
that allows Jimmy & Crake—as many actual people of their class—to be
completely unmoved by the rest of the world. After all, at most we
glimpse that world at a cool remove: through highly mediated websites
like Brainfrizz & HottTotts.
With them, we are so perfectly apart from it that it’s shocking on
page 257, so late in the book, when we suddenly see “shots of
boondocks war in some arid mountain range across the ocean, with close-
ups of dead mercenaries, male and female; a bunch of aid workers
getting mauled by the starving in one of those dusty famines far
away.” Mountains? Famines? Aid workers? Even the reminder that there
is a government is startling.
• Jimmy’s Mother. One nagging exception to their ability to ignore the
outside world is Jimmy’s mother, who’s out there somewhere: involved.
What’s the purpose of her character?
• Don’t Let Me Down. Jimmy is told “Don’t let me down” three times,
once by his mother, then Oryx, then Crake. What do each of them mean?
Why is it repeated?
• Games & porn. “The body had its own cultural forms. It had its own
art. Executions were its tragedies, pornography was its romance.” (85)
Talk about their early influences of choice: the pornography; the
games: Barbarian Stomp: see if you can change history! (they can);
Blood & Roses; Three-Dimensional Waco; Extinctathon; Kwiktime Osama.
→ How do these instruct & influence each of them?
→ Of all their adolescent diversions, which was your favorite
invention? Which one troubled you the most & why?
→ What do these sites say of the economy driving them? “It was amazing
what people would do for a couple of lamb chops or a chunk of genuine
brie.” (85) What lines have these crossed that are still intact (more
or less) today? How close do you think we are to any of these in
particular being so easily available or popular?
• Happicuppa. Which everyone continues to drink despite the genetic
manipulation, economic devastation & social upheaval it causes
“elsewhere.” Why? Does this remind you of any real world events?
• ChickieNobs. Would you eat them? Advocate for them? Why or why not?
• Do you think BlyssPluss would sell today? Why or why not?
• Oryx. What does she (& her particular history) bring to this story?
Why does Crake love her, do you think? Why does Jimmy? What do you
make of her fate?
• Crake asks: What’s real? We already genetically engineer our food
plants & animals, our medicines, our bio-weapons, in growing
possibilities our children. Visiting Watson-Crick, Jimmy looks at the
ChickieNobs, the wolvogs, & it's asked: “Why is it he feels some line
has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much,
how far is too far?” (206)
Can you answer these questions? Where IS the line?
• Crake says: “Nature is to zoos as God is to churches....Those walls
and bars are there for a reason...Not to keep us out, but to keep them
in. Mankind needs barriers in both cases.”
“Them?”
“Nature & God.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in God,” said Jimmy.
“I don’t believe in Nature either,” said Crake. “Or not with a capital
N.”
Do you believe in Nature with a capital N? What does that mean?
• After the fall, Jimmy imagines Crake’s retort: “The whole world is
now one vast uncontrolled experiment—the way it always was...and the
doctrine of unintended consequences is in full spate.” (228) IS this
the way it always was? Has Crake’s interference fundamentally changed
the world’s natural order?
• Our Stranger, Snowman, asks: Why me? Why him?
• WHY? Why did Crake do it at all? Do you think it turned out as Crake
imagined it?
• The Stranger: discuss our final book in terms of the theme.
• Defoe. Who knows the literary reference in the chapter 15 title:
Footprint? Why invoke this here? What do you make of the allusion?
• Rewriting Creation: both literal & mythological. The new gods. Talk
about Snowman’s relationship with the Crakers.
• What is Snowman’s responsibility to the Crakers?
• Symbolic thinking. Apparently Crake fails to eradicate ART,
SPIRITUALITY, & DREAMS. What’s going on with this authorial choice?
Why did he want to eliminate them in the first place?
• The last page. How would you face your own kind? What’s going to
happen next?
themes and ideas in Oryx and Crake. Give them and the other questions
a read through before you start reading.
• Satire? Do you think O&C is a satire? (CorpSeCorp? And yet....) How
& why or why not? Why flag Gulliver?
• What do you make of the epigram from Woolf’s To the Lighthouse?
• Education: Here we see bidding wars for students; an evolved value &
purpose to an education; an economic class division between arts &
sciences; generalized illiteracy; a selective amnesia of history; the
comparative roles of “Student Services”.
