Transcript Oryx and Crake - Governors State University

Oryx and Crake
By
Margaret Atwood
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Biographical Information
Born November 18,
1939 in Ottawa,
Ontario
Currently lives in
Toronto (1992present)
Wrote Oryx and
Crake in 2003
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"Like The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction,
not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space
travel, no teleportation, no Martians. As with The Handmaid's Tale,
it invents nothing we haven't already invented or started to invent.
Every novel begins with a what if, and then sets forth its axioms.
The what if of Oryx and Crake is simply, What if we continue down
the road we're already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our
saving graces? Who's got the will to stop us?"
-Margaret Atwood in an essay from Random House
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The following "headlines" are related to various
works of fiction written over the last several
decades. Decide which ones you believe are
fact and which still remain in the realm of the
fiction writers' minds...
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Military Plans Cyborg Sharks
U.S. Air Force Takes a Look at Teleportation
First 'Telecloning' Experiment Works ... Sort Of
Asimov's First Law: Japan Sets Rules for
Robots
Cybugs: Military Mulls Army of Cyborg Insects
Common honey bees can be trained to
recognize individual people
Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in
Immigrants
Android Has Human-Like Skin and
Expressions
Real Doc Ock: New Robot Has Robotic
Tentacles
ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE FACTUAL1,2
HEADLINES
Fact or
Fiction?
Some Excerpts from Fiction…..
In his 1981 short story Johnny Mnemonic, author William Gibson wrote
about Jones, a military surplus dolphin cyborg that has equipment that is
surprisingly similar to the DARPA sharks.
He rose out of the water, showing us the crusted plates along his sides, a
kind of visual pun, his grace nearly lost under armor, clumsy and prehistoric.
Twin deformities on either side of his skull had been engineered to house
sensor units. Silver lesions gleamed on exposed sections of his gray-white
hide.
The first law of robotics, as set forth in 1940 by writer Isaac Asimov, states:
A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human
being to come to harm.
In his chilling novel The Green Brain, Frank Herbert writes about insects
evolving to the point where particular insects or hives of insects can indeed
recognize individual human beings.
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Science fiction writers have gone a bit further in their thinking about female
robots and androids. In his chilling 1954 work The Mechanical Bride, author
Fritz Leiber wrote about a similar robotic creation:
Streamlined, smooth-working, absolutely noiseless, breath-takingly realistic.
Each one is powered by thirty-seven midget electric motors, all completely
noiseless, and is controlled by instructions, recorded on magnetic tape,
which are triggered off by the sound of your voice and no one else's. There
is a built-in microphone that hears everything you say, and an electric brain
that selects a suitable answer. The de luxe model is built to your
specifications, has fifty different facial expressions...
Implanting microchips in human beings for the purpose of monitoring is not
exactly news for science fiction fans; Alfred Bester wrote about "skull bugs"
in his 1974 novel The Computer Connection:
"...you don't know what's going on in the crazy culture outside. It's a bugged
and drugged world. Ninety percent of the bods have bugs implanted in their
skulls in hospital when they're born. They're monitored constantly."
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In his classic 1898 story, War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells referred to
the "glittering tentacles" that enabled the Martian Tripods to both
walk and grasp objects:
Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere
insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing
metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which
gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange
body.
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"Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if?
Why? How does it all work? But they focus on different areas of life
on earth. The experiments of science should be replicable, and
those of literature should not be (why write the same book twice)?
Please don't make the mistake of thinking that Oryx and Crake is
anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways
of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be
bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like
electricity, it's neutral."
-Margaret Atwood-
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“Dreams of Animals”
By
Margaret Atwood
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Margaret Atwood, Dreams of the Animals
Mostly the animals dream
of other animals each
according to its kind
(though certain mice and small rodents
have nightmares of a huge pink
shape with five claws descending)
: moles dream of darkness and delicate
mole smells
frogs dream of green and golden
frogs
sparkling like wet suns
among the lilies
red and black
striped fish
have red and black striped
dreams defence, attack, meaningful
patterns
birds dream of territories
enclosed by singing.
