Oryx and Crake, (Conclusion)

This was a conclusion worth waiting for.  The events that explain how things got the way they are make for a very satisfactory ending.  Some of it was fairly easy to see coming; for instance, the fact that Crake was at least deeply involved in bringing about a catastrophe that led to the collapse of civilization.  In fact, his scheme turns out to be a very complicated and comprehensive plan, requiring some very critical timing and the assistance of a number of accomplices, all of them – including Oryx, as it turns out – unaware of what it was they were really helping to bring about.  

What we didn’t predict was that Crake would kill Oryx in cold blood, and that he would do it right before Jimmy’s eyes as a way to commit suicide.  Had Crake really been in love with Oryx?  It’s hard to tell with what we now know to be a twisted mind at work, plotting the destruction of his species for so many years.  The implication is that he was embittered by the murder of his father when his father learned too much about the secrets of one of the mega-corporations that controlled society, presumably in lieu of a government.  The fact that a government, per se, was never really mentioned in the narrative is the clearest clue we get that one no longer exists in this reality, and that the corporations have succeeded in taking its place. 

Oryx turns out to be a rather tragic figure, after presenting herself for so long as one who understands all, accepts all, and is completely at peace with the world of her past and her present.  Her betrayal by Crake is the only really meaningful element of Jimmy’s betrayal by Crake.  At one point Crake had asked Jimmy to promise him that if anything happened to him, Jimmy would take over the project of the “Crakers” – the bio-engineered humanoids created by Crake – and take care of them.  This explains much about the action in the early pages of the story.  When Jimmy points out that Oryx would be a better choice to take over the project, Crake enigmatically states that if he is no longer around to be in charge of it, she won’t be either.  Neither we nor Jimmy really understand what is being revealed here until the climax of the story. 

The “real time” story has Jimmy escaping the trap set for him by the pigoons and then making his way to the huge glass-like dome where the Crakers had been kept.  In the process, he notices a rising column of smoke on the horizon near, but not at, the site of the Craker settlement.  Another cause for concern in an already convoluted plot and a further complication for Jimmy.  Having achieved his purpose of stocking up on survival supplies; including a “spraygun” (something like an uzi, but more advanced, perhaps); he makes his way back to the tribe.

 

Upon his return, he finds that the Crakers have indeed been visited by people they recognize as being much like Jimmy (the Snowman, to them) and that the encounter had disturbing aspects.  He feels obligated to resolve the issue, not so much to fulfill his promise to Crake, but to satisfy his own sense of moral obligation to these innocent beings.  He takes his spraygun; knowing now that the party of humans has at least one of them as well; and sneaks up on them.  Here, he encounters yet another moral dilemma.  The only way to really ensure that they don’t kill, plunder or enslave the Crakers is to use the advantage he has right now to kill them all.  Any more humane approach puts his charges at a very real risk.  Our author chooses this exact moment to end the story!  After all, this isn’t a part of the story we’re reading, and it gives us a sense, not of closure, but of the very real fact that life goes on, dilemma after dilemma.  Beautifully done!






August’s book of the month: "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim," by David Sedaris. This author has become recognized as one of the great satire/humor writers of our time. “Sedaris has a satirical brazenness that holds up next to Twain and Nathaniel West.” – The New Yorker. “David Sedaris’s brilliance resides in a capacity to surprise, associate and dissociate, and the result is something like watching lightning strike in slow motion…One of the most shameless, acid, vaulting wits on planet earth.” – Boston Book Review. “You’ll just have to read it to find out what’s in it!” – Nancy Pelosi. [I made up that last one.]