Although it’s clear which skills & fields this society values, & the
author herself is obviously a ‘word person’ (several of Atwood’s close
relatives are scientists), the descriptions of each institution play
out in scenes sparing neither side its particular degradations,
disgrace, damning (a)morality, or ridicule.
→ What's the critique here?
→ Do you see academia heading in this direction?
• Class. Talk about economic class.
Here’s the rich /poor gap in extremis: the compounds vs. the
pleeblands; the elimination of the middle class. I admire this book
for deftly creating a (literal) bubble of privilege & class freedom
that allows Jimmy & Crake—as many actual people of their class—to be
completely unmoved by the rest of the world. After all, at most we
glimpse that world at a cool remove: through highly mediated websites
like Brainfrizz & HottTotts.
With them, we are so perfectly apart from it that it’s shocking on
page 257, so late in the book, when we suddenly see “shots of
boondocks war in some arid mountain range across the ocean, with close-
ups of dead mercenaries, male and female; a bunch of aid workers
getting mauled by the starving in one of those dusty famines far
away.” Mountains? Famines? Aid workers? Even the reminder that there
is a government is startling.
• Jimmy’s Mother. One nagging exception to their ability to ignore the
outside world is Jimmy’s mother, who’s out there somewhere: involved.
What’s the purpose of her character?
• Don’t Let Me Down. Jimmy is told “Don’t let me down” three times,
once by his mother, then Oryx, then Crake. What do each of them mean?
Why is it repeated?
• Games & porn. “The body had its own cultural forms. It had its own
art. Executions were its tragedies, pornography was its romance.” (85)
Talk about their early influences of choice: the pornography; the
games: Barbarian Stomp: see if you can change history! (they can);
Blood & Roses; Three-Dimensional Waco; Extinctathon; Kwiktime Osama.
→ How do these instruct & influence each of them?
→ Of all their adolescent diversions, which was your favorite
invention? Which one troubled you the most & why?
→ What do these sites say of the economy driving them? “It was amazing
what people would do for a couple of lamb chops or a chunk of genuine
brie.” (85) What lines have these crossed that are still intact (more
or less) today? How close do you think we are to any of these in
particular being so easily available or popular?
• Happicuppa. Which everyone continues to drink despite the genetic
manipulation, economic devastation & social upheaval it causes
“elsewhere.” Why? Does this remind you of any real world events?
• ChickieNobs. Would you eat them? Advocate for them? Why or why not?
• Do you think BlyssPluss would sell today? Why or why not?
• Oryx. What does she (& her particular history) bring to this story?
Why does Crake love her, do you think? Why does Jimmy? What do you
make of her fate?
• Crake asks: What’s real? We already genetically engineer our food
plants & animals, our medicines, our bio-weapons, in growing
possibilities our children. Visiting Watson-Crick, Jimmy looks at the
ChickieNobs, the wolvogs, & it's asked: “Why is it he feels some line
has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much,
how far is too far?” (206)
Can you answer these questions? Where IS the line?
• Crake says: “Nature is to zoos as God is to churches....Those walls
and bars are there for a reason...Not to keep us out, but to keep them
in. Mankind needs barriers in both cases.”
“Them?”
“Nature & God.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in God,” said Jimmy.
“I don’t believe in Nature either,” said Crake. “Or not with a capital
N.”
Do you believe in Nature with a capital N? What does that mean?
• After the fall, Jimmy imagines Crake’s retort: “The whole world is
now one vast uncontrolled experiment—the way it always was...and the
doctrine of unintended consequences is in full spate.” (228) IS this
the way it always was? Has Crake’s interference fundamentally changed
the world’s natural order?
• Our Stranger, Snowman, asks: Why me? Why him?
• WHY? Why did Crake do it at all? Do you think it turned out as Crake
imagined it?
• The Stranger: discuss our final book in terms of the theme.
• Defoe. Who knows the literary reference in the chapter 15 title:
Footprint? Why invoke this here? What do you make of the allusion?
• Rewriting Creation: both literal & mythological. The new gods. Talk
about Snowman’s relationship with the Crakers.
• What is Snowman’s responsibility to the Crakers?
• Symbolic thinking. Apparently Crake fails to eradicate ART,
SPIRITUALITY, & DREAMS. What’s going on with this authorial choice?
Why did he want to eliminate them in the first place?
• The last page. How would you face your own kind? What’s going to
happen next?
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