Sometimes the animals dream of evil
in the form of soap and metal
but mostly the animals dream
of other animals.
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“Dreams of Animals”
By
Margaret Atwood
There are exceptions:
the silver fox in the roadside zoo
dreams of digging out
and of baby foxes, their necks bitten
the caged armadillo
near the train
station, which runs
all day in figure eights
its piglet feet patterning
no longer dreams
but is insane when waking;
the iguana
in the petshop window on St. Catherine Street
crested, royal-eyed, ruling
its kingdom of water-dish and sawdust
dreams of sawdust.
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Genetic Engineering
• Also called genetic modification and gene
splicing.
• Involves the isolation and manipulation of DNA
cells on certain organisms, usually to express a
protein.
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Genetic Engineering Timeline
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1952-Robert Briggs and Thomas King
clone the first animal a Northern
Leopard Frog
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1973-First successful genetic
engineering experiment-a gene from
an African clawed toad is inserted into
bacterial DNA.
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1976-Genentech, the world’s first
genetic engineering company is
founded.
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1982-The US FDA approves the first
genetically engineered drug, a from of
insulin produced by bacteria.
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1986-The FDA approves the first
genetically engineered vaccine
produced by bacteria.
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Genetic Engineering Timeline
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1987-The US Patent and Trademark
Office announces that non-human
animals can be patented.
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1987-Researchers announced the
production of genetically engineered
mice that produce a human heart
attack drug in their milk.
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1988-The first patent issued for a
mammal goes to the “Harvard Dupont
Oncomouse” a genetically engineered
mouse highly susceptible to breast
cancer.
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1988-Researcher at U.S. Department
of Agriculture inserts human growth
hormone into a pig’s gene, resulting in
a hairy, lethargic animal.
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Genetic Engineering Timeline
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1990-The FDA approves the first genetically
engineered food, chymosin. Chymosin is
used to make more than half the cheese in
the United States.
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1993-The FDA approves genetically
engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH)
a drug designed to increase milk production
in cows. The FDA does not require that the
milk from BHG injected cows to be labeled.
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1994-The FDA approves the genetically
engineered “Flavr Savr” tomato.
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1997-Scientists in Scotland clone the sheep
Dolly from the udder cell of an adult ewe
whose tissues had been frozen three years
earlier.
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1998-40 million hectares of GM crops are
planted globally, predominately soy, cotton,
canola, and corn.
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Genetic Engineering Timeline
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1998 Scientists at the University of Hawaii
announce the birth of Cumulina and six other
generations of cloned mice -- the first reproducible
clones.
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2000 The Scottish scientists who cloned Dolly
announce the birth of two more cloned sleep -Cupid and Diana. Large animals such as sheep,
pigs and cows can also now be genetically
engineered to replace mice in the study of human
diseases.
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2000 Scientists announce the birth of the first
successfully cloned pigs with the hope that the feat
will accelerate efforts to develop genetically
modified pigs with "people-friendly" organs for
transplantation.
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2001 A rare ox called a gaur named Noah is born to
Bessie, a domestic cow, in Sioux Falls, IA -- the first
endangered species cloned by implanting cells into
a cow's egg. Noah died two days later of a bacterial
infection. Five other cows pregnant with cloned
gaurs spontaneously aborted their fetuses.
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Genetic Engineering Timeline
•
2002 Scientists at Texas A&M
University clone a house cat they
named "cc" for carbon copy.
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2003 Dolly the sheep dies at age 6 of
a common incurable lung disease.
Dolly suffered at an early age from
arthritis.
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Epigrams
What is an epigram?
"A short poem with a witty or satirical point; any terse, witty, pointed statement, often with a
clever twist in thought." ( Webster's)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), an English poet and critic, once said:
"What is an epigram?
A dwarfish whole;
It's body brevity, and wit its soul.“
What is an epigraph?
"A quotation that is placed at the start of a work that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or
theme to follow." (Webster's)
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First Epigram from Oryx and Crake:
I could perhaps like others have astonished you with strange improbable tales; but I
rather chose to relate plain matter of fact in the simplest manner and style; because my
principle design was to inform you, and not to amuse you.
Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels
Second Epigram from Oryx and Crake:
Was there no safety? No learning by heart of the ways of the world? No guide, no
shelter, but all was miracle and leaping from the pinnacle of a tower into the air?
Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse
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Virtual Reality
Mychilo Stephenson Cline, author of Power, Madness, and Immortality: The
Future of Virtual Reality (2005).
* Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activities.
* Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal
communication and cognition.
* As we spend more and more time on virtual space, there will be a gradual
migration to virtual space, resulting in important changes in economics,
worldview and culture.
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Mahatma Gandhi
Seven Blunders of the World
• Wealth without Work
• Pleasure without Conscience
• Knowledge without Character
• Commerce without Morality
• Science without Humanity
• Worship without Sacrifice
• Politics without Principles
• Rights without Responsibilities
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Why is “Abominable Snowman” a fitting title for the main
character of our novel?
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The world of Oryx and Crake is said to be a negative utopia--a
place “humanity” does not want to be. The word “humanity”
denotes the contemplation of what makes us human. Because
Atwood’s novel presents a picture of humanity’s self-destruction,
the novel presents a good context to contemplate what “humanity”
means to us; what makes us human? When we can define for
ourselves what humanity means, we may then better grasp what
fundamental things were violated in the text which would make it a
place we truly would not want to be.
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The following quote appears on the Oryx and Crake home site:
“If progress continues unchecked—the world warms, multinationals
prosper, society schisms and science stays one small leap ahead of
morality. How will humanity adapt?”
Let us contemplate our own projections for the future of humanity and
the planet.
Do we see a world like Oryx and Crake’s?
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Sources
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(Slide Two) Margaret Atwood (Black and White Photograph)
www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/news/releases/2001/20010821-atwood.shtml
(Slide Two) www.oryxandcrake.co.uk/home.asp
(Slide Two) http://rasputina.typepad.com/.../ atwood_margaret_7
(Slide One) www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/1010/1010-8.html
(Slide One) www.surefish.co.uk/culture/books/0603
(Slide Three) www.randomhouse.com/features/atwood
(Slide Five, Six, Seven) www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction
(Slide Eight) www.randomhouse.com/features/atwood/interview/html.
(Slide Ten) www.patchwork.demon.nl/rainbowned.htm
(Slide Nine) wfscnet.tamu.edu/tcwc/.../ armadillo.htm
(Slide Nine) www.montana.edu/wwwae/images/phoglund
(Slide Eleven) www.lhup.edu/smarvel/Seminar/FALL_2003/Malawskey/timeline.html
(Slide Twelve) dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/.../ leopard.htm
(Slide Thirteen) draves.org/blog/archives/000154.html
(Slide Fourteen) www.worc.ac.uk/departs/.../ BIO206/SCEN.html
(Slide Fourteen) www.biologie.uni-halle.de/.../ FlavrSavr.html
(Slide Fourteen) www.etudesaumaroc.com/article313.html
(Slide Fourteen) www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9807/22/cloning.report
(Slide Fifteen) stm1.chem.psu.edu/~psw/Chem13H98.html
(Slide Fifteen) www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn323
(slide Sixteen) www.cp.org/premium/ONLINE/.../ g012107A.html
(Slide Sixteen) staff.washington.edu/.../inals/websitea
(Slide Nineteen) www.d12world.com/board/showthread.php?t=150924
(Slide Nineteen) www.shanghai-ultimate.com/photos
(Slide Nineteen) (Seven Blunders) www.gandhiinstitute.org
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